Boracay: Barely a Speck of Sand

Click on image to view large map. Use ARROW KEYS to move map on small displays.You know those animations where the first image starts with something huge, then it zooms in further and further, like the Scale of the Universe or the Powers of Ten? That's Boracay, where we are now. It's the atomic counterpart to all those large, nebulous islands (or nebulas of islands) you see on the map in the Pacific, and wonder, "I wonder if any of those little specks are populated?" Umm, yeah, they're exploding with determined tourists wanting to find their own little ray of touristitude. OK, we have no idea if the other ten thousand islands are inhabited with their own Koi Pond of hungry, hungry tourists but Boracay certainly does.
Arriving on the ten square mile (26 square km) island is only possible by taking a prop plane (photo 1) from Cebu City to Panay Island, a motorized trike to the nearby port, a boat to Boracay, then another trike (photo 2) to the hotel. It was so much more difficult to get here than having a hired driver bring us down to Moalboal on Cebu Island (which had virtually no resources except for diving and snorkeling) that we figured we'd be in for another quiet, unpopulated outpost. We knew there were a lot of hotels and when there's a Shakey's Pizza and Starbucks you've got to figure there's something going on.
What's going on is this place is the Philippines' answer to Bali, only without the swarm of motorbikes and intestinal bugs. This is where people who are willing to put in a little extra effort get rewarded with beautiful beaches, wide range of restaurants, and well, whatever else you can imagine.
Once we finally got to the Lazy Dog Bed & Breakfast, we felt like we'd hit the jackpot for US$55/night because our place (photos 3-5) is designed to just relax, hang-out and optionally do stuff.