Boracay- People vs. Places

I've seen quite a bit of the Philippines now (still have more to go though!) and I can easily list two dozen places I'd recommend visiting before even considering going to Boracay.

Apparently Boracay is the primary tourist destination in the Philippines and, upon arrival, that became blatantly obvious. To be fair, there is an enormous, beautiful white sand beach stretching more than 3km along the western edge of the little island and a curving, windy beach stretching about 1.5km along the eastern edge, idyllic for kiteboarding. It takes less than 10 minutes to get from one side to the other. The rest of the island, however, is extremely built up, mostly under construction, and slammed with tourists snapping away with their selfie-sticks, venders ardently hawking their goods and services, and puppy-toting children begging for spare change. Similar locations can be found worldwide.

I do, however, have a special place in my heart for Boracay, thanks each of these friends.

You may recognize them as the El Nido crew.

I tried really hard to write about how fun, friendly, smart, caring, humorous, thoughtful, affectionate, and cool this bunch is, but words don't do them justice. Neither do photos, sorry. Just trust me, we had a good time. ;) Love you all!