Snorkeling, Christmas Eve and Lady Gaga.

Yes my butt was sore, and to tell you the truth I think it still is but it did not stop us from doing another snorkeling tour. We chose Tour B....there are only four tours, A,B, C,D....I can't remember if that was previously explained. The whole town of El Nido have all the same tours. We had done tour A and now thought, well I thought, tour B would be good because it showed caves. So at nine in the morning Doug and I climbed into the boat and took off...hit some coral and ruined the propellor. Yup five minutes in and we had to switch boats so that took forever.

Then we head off to the area where we were going to our first snorkel. And found out one of the masks leaks and a snorkel doesn't work! This was after we traded it in once. So five minutes of being there...which took an 45minutes to get too we head back to the hotel and get two new masks.

After that we head to Snake Island, to have lunch no doubt. I decide I am going to snorkel, yup neither of the masks work and the other snorkel some how sucks.

Doug and I just look at each other...it seems typical.

Okay don't get me wrong, these are just moments when Doug and I look at each other and say we can do this, we can enjoy what we want to enjoy and just swim and laugh and take our time. So that is what we did.

We headed to a couple of caves and walked around, and were amazed at water can do. We laughed at the dogs living on the islands, enjoyed out time on the secluded beaches and were just thrilled that we have each other.

And on top of that it was Christmas Eve so there had to be something to look forward too...oh yes we got roped into doing a gift exchange at our hotel and having dinner with them....

So this is how it went, we get back to the hotel and decide yes we will stay for the dinner....who knows it could be fun and there was a gift exchange that we said we would part take in, we had bought gifts for people who we had no clue who they were. (secret santa)

To start we showered. The shower well I had hot water and then Doug didn't so we used an empty hotel room. Then dressed to go to the room next door which was where the construction had been happening all this week. And there was a gigantic roasted pig called lechon, we had it before, then the intestines that were boiled in the pigs blood. So we ate. Then around 9 or so we said we will go to our room and watch Christmas movies that we had downloaded and then come back for the gifts.

Now comes Lady Gaga, did you know she made a Christmas CD? Nope we didn't either...she tries not to be a sell out but anyone who makes a Christmas CD is a sell out. Sorry Lady Gaga. Another thing I do not think people realize is that turning the bass up real loud does nto make the music better. Another realization is that when the Filipinos find something they like they play it over and over again and again. As it played it did not get any better, trust me. That played until 1 in the morning. Presents you ask? Well they didn't "find" ours until we checked out. All I can say it was a Palmer adventure.

Not good, not bad, just extremely different. Doug and I know we can make it through anything and appreciate each other a little more when we do!