April 23,

I was up at 0700. Jeff said he'd been awake since 0444!🤯 We got around and packed up. We leave Cebu island and Cebu city today. Both of us don’t seem to care for this city as much as other places in the Philippines, but we did not explore all of it, to be fair. We went to breakfast a bit earlier than we have been. It was around 0800. I had the scrambled eggs with toast, Jeff had scrambled egg, corned beef and rice. I had my coffee and juice, Jeff only had juice and water. I'm more congested today but the scratchy throat is a teeny tiny bit better (trying to be positive).😃

We checked out by 0830. Jeff E-hailed a Grab taxi to go to the bus terminal. We arrived there at 0843, and there was not a long line! We had tickets in hand by 0845, which is amazing!  Then we found the 0900 bus and boarded. The bus backed out at 0903 – only half full.👍🏻 It’s actually a bus!… with great AC, and not a van. The bus route is out of Cebu city and along the coast to the southern tip and then just a wee bit back north on the western coast. Their are some girls on the bus playing loud music and doing Karaoke, of course. Unfortunately, they were pretty bad – as in cringing at times – joyful noise, right??

Around 1030, two vendors boarded the bus, within five minutes of each other. We bought two Buko Pies, which are little 4 inch, coconut meat tartlets. They were still warm! It cost 50 PHP total, which is grand total of 89 cents! More people bought from them, than I would have thought. They exited a short time later. The bus continued down the coast through town after town.  At around 1135, the bus stopped for a loo break, which cost us 5 PHP each – only 9 cents each, but we did not even have toilet paper! If you are gonna charge at least have T.P.!! Sorry for the rant but if you know me… this is a pet peeve of mine. We bought small bags of each: sunflower seeds and garlic peanuts. We ate only the sunflower seeds – it has been a hot minute since having these and they were satisfying. At 1155, the bus resumed the trip.

Then the bus arrived at the ferry at 1340. Everyone had to get off the bus and buy ferry tickets! What?! Wait a minute- I have questions, by golly?  The bus boarded ferry and we walked on with our tickets. The ferry left four minutes early by our watches, but on time (according to the buses – linked with the ferry clocks).  It was a smooth crossing to the island Negros. At 1435, we loaded back on the bus; and at 1439, the bus exited the ferry. The whole bus-ferry-bus ride cost us just under 1000 PHP, which is $17.64. We arrived into Dumaguete, our destination, around 1500.

WELCOME TO DUMAGUETE!

We hailed a drop-off near our place and hired a trike/tuk-tuk for the rest of the way. It cost just over 100 PHP (around $1.80). Around 1515, we arrived at our place. Our host met us, which was unusual as we have found in these two years, but very nice – I like it.  The place is through Booking.com. He took us into our new home. It was just as the pictures represented, and I actually said that. I think this pleased him. He left and we unloaded and unpacked. There is a cute fake plant in a container that says: ‘HOME, the new life starts from here.’ Is this not our life everyday?!  We noticed this place actually had more than enough plugins! This is sore point for us. There are more little things like this that make it seem special… I could write a whole blog on this! The guy is from Germany and he must have had a hand into the planning of this apartment. Anyway, we are pleased.

Around 1600 ,we went out for food and a bit of exploring. We ended up at a Mr. Sizzler’s in a ‘newish’ mall right near us. Jeff had Sizzling Chicken and Pork Adobo and a Red Horse Beer; I had a Pork Steak with Bolognese Pasta and an Iced Tea. We also had a small bottled water. Both meals came on hot, cast iron plates, and were seasoned well for a chain restaurant. We paid a total of 618 PHP, or $10.95. Jeff received a text from the owner about locking the place… we had not done it right, so Jeff went back to secure the place. We met up – down the corner – so to speak, and walked about to a grocery store, in another mall. We found most things we needed and hired a tuk-tuk back.

I was tired. This cold is really setting in now. We watched some YouTube and had some wine and chocolate then turned in!