Our third day in Bohol started rather early, and the rain clouds are forming above us once again. Despite the looming rain, we headed to Panglao Beach using the motorcycle we rented the day before to meet our boatman, Ponce.

There are two destinations set for our sea adventure: Balicasag Island and Pungtud Island, more popularly know to tourists as Virgin Islands. I am not sure with the connection between the names Pungtud and Virgin. Pungtud sounds like puntod, or grave. Is this an emphasis to the fact that some people are to be sent back to the depths of the earth unopened?

As soon as Ponce was able to secure our tourist manifesto and has paid the necessary fees, we started our journey to the middle of the sea. Supposedly, we will go to Balicasag before heading to the Virgin Island. We asked Ponce though to reverse the route. Since the rain clouds are already forming fast and the winds are already foretelling the downpour that is about to come, we would want to see the Virgin Island before the rain.

The winds and the waves were already strong, and the clouds were already dark. Still, pictures! Our assistant boatman still managed to get some snaps while we were on the boat.

After half an hour or so, we reached the Virgin Island. Going to the Virgin Island first before Balicasag turned out to be a wise decision, as when we arrived in the island, no one was there.

We literally got the island all for ourselves, which means one thing: we can goof around!

Solo pictures muna.

Now, the riot begins.

After taking a lot of pictures and making fun of ourselves in the Virgin Island, we headed to our next destination.

Balicasag Island is known as a snorkeling spot and it has a particularly famous resident: the sea turtle. Though the island is known to host the creature, we still consider ourselves fortunate to have seen the mainstay resident. It was the vast sea after all. Who exactly would know as to when the turtle would be there?

The timing was just perfect, as this is going to be the debut of our GoPro camera. The underwater shots were just astounding.

Apart from the sea turtle, Balicasag also hosts a lot of fish. The marine ecosystem is very much alive, which is a consolation in a world where environmental degradation seems to be the order of the day.

And since we have our GoPro with us, we asked our freediving guide to go well beneath the surface and take a photo of us!

As soon as we got our fill of the sea, we returned to our boat and went off our way back to Panglao. Noon na bumuhos ang malakas na ulan at galit na galit na ang alon at hangin. When we reached Panglao, we were dripping wet, at naghanap kami ng makakainan kahit na tumutulo kami.

After taking our lunch, we returned to the Villa. We just had enough amount of time for us to take a shower, change clothes and wait for our service that would bring us to the seaport. We were bound for Cebu.