Anda
The jeepney pulled up and we were on our way to the Dao bus terminal in Tagbilaran. People were constantly getting on and off all the way to the station. At the station we stocked up on snacks for the next journey and asked where the bus to Anda left from. The man we had asked went into slight panic mode. The bus to Anda had just left. However, he did manage to stop it for us and we jumped on board.
The bus took us along the coast past many interesting villages all decorated for Christmas. It took about 2.5 hours to reach out destination. Anda is a little town with white beaches and not many people. We asked the bus to stop at the end of our road. A little shop was selling food so we grabbed lunch to take out.
We found our Dive resort and were shown to our small garden bungalow. However, the whole place looked deserted. The dive facility seemed to be closed down, there was no wifi as advertised. It appeared that Covid had closed the place down and it was trying to reopen.
We dropped our bags off and headed straight for the beach. On the way we passed a cave pool so we followed the signs to take a look. A narrow path lead us to a ticket office but no one was there. We continued further and eventually arrived at the cave pool. It was taped off with caution tape, the entry steps were removed and basically if you fell in - you weren't getting out! The cave pool looked pretty cool even if it was closed and had not reopened following Covid.
Backtracking on the path, we arrived at the beach. It was deserted. There were fishing boats and in the distance and we could see a few fishermen fixing their boats and nets. When we researched Anda, the beach was compared to Boracay and an up and coming dive destination. That wasn't really what we saw however the sand was white and no-one was around. Darryl went snorkeling to locate the reef but didn't really find one. He went quite far out but only saw damaged coral that looked as though it had been blown apart through dynamite fishing. Maybe the reef is even further out or starts in a different spot. We will investigate further tomorrow.
Lunch was served at the beach in a little beach shelter. We thing you were supposed to hire it but there really was no one around. It started to rain as we walked along the beach and we took shelter under the small cliffs that had been undercut by the waves. The area we sheltered in was like a mini cave. Further along the beach we chatted to a local man before arriving at central Anda. There was a large park area, where the locals were playing baseball. There was Park full of different Christmas trees. It looked as though they were being completed to take part in an eco Christmas tree competition. We also saw an old fire engine that was extremely damaged. By what we don't know! There was a tourist office but we couldn't really go inside as it was full of boxes. We walked on and found a cake shop. We bought some pineapple slices that were great. It started to rain again and we sheltered in someone's office who kindly called us in. The central market provided us with fruit for breakfast and a small shop sold us a large bag of oats.
An afternoon nap seemed to be required so we headed back to our deserted resort. A BBQ for dinner whilst hanging out at the park watching basketball and an early night to follow.
