Vacation part 1-Crocolandia

We have had quite an ordeal trying to make this family vacation happen. Twice, our reservations for the fancy Shangri-la resort were messed up. Please don't think that because we were staying at the 5 star hotel that you need to stop giving to Missions, haha. We were actually getting two nights free using our airline miles!

Before telling our boys, for the second time, that we wouldn't be going on vacation, I decided to surf on the 'net and look for somewhere to go for a Plan B, since we already had scheduled those days off in school. Club Serena Resort in Moalboal, Cebu, caught my eye. We made this trip into an adventure, not telling the boys what we were going to do. Well, some of it was because we really were winging it, so to speak, haha.

In the beginning of our 3 1/2 hour trip, we stopped at a place south of Cebu City called Crocolandia. We had heard about this place from a good friend, but we thought it was just crocodiles. We were presently surprised with the varieties of animals. Cebu City doesn't have a zoo. Well, unless you count the one up in the mountain that only has a crooked-nose alligator and several monkeys that beg for food! So it is nice to know that we aren't too far from a 'real' zoo just south of us.

Disclaimer: The photographer was enjoying her new camera so much that she didn't get in many pictures, as usual.....

Our island that we live on (Mactan Island) is the little island to the right, where the big red dot is. Follow the red line and you will see our road trip.

Below are pics taken at Crocolandia. There were several pens with flora/fauna, I guess you would say....no alligators in those. It was hard to take good pics taken through fences.

The boys had alot of fun with the ostriches!








I thought Tarsiers were only found in Bohol, but this one (in captivity in Cebu) had just given birth a few weeks before.






We found a few baby monitor lizards in our garage one day, and if we had kept them, this is how huge they would have gotten!
















This is a reticulated Asian Python. Can you say no thank you?



I didn't catch the name of this beauty...but at least we can see it in the forest right?












After Crocolandia, we were planning to eat at Jolibee in the town of Carcar. Jolibee is a Filipino version of McDonald's. Not our favorite place, but not much else to eat there....until I saw this big sign called Campfire Grill. The name of the sign didn't catch my eye, but the words "American Foods' did.....imagine that! One can find delicious Filipino food all over, but American food restaurants are rare. The owner happen to be an American, from southeast Texas, married to a Filipina, and knew how to really do American food, not just a watered down version. The food did take awhile to fix, but it was worth it! After downing really good chili dogs, cheeseburgers, french fries and onion rings, we set off for Moalboal. Oh yeah, the boys experienced their first drink of Mountain Dew;)