It rained again last night but was clear by morning. Our plan was to take a Jeepney into Puerto Galera. We started our trek through various allies to get up to the main road. The allies were filthy and with several inches of unavoidable mud which was a little much for Shelley (I thought it was fun). We gave up and headed back to the beach to clean up. We packed up our stuff and hired a motor bike to take us into town instead. We got stuck several times or simply staled going up muddy hills and would start rolling backwards. When the bike was running imagine Mr. Toads Wild Ride through a jungle road at 40 miles per hour. It was the most fun we have had yet. Plus it only cost about 2 cents a minute to hire! In Puerto Galera we hired a banca (small outrigger boat) to take us to Big La Laguna Beach. We rented a beautiful room here after checking every hotel on the beach and choosing the best. After lunch we hired a boat driver to take us to several private beaches on three different islands and BBQ for us on the beach. His name was Raymond and he was very fun. His dream has always been to own a boat and a friendly Australian man bought him one (about $1,000) last year. We started our journey and he stopped the boat out in the ocean way off shore. He told us to jump in with our mask and snorkels. He grabbed one too and led us to giant clams. They were 3 feet long and in about 30 feet of water. He then took us to a beach to explore on Boquete Island. We snorkeled and he cleaned the chicken. He said we have to take the food somewhere else to cook, as we cannot cook on the white beaches. We stopped in a small village and he started cooking while we explored a nearby mangrove forest. In the mangroves I saw several dozen mudskippers. Finally, we headed to Medio Island to eat. The food was wonderful and I went snorkeling again. This time about 100 feet off shore I found a large porcupine puffer who allowed me to catch him. After I swam him inshore I returned him to sea and he swam away. We hopped back on the banca and I asked the driver to stop somewhere deep. I jumped over board and could still see the bottom 200-300 feet below me. It was a deep turquoise color. We returned to our beach and headed into Sabang for the night.
