#iTavel Series 9: To The North Of Cebu This Time

Hello Hive!

_{It's good to be back! Got here another episode for my #iTravel series for today's blog. It's a long overdue post but here it is now, finally!}

It was earlier as 5:00 in the morning when our day started. We (I and my travel buddies) got busy right then preparing all the essentials for our quick vacation, to the north of Cebu this time.

It was our first travel that "traveling light", which we usually do on travels, was not achieved, not even possible (I think) at that time. We got with us on the trip our babies with fur. Yes, babies - four four-legged furbabies. We got so overwhelmed with the thought that we got them four together on a 3-day and 2-night trip the first time. We were packing all the things they needed and all those we thought we might need for them - sleeping mat, cuddle pillows, pee pads, food containers, water dispenser, and more, big and small. So 'twas like 75% of all our travel essentials were theirs.

On The Way With Our Furbabies

We were in two cars since we were 9 plus 4 dogs. We arranged 2 dogs for each car, to be fair 😀. In our car were "Coco" and "Cheddar", while in the other were "Amore" and "Coby".

_{Meet our furbabies . . .}

_Coby

_Amore

_Coco

_Cheddar

Not to put here in detail what traveling with dogs for almost 4 hours on the road was like, but it was a struggle, like really, that we were like "No dogs next time, please".

We stopped for a while at Mcdonald's in Danao City, and took out breakfast meals while getting our dogs a short break from a long car ride.

From our place, it already took us almost two hours to reach Danao city, our first quick stop. The estimated travel time to our place of stay in Medellin was 4 hours, and yes, we were roughly 4 hours on the road with our fidgeted furbabies.

But one thing I like about traveling to the north of Cebu is, its not congested wide road, lesser traffic as you get farther from the center, plus the province vibe - lush greenery along the roadside plus the fresher air, where I fell in love with, making me want to go back there again and again.

Elena Guest House & Resort, Kawit, Medellin

_{p.s No dog is harmed in this photo 😅. Thanks "Coco" for giving hooman leg rest.}

We arrived at Elena Guest House and Resort (our accommodation for 3 days and 2 nights) at around 11:00 in the morning. Elena is situated in Purok Pusit at Kawit, Medellin - definitely a good location where wet market which is what we usually look for first in out-of-town travels, is just accessible, plus it is closer to the port for Funtastic island, our only itinerary for day 2, and the best thing is, it is just a minute-walk to the beach areas.

Elena has family/barkada rooms that could cater to a maximum of 6 pax, Kubo and "hut design" rooms that's good for 2-3 pax, a kitchen for sharing, and ample space for parking. It also has an average-sized pool with a few sunloungers around.

Funtastic Island, Gibitngil, Medellin

From Elena Guest House, it only took us around 10 minutes to arrive at the port to Funtastic Island. However, we stayed for a little longer at the port as the boat we booked for Funtastic was still on its way to the island transporting other guests. So, we were waiting for like 30 minutes.

On the way to the island, our furbabies were just so behaved and calm on the boat ride. They were like enjoying the cool breeze of the sea, the relaxing view of nature, and the music-to-the-ear water splash sound, like we did. There were no hard time on the boat with our four-legged babies, which was really awesome.

Funtastic Island at Gibitngil, Medellin on that day was way jam-packed. Yeah, I remembered it was a holiday then. Fortunately, there was a group already prepping to head back when we arrived. We had their cottage rented again, and they got our boat goin' back.

We had our lunch as soon as we got all our things on the cottage, rested for a while afterwards, and then took a refreshing plunge into Funtastic's azure water that was like calling us and everyone around. Since uncle was not joining us for some reasons, we left our pet dogs in the cottage under his custody 😅.

We really had great time with Funtastic that had we spent almost 3 hours dipping and playing in the water. While the island is well-known for Cliff-diving, I had not seen anyone doing that within our stay in Funtastic. I don't know if it's already restricted or it is just that, no one in the crowd liked doing that.

By 3:00 pm, we left the island and headed back to Elena where we spent the rest of our day.

Beachin' On The Last Day

We had agreed to check out earlier on our last day, instead of 12:00 noon, we decided to go at 10:00. So we started the day earlier than our previous days in Medellin. We went to the beach nearby the guest house and spent the first few hours of the day there, beaching with our furbabies.