When Things Go Wrong Halfway Around the World

Malapascua Island, a 40 minute boat ride north of Cebu in the Philippines, is a scuba diver's dream come true.  Travel to and from the island can be problematic at times.


“Oh the stories you can tell. If it all blows up and goes to hell. If you ever wonder why you ride the carousel, you do it for the stories you can tell.” ... Jimmy Buffett

After having traveled to 120 countries on the 6 inhabited continents I've learned that when something goes wrong no matter how bleak it seems at first, eventually everything works out. 

Like Friday when we transferred between three boats in the Visayan Sea on our way to the mainland At one point the seas were so rough that the flat boat we transferred to from a larger boat almost swamped in a huge wave. Cathy, leaping from the larger boat to the smaller one, nearly broke her leg when she slipped on the ocean-soaked deck. Then eventually when we arrived in Cebu we discovered that I screwed up and booked our flight for a day later!

So where is the silver lining in this story? Saturday it was storming like crazy on the north coast of Cebu where we came ashore 24 hours earlier.  Lightning, thunder and likely waves that made yesterday’s waves look like they were in the minor leagues. Had we left the island on Saturday we likely wouldn’t have been able to make the crossing to the mainland because of weather and waves

So instead we hung out in the lobby of the Bellavista Hotel where Cathy was knitting away in Margaritaville. I’m watching the Philippines roar by on the street and we are a safe and easy 5 minute ride from the airport and two seats in Business Class on Emirates Airlines, regularly voted the best airline in the world.

Moral of the story is that a minor mistake turned into a positive as usually happens when things go wrong far from home