Paradise Found

I slept on the beach last night, under the Milky Way. There were so many scattered stars, with Orion and Venus right above me. The sound of the lapping waves sweetly rocked me to sleep.

It was cool and breezy, I woke up at around 2 am with the bright half-moon. I tried to sleep but the moonlight was too much, even for my closed eyes. I went back to my room. In the morning, I had sandfly bites. D:

I’m looking forward to staying in my own secluded beach. I’m just waiting for the ladder to be constructed from the main beach over the limestone. :D

I tried to swim here from the pier yesterday. The current was so strong, it could carry me away to the deep ocean. I had to vigorously backstroke to the beach.

The beach was lovely, peaceful, and perfect. Behind the coconut trees against the limestone is a two-story cottage overlooking the beach. I’m thrilled to live there, create my own sculptures, add plants, and decorate the space.

I also found some human bones with a skull, probably from the people who used to live here. O_O I will bury them one of these days.

The main beach was built with a seawall to protect the land from erosion, high tides, and typhoons. The island used to be home to several hundred local people, until they started dynamite fishing, practically killing the corals that supported all the underwater wildlife.

Typhoon season arrived and it took only one typhoon to devastate all their homes. They moved to the mainland, and most of the land were sold to its current owners.

Since 2012, they have been rehabilitating the corals, creating temporary umbrellas for planting baby corals. Guests are encouraged to snorkel in the reefs and plant these corals, write about them, and share the island’s story. <3

We host small weddings here sometimes, with a honeymoon cottage on the cliff for the newlyweds. Most of the cottages are in the cool shade, behind the trees.

It’s common to witness monitor lizards, giant centipedes, spiders, and other insects making their way into the rooms. Many guests in the past, who grew up in cities, would go hysterical over these creepy crawlers.

The monitor lizards are the ones who make a scene, slithering in plain sight with their scaly hide and forked tongue. Sometimes I offer them bananas so I can pet them. Hopefully we’ll be friends one day, and they’ll welcome me to their lizard kingdom. XD

The beach assigned to me is just sweet, lovely, and gorgeous. I feel it can host about 20 people for yoga or breathwork. The sandy area inside is wide, flat, and shaded, just perfect for peace and relaxation.

There is electricity and water in the cottage inside, and an outdoor shower where one can look up and admire the limestone rocks and trees.

It just feels so wonderful being on this beach, and I can’t wait to spend my nights here and get stoked on peace and silence and the sound of the ocean.

The limestone makes a concave wall which can also be good for music, live or audio. It’s possible to make another fire pit here and gather the large stones for sitting.

I stayed on the island for three months a few years ago and even brought my best friend to stay for a month. She just fell in love with it. The food is amazing and tasty, prepared with fresh ingredients. It’s easy to get fat and lazy here. Lol.

I feel that my addition to the team will add some peace and balance to all the drinking and partying in the evenings.

Hopefully I will inspire the owners to build halfway to the highest cliff a yoga studio with a sweeping view of the ocean. For now, beach yoga will do.

I will still want to travel, but I will bring in things that will add more serenity and relaxation to the island. After all, most people come here to chill after doing all the island hopping and sunset cruising in Bacuit Bay.

We’ll have 16 guests arriving in a few days for a yoga retreat. And I’ll be busy in the kitchen teaching the head chef how to prepare plant-based dishes. :D

This monitor lizard says “hi” and “bye”.

// 02 Jan 2024

Romanticizing the Island Life

I look forward to waking up before the sun rises, and taking that first lungful of ocean air at the cliff of this island, while practicing yoga.

I love the sight of dawn, where this part of the Earth moves from night to day, stars to clouds, moon to sun.

As the sun peeks, I greet it as the visible light of the Creator and absorb all that warm and tingling goodness, awakening my whole body and soul in a calm yet high energy state.

I want to play new music, try new tunes and playlists, and fill my heart with song. At the same time, I want to listen more to Nature — the ocean and the breeze, the insects and the trees swaying, and the sounds of the animals around me.

I want to drink my morning tea like it’s magic, as I enjoy the ocean view and the company of guests on the island.

I want to make new friends with strangers from foreign lands and listen to their lives and the stories that abound in their homeland.

I want to prepare my own healthy food as I’ve always done, and savor every bite and flavor, every texture and aroma.

I want to teach people how to ground in their bodies more, enjoy the present more, and release all worries about the past and the future.

I want them to know the miracle of their breath, that every inhale is a communion with the air and space that contain the whole universe.

And the ocean shall bathe me in her silky water and fill my eyes with white sand, fish, turtles, corals, and seashells.

The blue skies shall mirror in my eyes, and thunder shall clap as loud as my voice.

While the earth shall tickle my feet with her many sensations and textures and atune me with all the living beings, visible and invisible, around me.

I want 2024 to be filled with romance, the way romance was born out of Nature and out of listening to the beauty and silence of Mother Earth.

Mother Earth takes care of me and I take care of Her. <3

// 01 Jan 2024

Sleeping Under the Stars

Mike has been sleeping under the stars for at least five years now. When I brought my best friend Ivy to his place, they slept under the stars together and Ivy said that throughout the night, she felt that she was floating.

I wasn’t there; I was elsewhere, and didn’t have any idea what she was talking about until this year. In one of places I stayed in El Nido, I had the idea to try what she experienced.

I brought my yoga mat to the rooftop, along with blankets and pillows, as well as a music player, and watched the stars until I could fall asleep. I saw so many shooting stars until they felt so ordinary. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t, and then fog crept in after midnight and I was getting drenched. I was forced to go back to my room.

It wasn’t as successful as I planned.

When I got back to Mike’s place, I slept outdoors and tried to understand what the hype was about. And on that first night, after falling asleep to shooting stars and the beautiful night sky, I entered that state that Ivy described.

It was a sleep where I was aware of my surroundings. It was like turning on all my senses against intruders, especially animals. And without walls, my energy in the outdoors was as open and expansive as the garden, the ocean, and the vast night sky.

It felt so good and nurturing that I slept outside as often as possible. At the break of dawn though, Mike’s dogs and cats would jump at me and snuggle, waking me up. Those animals were just kids inside.

When I visited Mike last week, two dogs have already died, but he has also gained five new puppies. They were only two weeks old when I visited, the little sausages.

After sleeping outdoors for several nights, sleeping indoors felt like a prison. No wonder Mike only sleeps indoors when it’s raining.

There is such a thing as star bathing, or bathing under the stars. Many starseeds talk about this as a way of connecting with their star system during sleep. Now, where in the universe would I want to go?

// 30 Dec 2023