Beautiful Misibis

I've been wanting to go to Bella Rocca for the longest time. Pictures of their white Santorini-style villas keep beckoning me. However, I found it difficult to find flights which fit our preferred schedule. I tried checking other options and came up with Misibis Bay. First saw photos from Zeka's FB account then got to Rajo Laurel's Magnificent Misibis post and was hooked. I contacted the resort and was accommodated by Zyra who sent me packages for Holy Week. Being super peak season, rates were NOT cheap. They do have special promos which you can check out here.Stan was holding out but I decided that I wanted to splurge and took care of the resort payments. AND we were not disappointed! We took Cebu Pacific flights since the schedules were better than PAL's. Cebu Pacific had 3 flights to and from Legazpi City while PAL only had 1 flight and it was at 6am to Legazpi and 730am back to Manila!We stayed for 3 nights and 4 days inLegazpi City and as soon as we arrived we headed to our city hotel - Hotel Venezia to check in. Lunch was with E.J. at Gasthoff. Yes - the Gasthoff of Boracay and A.Venue in Makati. Apparently, the owner is married to a Bicolano - thus the branch in Legazpi City. We were disappointed since there was no local food - except for laing. Happily, the cook obliged my pescatarian brother by coming up with a fish dish cooked in coconut milk. I must say that the fish was the highlight of the meal (and not the ribs!).
The first afternoon was spent on a city tour (included in our Misibis Bay package). First stop was Lignon Hill with a view of Mayon Volcano and zipline. On one side, you can the Legazpi city view with the airport runway. Naima got excited because when we were there, a Cebu Pacific flight departed so she saw it from the runway to the air.Next up was the requisite stop to Cagsawa Ruins. There were so many people and I couldn't get people-less photos. We stayed for some time here because Stan wanted to get LOTS of photos. It was actually Naima's naptime but happily, she wasn't cranky despite that.
We were supposed to go to Embarcadero but since it was Good Friday, everything was closed. We headed to Daraga Church instead and on to the pilinut shopping at Albay Pili. Then it was back to the hotel to freshen up. EJ and his nephews met us there before bring us to Old Colonial Grill for dinner. I can't say that it was truly a yummy Bicolano meal. EJ himself said that he could not recommend a good Bicolano restaurant to dine in because the real delicious Bicolano food is the ones cooked at home. But since it was Good Friday, his mom was fasting - so no home-cooked Bicolano meal for us! What we did enjoyed at Colonial Inn was the malunggay and the toasted rice ice cream.We started early on Saturday morning and caught the 830am trip to Cagraray Island. After a bumpy ride and a 5-minute ferry crossing ride, we arrived at 930am in Misibis Bay. We were welcomed by some employees in native costumes and dancing to thumping music. Check in time was 2pm so our room was not ready when we got there. They did have a locker room with showers where you can store your things (with locks). So we changed into our swimwear and hit the pools (there are 3). We were finally able to check in after lunch and enjoyed the rest of the day lazing and lounging in our very comfortable room.In terms of tourist attractions in cagraray, there are none. I don't think it is worth paying $$$ and leave the resort :) so we just stayed in the resort from saturday morning until monday 11am for our transfer to legazpi airport at 215pm. But if you do want to do the tourist-y activities, you can check out the whalesharks and also visit CWC - the wakeboard complex in naga city which is 1.5 hours from legazpi.I would suggest though that you stay in legazpi city if you want to do both whaleshark and cwc then just move to Misibis Bay when you are there to enjoy the resort/facilities. Legazpi city is the center of it all and staying in misibis the whole time while transfering to Donsol/Naga for the other stuff to do will lead to a lot of time wasted.

We truly enjoyed our stay at Misibis Bay. I hear that Leonardo Di Caprio is visiting the resort in August 2010. I definitely do want to come back but not until after I visit Bella Rocca. Meanwhile, next up Amorita Resort in Panglao Island!