This is Lyra's treat in the tropical paradise of Boracay.

Nothing beats December of 2007--with nine dives and a free trip to Boracay--it's perfect!

My best friend Lyra arrived last December 24 after spending some time as a physical therapist abroad. Anthony and I went to their house to meet her boyfriend Steve (although I had met him previously during our gimik at Embassy Club with Lyra's brother Ram).

On December 28, all nine of us met at the Centennial Airport for our supposedly early flight to Caticlan. However, bad weather conditions in our destination delayed our flight and we had to wait six hours before boarding our new flight to Kalibo.

One van ride and a short boat ride later (which we shared with Karylle and Dingdong Dantes), we finally arrived in the tropical paradise of Boracay.

Our barkada and the Torreses checked in at The Tides, Station 2, near D'Mall. It is owned partly by Iza Calzado and Tim Yap but they weren't there during the holidays. For me, the best part was having free Internet connection since rentals cost P40-60 per hour on the island.

On Saturday, I talked to Water Colors Dive Shop and luckily enough, there was a group diving in Friday's Rock that morning. After breakfast, Lyra and Steve had a 1 1/2 hour lecture for scuba diving. They went to Friday's Reef while I was with a group of foreigners in Friday's Rock.

We used a line to go down to 17 meters (51 feet) and we swam around a huge boulder where we saw fusiliers, trigger fishes and 18-inch red bass. It was fun feeding the hungry fish but they would bite into my hand as they searched for more bread.

As we swam from one coral patch to another, we saw blue anemone fish, black and white lionfish and a blue-banded sea snake winding itself on the ocean floor.

Dive time to date: 6 hours 16 minutes

Lyra was able to complete her dive but Steve wasn't comfortable underwater but they both got their certificates so I'm glad for them. After resting, the five of us--Lyra, Steve, Anthony, Eloisa and I--went sailing on a paraw.

As the sun set, we sailed off and relaxed on the hammocks laid out on the katig (rigger) of the sailboat. When I do go back to Bora, I hope to take the reins of the paraw and maneuver it myself. =)

By Saturday evening, we went to two gimik spots: Club Paraw and Cocomangas. I liked the latter so much that I was left behind to dance the night away as Andrew E performed impromptu that night.

On Sunday morning, we went on a banana boat ride but thankfully, we didn't flip over. For Lyra's souvenir, I gave her a small bottle designed with colorful Boracay sand and she said it would be a nice addtion to her sand collection in the States.

After checking out of The Tides, we went to the airport and waited a few hours before boarding our flight home to Manila.

Despite everyone's contention that Bora is already too commercialized, there's really nothing wrong with enjoying the beauty of Mother Nature while making full use of modern-day conveniences.