There's a huge difference between travelling and living in a place. There's a fine line between enjoying your work and purely enjoying. If there's a chance that I can just live like a bum and receive money at the same time, why not? But reality slaps hard indeed and it hit your ground running.
Boracay is one of the most visited islands in the Philippines because of its beautiful beaches (and i mean beautiful indeed). Tourists and backpackers come and go and the business never stops. Peak seasons like summer time and October are the hype time. But the visitors never stop coming even after. So you see, it may seem like a great opportunity for business to grow. Hotels and restaurant seem to pop out from every corner, in the highs and the low areas of the island.
Once I've visited Boracay back in 2014 and it was purely pleasure. Trying out different food and beverages from affordable beachfront restaurants. Trying activities such as island tours and helmet diving under water. Your activities doesn't end with a spectacular sunset view of the long white sand beach, because Boracay offers night life like no other. Fire dancers and drinking bars suddenly pops out and you gotta witness the lights reflect the beach. When tired and unable you can just ho back to the hotel or the beach house you rented and gather up all the energy for the next day. But that's the fun travelling part. Living in Boracay is a different story. I work as an apprentice in a construction firm and work starts at 7am. Without a car, I have to catch a 30-minute ride to my dorm to the site, and even though Bora is just an island, traffic gets real there especially during rush hour. So no sleeping in. I gotta be ready by 6:30. And that's difficult, living in boracay means living with others totally unrelated to you. So I gotta be conscious with their schedules too. If you can, cook your own food and buy your own ingredients. But in the far end of Boracay where the locals buy their food, the prices are not as high as the ones in the public areas. They also serve already cooked viands and a huge variety of local fruits and fish. I haven't been living long here, and although life is hard, you gotta manage. You can always be inspired by break times just enjoying the island view (the pretty part) and the excitement the tourists have.
But on a more serious note, I would like to call the attention of the government, no doubt the tourism in Boracay is unlike any other compared to the other islands in the country. But in rainy seasons, the streets are flooded. Yes, fixing of SOME roads are visible, yet it still flood in several areas. We cannot blame that to the locals alone. You charge the people 75php (a dollar fifty) and 25php ($0.50) for terminal and environmental fee. Say, 2 thousand tourist visit everyday and you collect 200,000. Just saying.
And why don't we all take a minute to enjoy nature while we're here, there's too much structure and construction going on all over the place thet sometimes it overshadows the beauty of what really matters.