We were at the ferry terminal in good time for the 7am sailing to El Nido. We couldn't understand why they insisted we put our luggage and day bags in a line of their own with everyone elses, but finally discovered it was for a sniffer dog check. We were highly amused to find the dog was a small Jack Russell who trotted past with its nose in the air taking no interest in the luggage at all. Moral of this story - keep your drugs in the top of your case/bags where a little dog can't reach. As soon as the dog had sashayed past everyone grabbed their bags to form another queue for the ferry. Colin told me not to rush - we have seats reserved. When we got on the ferry it became apparent there were no seat numbers though......
It was a smooth 5 hour sailing to El Nido, one of the most visited places in the Philippines. As we approached we could see beautiful lush green islands and long stretches of gleaming white sand. We'd been told El Nido town was noisy and over touristy, but as we approached we could see it had an attractive waterfront with white sand, not dissimilar to Death in Paradise (but hopefully without the murders).
We'd booked our accommodation for two nights a few kms out of town, and as the tricycle clocked up more like 8kms we were regretting our decision. Saying that the CED Villas was very tranquil, clean and comfortable. We booked an island boat tour for the following day. There were 4 choices - A, B, C or D. The receptionist told us these were set by the government. We opted for A which sounded the most scenic and most popular.
We jumped in a tricycle to take us to Corong Beach, a couple of kms before town where we'd read there were good sunset bars and restaurants. We ended up in Sip Sunset Lounge for a sundowner (or two). It had a very Ibiza chilled vibe and the sunset was beautiful.
Afterwards we walked up the beach to an Italian restaurant that was very popular and we enjoyed a good pasta/gnocchi dinner.
The following morning we were picked up by a tricycle for our boat tour. After being deposited at a shop, we had our fingers crossed that we'd be on a boat with far fewer people than the Coron trip, but as more and more people were dropped off our hopes dwindled. Again there was lots of waiting around and general confusion, but we we're all finally led to the beach. It looked like there was more than one boat and we struck lucky being sent to a smaller boat with a group of 7 Spanish (from Mallorca we later found out).
There were five stops on this tour and with only 9 of us it felt much less rushed. Another bonus was no music! The first stop at Big Lagoon was for kayaking and this time guys rented them at the site for less than 1/3 the price we paid for the Coron tour. We had a nice hour paddling around the beautiful lagoon with crystal blue waters and dramatic limestone features.
We then went on to another site for snorkelling. The coral wasn't great but there were some nice colourful fish.
They provided a great lunch including fresh prawns and grilled fish on a beautiful beach. From here we walked round the bay where there was a swim through to a Hidden Lagoon. It was basically a mini lagoon in a cave. It was surpringly cool in there so we didn't stay in too long.
Then it was back on the boat for a long bumpy boat ride across the open water to Seven Commandos beach - a beautiful stretch of white sand. Our whole experience on this day had been much better than the Coron boat tour.
We were quite taken with El Nido so decided we'd stop another day to hire a scooter agiain and visit some of the popular beaches up the coastline. That evening we went into El Nido town to buy van tickets to Port Barton and we continued into the town for the evening. It was really touristy, but we quite liked its buzzy feel. We had a delicious seafood meal in a cafe near the waterfront and had a wander around the main streets and street food market where all manner of fish, meats and vegetables were being grilled.
The hire scooter was a bit more battered than the one we'd hired in Coron but we enjoyed a chilled day ambling up the coast to visit 3 of the most popular beaches.
Nearest to town was Lío Beach - a beautiful stretch of white sand.
Next beach was Nacpan - another huge stunning beach. We hired a couple of sunlongers to read books and have a dip in the sea. The 2 sunlongers next to us were used by 8 Filipinos so it was a bit cozy - much like our van rides where 3 seats are for 5 people.
The final beach we visited was Duli beach, furthest away from El Nido and least
visited, but a popular surfing spot. We passed a colourful painted real cow en route. We had a late lunch there before heading back to Lío beach for sunset.
The following day we had a van booked to take us to Port Barton, another well visited town but smaller with a more chilled vibe. The van was arranged to pick us up at the main road near our lodgings and we were slightly shocked when it turned up pretty much on time and there were two seats for us.
It was a pretty smooth 3 1/2 hour journey with a quick refreshment stop and another stop to let a vomiting young backpacker clean herself up .
Port Barton is basically a handful of dusty streets and a nice beach front. We'd originally planned to dive here, but instead booked another island boat trip. We were picked up by the German owner of the accommodation, Walter, where we were stopping for two nights. He'd lived here for a long time, having originally been a dive instructor. Again we were slightly regretting not being in the centre of town but his place had great views over the bay and was only a 15 minute walk down the beach.
We headed into town to buy van tickets to our next destination, Sabang Beach, then went on to sample two sunset bars that were full of backpackers.
The following day we were picked up on two scooters to take us to the meeting point for the boat tour. Colin admitted he was uncomfortable as he'd never ridden pillion before.
There was around 12 of us on the boat which visited beautiful beaches very close to Port Barton. The first stop was at a sandbar where colourful starfish could be seen. We had a couple of snorkelling stops where the coral looked much healthier than we'd seen in Coron and El Nido. We stopped at another place where two islands were joined by a sandbar and had lunch at another beach - the best yet with fresh grilled fish and carved mango and pineapple. We then went to a protected turtle sanctuary where we snorkelled and did see turtles, but we were a bit annoyed at the boat guys chasing them with go-pros. Then there was a final stop at yet another stunning beach. Our favourite boat tour so far.
Next on our agenda was Sabang Beach. Not many tourists stop over here, with most doing day trips from Puerto Princessa, the capital of Palawan, to visit the Underground River - a World UNESCO heritage site and one of the new 7 wonders of nature.
We had to take two vans to get here. On the first there were two girls from Manchester who kept us amused with their travel tales. They said they'd selected the van company were were using because the reviews said it was dangerous and they said 'great - we'll 'ave some of that' ! We'd been worried about the connecting van for the 2nd leg but we needn't have been as a guy approached us at the place we were dropped off and said he was in contact with the van which had just left Puerto Princessa and it would be here in about an hour - it's amazing how what seems very unstructured arrangements here work. The van even took us right to our accommodation down a rough track.
We hadn't expected to be at Sabang so early. The accommodation was nice, although there was no working WiFi, so we set about doing some admin jobs while the heat went out of the day. The pier where the underground river boats left was the only busy part of town. Town seemed to be one dusty street and the beachfront that looked like it had been more thriving in the past but now had many closed beach accommodations and restaurants. Strangely there was a big Sheraton hotel in the middle of all the shacks.
Our lodgings booked a tour for us at 8am the following day. We wandered around town trying to find somewhere nice to eat - everywhere looked a bit dead and soulless, but we finally found a little place on the edge of town and had a terrific meal.
The following morning we were one of the first boats to set off on the 15 minute sailing to the underground river which was fantastic as, when we arrived, we were ushered straight onto a boat that was paddled into the cave system. It looked like it was set up for big queues when all the day trippers arrive. We were given a very informative audio tour where the guy paddling the boat shone a torch and pointed out features of interest. We'd read mixed reviews about this tour but we had a fantastic experience. The river runs underground for over 8 kms making it the second longest navigable underground river in the world ( no. 1 is in Mexico). The caves limestone karst structure has developed fabulous formations over the years which the audio guide helped to identify including vegetables and a nativity scene. We were in the caves for around 45 minutes and passed no other boats until towards the end. They cleverly ask visitors not to open their mouths as we could swallow bat guava (there are lots of the living there) or the minerals in the rocks could be harmful to humans. Also loud noise could affect the bats radar. On the walk back to the beach where our sea boat was waiting we passed a large monitor lizard.
We were back at our lodgings by mid morning and were wondering what to do for the rest of the day. We opted for the other activity here which was a mangrove tour. We were transported on the back of 2 scooters (the son and brother of the tour agent) to the outskirts of the town. We were met by an indigenous guide who had us paddled gently through the peaceful mangrove waterways. He had a lovely gentle singsongy voice and explained the importance of the Philippine mangroves in protecting the coastline and the habitat of all sorts of flora and fauna. We saw a bright yellow and black snake hanging in a tree and a stunning colourful woodpecker (sorry we weren't quick enough to take photos). We did get close to macaque monkeys though.
We walked back into town down the beach and got ourselves ready for catching a van to Puerto Princessa the next morning. We had been trying to contact Arni for several days (the dive chamber operator) about visiting him in Balabac but he hadn't seemed to pick up any of our messages via WhatsApp or Facebook. He finally responded and said he'd meet us at Buliluyan port at the far tip of Palawan in 2 days time for our next adventure.
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