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El Nido (Palawan) 1st June - 8th June (Day 89 - 96)
The journey from Puerto Princesca to El Nido should have taken 5 hours. The early signs looked very positive as we had a Michael Schumacher wannabe driving, at times I wasn't sure if he realised he was actually on a road rather than a race track. Unfortunately despite his clear pace it seemed Schumi had over cooked it a bit as the engine overheated. We had to wait by the side of the road whilst the driver went in search of water to cool the engine. In the end Amber donated her 6 litre bottle of water to the cause. With the help of the water the engine kicked back into life and we were able to complete our journey.
El Nido itself is a small town on a strip of beach with a number of guesthouses and beach huts. The town is surrounded by limestone karsts which makes it very picturesque.
We arrived in El Nido at the beginning of the low season so it was very quiet and relaxed which was perfect for us. Though most of the guesthouses were full and we ended up staying in a local guesthouse with lovely views and a balcony. Although El Nido itself is charming the main reason people come to El Nido is to go island hopping around the many small islands of the Bacuit Archipelago situated close by. We wasted no time in organising our first trip and hired a boat to take us out the following day at 9am.
At 9am our boat; Divine Mercy picked us up on the beach directly below our balcony and we jumped on board for a day of exploring beaches and lagoons. The weather was fantastic and we were looked forward to the day ahead.
We first visited two lagoons called small and big lagoon, both were stunning, surrounded by high limestone cliffs with crystal clear water. We even saw people setting up challenges as they were filming Swedish survivor there. We then visited secret lagoon which was one of the highlights. At first it wasn't clear where the lagoon was and it looked like we were sailing straight into the cliff but we then we saw a tiny gap in the rocks. The crew of the boat helped us all safely through the gap into a hidden lagoon with dramatic high limestone walls and lovely warm clear water, it was fantastic.
We stopped off at a beach for lunch and while the crew grilled us chicken and fish we went snorkelling nearby. We brought some bread to feed to the fish and were amazed by the sheer number of fish and how close they came. At times it felt you were in the middle of a blizzard of fish! During the afternoon we visited some great beaches and watched the sunset whilst relaxing with a refreshing coconut.
We spent the next few days chilling out in El Nido, taking in a few massages as well as swimming and playing ball in the sea outside our room, playing with local children, writing a song on the beach and eating lots of seafood. We also went on another day trip around some of the other islands which was equally as enjoyable as the first.
In total we spent 7 nights in El Nido which was great as it had taken us 3 days of travel to get there and we needed the time to recover and relax. It was also nice to spend enough time to feel familiar and at home in a place.
One of the aspects of El Nido which we enjoyed the most was the sunsets, almost every night the sunset was amazing. On our penultimate evening we took a tricycle to another local beach (Corong Corong) to watch the sunset and it was simply awesome, we were all transfixed by the colours and the intensity; it was fantastic.
After 7 great days in El Nido we had almost been in the Philippines for our full visa allocation of 21 days so we had to head back to Puerta Princesca to catch a flight to Manila and onwards to Hong Kong. We had a great time in the Philippines particularly as we hadn't initially intended to visit. We loved seeing the culture, the people were very welcoming and enjoyed spending more time with our Lao family.
Hope everyone is well! X x
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