This doesn't bode well, economically speaking...

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This morning we took a taxi in the pouring rain and agreed on 200 as a flat fare but the meter was also running so we got a peek at how much it would have been with that -- 201.00. So we're happy with 200 as a standard flat fee from the airport to Fuente Osmeña.

The airport tax was an outrageous 200 per person and Ronald had to check his camera's tripod, but other than that, smooth sailing. We ended up being on the same flight as a girl from my diving trip, Emma, so we took a van with her and her friends to Port Barton -- El Nido was just too far away for our time crunch. The lowest we could get the driver to go was 4,000 pesos and there were 6 of us. It's a three hour drive and the roads are not the best.

When we got there we searched for places to stay and settled on El Busero for 400, shared bathroom, no fan, open windows with screens. It was a nice and simple place on the beach with a good restaurant and a super friendly staff.

We went to check out the diving scene but came back defeated -- the woman at Easy Dive was crazy and/or a drug addict and Sea Dog diving was fully booked. So our back up is to rent a boat or kayak tomorrow to see an area called The Aquarium and go around to some other little beaches and islands.

It was raining at night but we went to meet up with Emma and Rosie and the French couple we'd traveled with to have a drink. They almost didn't have anything left to make drinks with, so we called it a night fairly early and went to get some rest.

Technical details
-If you're interested, our driver gave us his card and here's his info:
-----Dennis T. Dacasin -- cell: 09.071.586.813 or 09.306.043.661

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