Hidden Lagoons and Bar B Qs on the Beach


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Asia » Philippines
April 5th 2012
Published: April 5th 2012
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We have been in the Philippines now for just over a week, we spent a night in Puerto Princessa on Palawan before taking a mini bus up to El Nido in the north.



This whole area is renowned for it’s spectacular scenery and marine life. The town of El Nido it’sself is little town mostly set along the seashore and surrounded by towering limestone cliffs.

During the daytime the shore is lined with boats coming and going taking visitors to the many offshore islands and local children splashing around in the sea, climbing in and out of the boats and swinging on their outriggers.



In the evening the beach comes alive with restaurants set on the narrow strip of sand and live bands entertain you as you dine.



Back on the main street there are several small souvenir shops, mini marts, where you can buy your essentials, and yet more bars and restaurants. All in a very laid-back style. Transport consists of small motor bikes with sidecars attached all customised to the drivers taste. We took a trip in one on one occasion where the driver had replaced his speedometer and rev counter with two speakers! At one point we had to get out and help push it up the hill!



We spent a fantastic day on one boat tour that took us to secret lagoons and beaches tucked away in between the lime-karsts; some were only accessible by swimming through small holes in the Cliffside.

Another day we took the 20-minute tricycle ride to Es Cabanas beach on the mainland, which turned out to be equally amazing with gorgeous scenery and a spectacular sunset. We bumped into Jordan and Sara (who we’d met on the bus up here a few days previous) on this beach and soon realised we all wanted to do a similar boat tour the following day but with a few differences to the regular tours. So after some discussion between the four of us and an Israeli couple we planned our own customised tour then met up in town later that evening to try and arrange a boat and driver.



The trip turned out to be amazing, visiting more small lagoons and hidden away beaches and good snorkelling and pretty drop-offs with colourful coral. For lunch we stopped off on a beautiful white beach. The boat driver and guide proceeded to cook up a fantastic lunch of vegetable curry and rice, an eggplant dish, salad and freshly Bar B Qued fish and chicken finished off with beautifully prepared fresh tropical fruits. Wonderful!



After lunch we visited a shrine built on one of the islands before stopping off in the Straits for a drift snorkel along the wall, we saw turtles, clownfish and numerous other kinds of sea life. The standard tours don’t tend to drop people off here so we had the place to ourselves meaning the undersea life hadn’t been scared away by others by the time we arrived there!



The last stop was on Helicopter Island beach, named because the island looks just like a helicopter (minus the blades). A group of us spotted a black and white sea snake way below us, we were lucky enough to be able to watch it for a good few minutes as it floated around on the bottom.



Later that evening we met up for dinner then said our goodbyes as Sara and Jordan leave the next day. We have one more day and plan to go back to Es Cabanas before packing up to leave ourselves the following day (Friday) at noon.



Update;



Before getting to publish this blog there has been a change of plan, on the way to the beach we called at the bus station to book our ticket for tomorrow.



Horror! There are no buses tomorrow as it’s Holy Friday and according to them no shuttle mini buses either, our flight to Manilla is from Puerto Princessa at 10am Saturday so the only way we could see to get there in time was to catch the 4pm bus later today, meaning we couldn’t spend the day on the beach after all and then we’d have hang around in P. Princessa a whole day tomorrow. We decided we had no choice but to take this option and carried on to the beach for just an hour or so before having to get back to the bungalow to pack up. It was really hard to drag ourselves away as it was so beautiful there, the weather had turned out especially good that day, not a grey cloud to be seen, Typical



Once back at our bungalows around 1am we explained to the owner that we would have to go a day earlier than planned. Joy! She located us a private mini bus that will travel tomorrow, despite it being Holy Day, but of course it will cost us more and won’t be as comfortable as the big bus. Oh well at least we get to spend the afternoon back on the beach now and one last night in a beach bar.



We are on wi fi in a bar right now and it is so slow my battery is nearly out so will add photos later

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