Secret Beaches and Hidden Lagoons

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Picture in your mind a perfect beach of white soft sand, swaying coconut palms and backed by the most amazingly steep cliffs jutting right up to the sky. Add to this a keyhole gap in the rock, leading into a huge lagoon surrounded by those same steep jagged cliffs. You've now got an idea of what the islands around the Bacuit archipelago look like.



We'd been in El Nido almost a week when we were finally all healthy enough to head out on one of the famous boat tours. There are four tours to choose from, imaginatively named Tours A, B, C, and D. We started with tour A, dubbed the "lagoons" trip. Everywhere you go in town, there's a travel agent or guesthouse trying to sell you a tour, but most look pretty awful, cramming twenty or more orange-lifejacket-clad tourists into a boat. Given the age of our kids, we were pretty sure one of these huge tours wouldn't work for us. Luckily we'd come across the tours run by Green View Resort on Corong Corong beach. They only had a maximum of ten to a boat, plus they had a smaller private boat for hire. Given that Jake was free and Kyla was half price, it was the best deal for us. Being able to set our own schedule and not deal with a crowded boat-full of people turned out really well. Jake was a bit cranky at times after being woken up early at 7:15am, so having to constantly apologize to others would have been stressful, not to mention unfair to them.



We met our crew on the beach and I was surprised to see we had three of them; Saldy (renamed by Tom as Salty) the guide, Ariel the cook, and of course the skipper, but I forget his name. As we set off on our beautiful blue and green traditional Bangka boat, we were all handed lifejackets. I immediately did what we usually do with lifejackets on these kinds of trips - sit on it as a cushion. I was told we had to put it on as it was a rule, whaaat?! Luckily we were allowed to discard it as soon as the boat got away from the coastline. Of course, the kids had their own lifejackets on, and didn't take them off the entire trip.



First stop was Small Lagoon where we were put into kayaks to sail through a small channel in the rocks which opened out into a huge lagoon. There was nothing little about it! Next stop was Big Lagoon. Most of the boats had to stay outside while their tourists swam or walked across a shallow opening to get into the bigger Lagoon, but as we had a much smaller boat, our crew was able to maneuver it in. Jake and Kyla had fun jumping in from the front of the boat. Now, I mentioned other boats. These stops were not exactly hidden gems. There were 30 or maybe even more boats clambering for position. Scott was a little bothered by this as he was comparing it to eight years ago, but it surprisingly didn't bother me. I think I was too impressed by the scenery to care, plus we were sheltered from most of it by our wonderfully small and personal boat.



The third stop was Secret Lagoon. This was the first actual beach we visited and it was very dramatic. As we were a smaller boat we'd managed to beat the crowds by now and it was much more serene... until our guide took us to Secret Lagoon. The secret is definitely out! Kyla stayed behind with Tom as our guide said it was a little tough, but of course Jake insisted on coming with us. He's such a mommy's boy! We had to wait until a tour group of Koreans in hideous orange lifejackets cleared, then we walked waist high in the surge and crawled through a small hole in the rocks which opened up into a small but steep-sided Lagoon. I can imagine the person finding this for the first time. I'm pretty sure it stayed a secret for many years!



Back at the picture-postcard-perfect beach, Ariel had made an impressive feast for lunch. We had BBQ fish, chicken and pork skewers, various salads and veggies, and a beautiful big arrangement of fruit including my favorite fruit in the Philippines, mango. I've never had mango so juicy and delicious as in this country. Jake and Kyla devoured it!



After lunch, we headed out to beat the crowds to our last stop, Papaya Beach. The first thing we noticed was the dramatic cliffs as backdrop. The first thing Kyla and Jake noticed were tyre swings! They were delighted to have a makeshift playground and I had fun swinging them and taking photos while Scott and his dad went for a snorkel. Scott came back after fifteen minutes with reports of a turtle. The kids were interested in seeing it, but surprisingly Jake didn't want his mask on and it was Kyla that tried it, if only for a few minutes. It's a start!



That night was pretty rough as Jake had diarrhea four times in his sleep. I think he just keeps getting tummy bugs from getting shower water in his mouth. That meant a day staying in town the next day, which isn't fun. At least he took a nap. We all needed a break!





*** Please scroll right the way down for more photos ***

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