The 8th wonder of the world


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Asia » Philippines » Palawan » Puerto Princesa
September 11th 2011
Published: September 24th 2011
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Arriving in Puerto I took a tricycle the 12km to Banwa Pension, a funky arty hostel downtown. Close to the hostel there was only a small street that offered a bit of food and things. But it did have a bakery on it with some nice fresh cheese bread and things, it was so good to have fresh bread after so many months even if it was white. I booked to go to the underground river the next day. A contender in the new 7 natural wonders of the world.
I spent the next two nights in the mens dorm as there was no room in the ladies the first night and I couldn't be bothered to move the second.
The next morning I had been told I would get picked up between 8 and 830 not really thinking it would be 8 I was very surprised when at 805 I walked into the restaurant and the guide was there waiting for me, wow a guide on time in Asia thats a first. After picking up the remainder of the other 10 guests that were coming on the trip we headed for Port Barton a two hour bumpy, windy drive north of the city.
We stopped at a look-out where I tried sweet potato and coconut cooked in banana leaf, it makes an interesting taste and texture but its quite nice. We then visited the rock climbing and zip wire a new eco tourism promotion in Palawan before going to Port Barton.
Arriving we went straight to the restaurant for a very early buffet lunch by the beach. After lunch we had a short walk around before taking the 15min boat trip to where we caught the boat into the underground river. Here we had to wait around for a bit, the river is very popular especially with the Philippino tourists and only ten boats at once make the 45mins trip into the cave. But there was bits of info to read and even saw a very large lizard, actually two!
Eventually we piled into to small canoe type boats for our trip and all had to have our photos taken. The guide was great and the caves are really interesting. There was a Cathedral area that had many rock formations that strangely looked like things out of the bible even one that looked like the last supper, a market that had formations looking like mushrooms, corn, carrots and so many other strange and wierd looking formations but they really did look like what the guide was telling you. I could see why it is a strong contender for the 7 natural wonders.
After it was time to head back to the beach for our boat then the two hour drive back to Puerto. The guide even gave us each a gift, a small shoulder bag and necklace, a yummy muffin and iced tea.



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