Palawan - Paradise on earth?

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As the Phillipines is made up of over 7000 islands, travelling isnt the easiest and flying by air is the easiest way to go about it. After a dramatic start to the day ( once we were on our way to the airport i got an email saying the flight had been cancelled!) we got our flight without many issues and were on our way. They definately do it differently here, its treated more like getting on a bus. 2 flights and about 9 hours later we arrived in Puerto Princesa, the capital of the island of palawan.

We stayed in PP about 3 nights, stayed in a really chilled out guest house where they made cheap and lovely food and enjoyed relaxing. While there we took a trip to the butterfly conservation area and a day trip to the underground river (one of the 7 nature wonders of the world and UNESCO heritage site). We had planned to go to the crocodile conservation area but i read up about it on trip advisor and it seemed to be a farm than conservation, once i read that they offered to feed u crocodile after the trip it screamed animal exploitation and tourist trap so we steered clear and instead spent a nice day seeing butterflies, reptiles, insects and some birds and also a bearcat. After the tour we got to meet some tribesmen who showed us how they hunted and mademusic etc. WE even got to meet their pet snake! People in the phillipines are super friendly, on our way there everyone on our Jeepney said hello and spoke to us or waved from their mopeds. IT helps that english is an official language here so it is really easy to communicate with people.

On our second day we took the underground river tour which was breathtaking, we were lucky because it started to rain torrentially on the boat back so glad we escaped it. IT doesnt take long arriving here to realise how beautiful a place it is, it is truly breathtaking. However, El nido in the north is the most famous for islands and beaches so we set off on a rather uncomfortable 6 hour journey up north. El nido itself is a town set in a bay, it is nice with stunning mountains but the real beauty lies within the islands nearby. There are 4 tours, but we opted for the 2 best ones, A and C. Words cant explain how amazing they are! On C, we visited stunning beaches, hidden beaches and done some amazing snorkling. I said there and then my trip was made, I felt like I was in a cartoon or something the fish and coral was so spectaculr and colourful it was dreamy. The colour of the water here is completely clear and just breathtaking, as i'm sure my pics will show. In tour A the focus was more on lagoons with beaches and snorkling too. They last from 9-4 but feels like the time passes so quick, i guess because we enjoyed it so much. It sounds cheesy but I would be relly surprised if anywhere surpasses the beauty of the phillipines on this trip, but i am willing to look! The only thing is that there is quite a lot of jellyfish here so you need to be really vigilant in the water. Aside from the tours, we relaxed a lot, took a moped and visited yet another beautiful beach, and watched the sunset over the bay at a neighbouring beach. We have stayed in a cottage wich has a large patio area to chill, and most importantly 3 very friendly dogs who have taken a shine to us (probably because we actually play with them) which has been nice to wake up to and have little friends to hang out with.

Tomorrow we leave for Port Barton. Its quite expensivehere so hopefully we will save money going there. It is meant to be a lovely quiet beach town so more relax on the cards. I will update this later on.

Love x

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Photos

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7 commandos beach

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outside small lagoon

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outside big lagoon

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relaxing at corong corong

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beach at underground river

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entrance to underground river

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view from matinloc island

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crazy water