We eventually found our way back to Manila where we spent our last days in the Philippines.
I also checked out Paco Park, a pleasant place with loads of history:
[4/2/06] El Nido is most famous for its island hopping. So naturally we spent a day visiting four or five different islands where we did a lot of snorkelling.
On our last full evening in El Nido we went to the local markets and bought our own food to make our own dinner at one of the local guesthouses. We hung out on the beach with the local kids and then drank rum with the local men.
[2/2/06] We took a jeepney from Taytay to El Nido. El Nido is an attractive town nestled between the sea and sheer marble cliffs. It’s a bigger place than Taytay, with more of a tourist feel to it (it even has its own website).
Getting off at Taytay turned out to be a really good idea and we ended up spending two nights there. The guidebook didn’t say much about Taytay, other than it having an seventeenth-century Spanish fort and a cathedral built from coral blocks. We stayed at a beautiful hillside resort called Cosa Rosa. It was a little outside our budget, but we were all exhausted and wanted to stay somewhere a little more upmarket for once. Cosa Rosa is run by a Frenchman, Thierry, and his Filipino wife, Rosa. They were both hugely helpful and friendly.
The old Spanish fort at Taytay.
On 1 February we went snorkelling off an island owned by Thierry. Rosa packed us a lunch of fresh salad, bread, shrimps, rice, and mangos. Their boat dropped us off on the island, which looked as though it had fallen out of one of those too-good-to-be-true tourist brochures: coconut palms ringed with white beaches, sitting in the middle of turquoise-azure water. We spent the day snorkelling. The coral itself wasn’t very exciting – all a dull grey colour. But the fish were an amazing range of colours, shapes and sizes. One of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever encountered (unfortunately, my camera isn’t waterproof…).
[31/1/06] As I said before: “When the USA left the Philippines after WWII, they left behind a lot of military jeeps. The locals stripped them down, made additions, and the jeepney was born. Read more here.” Jeepneys are a really cool form of transport. And on Palawan, other than boats or the occasional bus, jeepneys were pretty much the only way to get around.
At 7:00am on 31 January, the six of us set off on what was to be a 9 1/2 hour trip from Sabang to Tay Tay…
The first leg of our journey was the most fun as we took a jeepney. One problem with jeepneys is that the passenger bit at the back is designed for people who are at least a few inches short of 6 feet. I’m 6 feet on a good day and Spence is at least 6-5, so we decided to ride on top (with the luggage and the school kids). That ride on the roof of the jeepney is one of my favourite memories from the whole Philippines trip.
It wasn’t much more than an hour before we reached the town of Salvacion. Here the sealed road began and we switched to a bus. Spence and I decided that riding on the roof of vehicles was the way to go. So we climbed on to the the top of the bus, and then the terror began. Sitting on the top of a jeepney that’s ambling along an unsealed country road is not the same as clinging to a bus doing 80 kilometres an hour along the highway.
Anyway, Spence and I survived. Unfortunately, the bus broke down and we were all stranded for 1 1/2 hours. We got on another bus, and then the fun of the trip ran out. We had planned to go all the way to El Nido, but called it quits at a place called Tay Tay, as we’d been travelling for close to ten hours already and couldn’t take any more.
On the top of the bus. A little scary, but the view was worth it:
And here are a few random shots of cute kids on the bus:
Patty, Andy and Spence on the beach before we went bush.
[29/1/06] On Sunday 29th, all six of us set off for the Underground River, a few hour’s walk from Sabang. The river flows through a massive cave network out to the sea. It’s the longest coastal cave network in the world.
To get to the Underground River we walked to the end of the beach at Sabang, and then along a jungle path (at the start of the path was a sign stating that unless you had a permit you would not be allowed to enter Underground River Natural Park. We figured that we could bluff our way in. We were wrong as half an hour later, we were stopped at the ranger’s station and could go no further without permits. So Spence and I ran to Sabang and back to get permits for everyone…).
Monkeys and monitor lizards on the trail to the Underground River. The monitor lizards were big - about 1.5 metres long.
Once we reached the Underground River we donned lifejackets and helmets, and hopped in an outrigger canoe that was paddled by our official guide. You can go up to 4 kilometres into the caves (if you pay for it). We went the standard 1.2 kilometres. It’s pitch black inside, so we had a powerful spotlight to illuminate our way. There were all sorts of interesting stalactite and stalacmite formations in the caves, as well as huge bat colonies. Monkeys, giant lizards and bats. Pretty damn cool.
[27-31/1/06] After a lot of walking, followed by bus, ferry, plane, and jeepney rides, Andy and I arrived at Sabang. The rest of our travel group arrived from Manila on the same day. Sabang is a stereotypical tropical paradise - golden beaches, palm trees, huts on the beachfront. And it is wonderfully isolated from the rest of the world - at least a couple of hours by boat or jeepney to the nearest town (also no hot water and it only has electricity from 6:00pm-10:00pm). So there wasn’t much to do but eat, drink, and swim.
It had been a year since I’d swum in the ocean (other than a quick dip during the lunch break when we toured Corregidor). So it was great to spend hours just playing in the surf, breathing in the salty air, choking on the salt water…
My home for three nights - nothing but a bed and mosquito net inside.
Derek, Cristina, Andy, Spence. Drinking 1 litre beers on the beach…
[26&27/1/06] Our main reason for visiting Bohol was to see the Chocolate Hills. These are around 1,200 individual mounds in the middle of the island. They’re about 50 metres high, and in the dry season they turn chocolate-brown (hence the name). They are thought to have been formed when the clay around them eroded, leaving the tougher marine limestone mounds (either that or a giant called Arogo fell in love with a mortal girl called Aloya. Aloya died in the giant’s palm, and his tears turned into the hills).
We took a motorcycle tour through some of the local villages, clambered up one of the hills, and then came back to the main resort to watch the sunset.
[26/1/06] Andy and I stopped in on the tarsier sanctuary at Corella, on Bohol. Tarsiers are only found in the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Tarsiers belong to the primate family (along with monkeys, lemurs, and the great apes). They are one of the smallest primates in the world; they have the largest eyes (in relation to body size) of any mammal; they can rotate their heads to almost 360 degrees.
Afterwards, it started raining. When it rains in the Philippines, it really rains…
