Island Hopping in El Nido

There was one thing and one thing alone listed on our ‘to-do’ list for El Nido. Island Hopping. After I recovered from the demon that was food poisoning we booked a trip for the next sunny day and got ready to enjoy a day of sight seeing.
In El Nido the government has formed four routes that tourists can travel. These are called A,B, C and D. I had heard really good things about tour C so we signed up for it and before we knew it we were wadding through the sea at waist level to get to our boat.
Each tour costs around the same price no matter where you go and every tourist is required to pay an environmental tax before doing a tour. The tax is only 200 pesos. This money is then spent keeping El Nido’s beaching and water clean. Since the island is quite new to tourism it is trying it’s best to combat the mess that goes with having hundreds of foreigners suddenly attacking your beaches.
As soon as we were all seated and in our stylish life jackets we hit the high seas. It was nice just to be sailing out on the water we’d been staring at for a few days. The islands towered around us and we took in the view.
We made 5 stops in all. Each stop was about 40 minutes and allowed us to try out our snorkeling skills. Tour C is a little quieter than the rest so the coral and sea life are still abundant. I have mentioned before that I have a fear of being in the sea but I was determined to throw myself in the deep end (so to speak) and snorkel.
At first it was terrifying just to be waist high but once I got the mask on and saw how the fish were happily carrying on with their day despite us being there, I relaxed. I unfortunately (due to my sea fear) don’t have a go-pro but we saw rainbow fish, angel fish, neon specimens and even a mummy clown fish and her babies swimming through the coral. It was spectacular. I was instantly addicted.
We stopped on the second beach for lunch where we were treated to a feast of grilled fish, shrimp,rice,pork and fresh mangoes. It was delicious.
With full bellies we headed to our next destination. Secret beach. As we approached a rock with no beach the boat passengers glanced at each other. All of us a little confused. That was when our guide pointed to a tiny hole in the rock and instructed us to jump in and swim through it. I had only just managed to handle being waist deep in the sea and now I was swimming through a hole with ten feet of water below me. Despite the dread that was knotted in my stomach I swallowed my fear and dove into the water. We swam through and we were rewarded with a beautiful lagoon filled with fish. We had to avoid a few tiny jellies but other than that it was fantastic. I was starting to like this sea faring life style.
We sailed on to an island that had a large abandoned church and shrine. It had be left to gather moss but had still retained it’s beauty. We climbed the treacherous rocks and were rewarded with a view of the surrounding area. It was breath taking. El Nido is definitely one of the most beautiful islands I’ve ever had the pleasure of visiting. It is like living in a screensaver.
As we headed to our last destination everyone on the boat was in good spirits. That was until the was a clunk, a ‘thunk’ and silence. The boats motor had died. We all let out a embarrassed giggle since none of the passages knew what was happening or what was to be done. It turns out that the protocol in these situations is for the youngest member of the boat crew to get on the roof with a towel and wave it like his life depends on it at every passing boat….even if they are miles away, until someone see’s us. It turns out that the quietest tour isn’t the one you want to break down on. An hour later and a passing boat tugged us to our last destination. Hidden beach. Hidden around the corner of a large rocky wall is a small lagoon and beach. This is a much more popular spot that other tours also visit so unfortunately the coral had mostly died and there weren’t many fish. But the beach was beautiful and peaceful. We both sat and took in the surrounds. It was a great day.
Our day ended by being towed back to El Nido and being thrown around a bit on the choppy waters. This ended up triggering a seasickness effect that had many guest throwing up over the sides…It is high praise for the trip that not even a broken boat and a line of hurling passengers could detract from the day. But maybe the passengers with their heads hanging over the side of the boat would disagree. I would recommend tour C if you do visit El Nido which cost 1400 pesos and i’d also pay the extra 100 pesos to hire a snorkle. Happy Island hopping everybody.

El Nido - Getting lost and lazy in Paradise

We had high hopes for El Nido – Palawan. It did not disappoint. I wish I had a lot to write about  but a place like this, with a hotel like we had meant we did, well….nothing.
We stayed at the Island Front Cottages in one of their new ‘sea view’ rooms, which was just a little bungalow to ourselves. We had a free pancake breakfasts, free juice all day, a sunset on our terrace every night and HBO in the room for lazy late night movie evenings. The beach we were on was a different one to the main built up area on El Nido , it was called Corong – Corong, which meant it was even more empty and peaceful.
By the time we arrived we had been traveling for 3 weeks. Lee was still recovering from a horrible bout of food poisoning that he is still suffering from now (I’m a little behind in my blog posts and writing this from China). We took the opportunity to have a vacation from our vacation. The lack of internet and things to do made up happy campers.
Apart from an island tour that we knew we wanted to do we took the opportunity to read, eat mangos and watch sopranos on the terrace. Yes we are lazy fools. Me more so since i’ve never seen Sopranos…I LOVE it.
Another excuse for my laziness is that I too suffered the dreaded stomach bug and was an un-moving wreck for 24 hours. I too am still suffering and starting to suspect we may have been hit by something a little worse than uncooked chicken. But if you are going to be ill, here is the place to do it.
Here are some photos from our time on this idyllic island. Apologies for all the sunset photos but I needed the practice and the island was just too pretty.

Getting to El Nido

El Nido. Named by Huffington Post as “The last paradise on earth”. It’s safe to say that our expectations were high for Palawan. We left Bohol via Manila, for the third time in a month, and descended into Puerto Princessa just in time to see an incredible sunset in the clouds. Unfortunately there are no photos of this event since the Brit in me wouldn’t allow myself to wake the angry sleeping man next to me so I could get my camera…yes yes I know, I’m stupidly British. Here’s a blurry iphone pic to make up for it. Once we arrived in airport it was just a simple 7 hour bus (!) to El Nido. We knew there was a bus leaving in an hour from the bus station so tried to jump on a tricycle to get to the station. Unfortunately we were intercepted by a driver who told us he’d drive us to El Nido in 5 hours in his Shuttle bus. I realise that in hind sight it’s easy for me to read back that last sentence and feel a bit like I’m watching a pantomime and should start screaming at the screen ‘don’t do it!’ but unfortunately at the time we were tired fools and only saw the up sides. Those being: we could cut out the 2 hour wait time and another two hours of travel. So dumb and dumber here jumped at the chance, especially with the low cost of 600 pesos. Unfortunately things weren’t as great as they seemed. We were soon joined in the bus by a great guy who was also intercepted and was trying to get to El Nido. We all chatted for so long that didn’t realise we’d been sat waiting in the bus for over an hour. We asked the driver why this was the case and were told that 4 more people were arriving on the next flight if we would wait half hour. By now we had missed the last connecting bus so we had no choice. Two hours later we were all a little impatient and stuck. This is when we were moved to the bus station where we waited yet another 45 minutes for locals to fill every nook and cranny of the van. At 10:30, 3 and a half hours after we landed we were finally on our way. ‘On our way’ in this context also means stopping every hour in the middle of nowhere with a delightful lady boy selling garlic nuts (no pun intended) from a wooded hut. It should also be pointed out that ‘road’ isn’t exactly the same as the UK roads. They are move stones in dirt that you ride on. It was like riding a 7 hour roller coaster. If it hadn’t been 2am in the morning I’d have loved it. The driver also needed to stay awake so played loud trance music for the entire journey. It was an…umm…interesting experience.
We finally arrived and found that we were not on the reservation list at our hotel. We had booked a few months before but at 5am we were happy when they finally found a random room in a cheaper hotel next door for us. We finally rested our heads on the pillow just in time for the roosters and building work to start. It wasn’t what you would call a great start.
But like all stories this one has a happy ending. The next morning we were moved to our sea view room that was all I could have imagined and more. It’s safe to say that as hotel picker, Lee did good and at a great price. The hotel has been perfect ever since and we are luckily nowhere near the building work anymore. We have spent our first few days in El Nido and are in love with the place. Before we arrived we had started to read what a tourist trap it had become and we feared the worse but…and I am wondering whether to just keep this quiet, but it is empty and lovely. At least here on Corong – Corong beach. We have wondered the island and it’s all local with the nicest Filipino people we’ve met so far. We are being mega lazy. Reading, watching sunsets and lazing around. Catching up on the two year of stress we faced in Korea. Tomorrow we are heading on an island hopping tour (there are four to choose from named A,B,C and D but we’ve heard the C is a winner so we are heading on that one).
I’ll no doubt throw a thousand photos your way soon.

Bohol - Chocolate Hills and Tarsiers

When Lee and I were planning our route through Asia all I had to do was mention ‘Chocolate Hills’ and Lee was on board. It was a few months later that I had to break the news to him that Bohol’s Chocolate Hills aren’t actually made of chocolate. But don’t worry too much because I cushioned the blow by telling him we could see these incredible creatures.
This Yoda looking creature is a Tarsier and it is native to the Philippines. Bohol has many places to view them but only one place is known as a sanctuary that looks after them the way they should be cared for so we knew exactly where to head.
We hopped on a boat in Boracay and after two planes with a mini stop in Manila in-between we were soon on Bohol and heading to the tiny island attached to it called Panglao. We hadn’t heard anything good about the beaches but since we had a few days in Bohol we thought we’d go and have a look anyway. We weren’t disappointed. The island was so interesting and animal’s definitely ruled the roost. Everywhere you looked there were cows, goats, roosters, piglets and so many puppies. We loved it. The houses were small and hand built. People were friendly with kids running up to us just to say hello. There were motorised tricycles stopping every few yards asking if we wanted lifts into town but nowhere near the amount we were harassed in Boracay.
We stayed in a great hotel called Hope Homes. It was about a twenty minute walk from Alona beach and only took cash but the people were friendly, there were lots of puppies and the rooms were big and clean.

Lee what is your favourite thing about the trip so far? “Puppies”

Once we were settled in we headed to the beach. We hadn’t expected anything but Alona beach was lovely. Not very deep until the end of the beach but beautiful. I’d also recommend Bohol peanut kisses ice cream. I’m drooling just thinking about it.
The rest of our time on the island was allocated to hills and tarsiers so we set about finding the best way to view them. At this point I need to send you to this incredibly smart and funny blog post over at Globetrotter Girls that details how to get around Bohol better than I ever could. We were completely set on following these instructions to the letter that was until poor Lee had food poisoning. We still aren’t 100% sure what caused it but we are almost sure it was from a Filipino beef dish Lee ate that evening. The poor man was stuck in bed for 12 hours. Luckily we had thought ahead and bought lots of Imodium and paracetamol on the trip. I don’t know what we would have done without them because we were miles from a hospital. It took about 12 hours to feel human again which left us one last day to see the wonders Bohol had to offer. We ended up taking the hotels car to both the Tarsiers and the hills for a total cost of 2000 pesos since I didn’t want Lee bumping around on Bohol roads.
The Tarsier sanctuary you need to go to if you want to see them treated well is the Tarsier Sanctuary in Corella. You pay 50 pesos for a ticket and then drive up to the sanctuary. The floors inside are muddy so if its rained recently it would be a good idea to wear shoes instead of flip flops. The guide took us around the area asking us to be as quiet as possible. She answered all our questions and more about these incredible creatures. She also warned us that we may not see many tarsiers today. I know this sounds weird but this made me so happy because it meant the sanctuary was caring for them, letting them wander free and not doing this just for tourists. As it was we were very very lucky and saw three. Their huge sleepy eyes and tiny hands melted our hearts.
Facts about Tarsiers:
.They can live up to 30 years in the wild but live an average of 6 months in captivity. The ones in the Corella sanctuary that we saw were 10 and 20. One was about to give birth which is also un-heard of if they aren’t happy in their environment.
.The girls are lighter in Colour.
.They only have one baby at a time.
.They jump from tree to tree and have a extremely long tail to help them fly
.They eat insects
.They are very territorial and need a ache of space each. The baby will only be with the mother 6 months after its born then it must find it’s own space.
.Each of their eyes is heavier than their brain. They have the largest eye size (compared to their body) of all mammals.
There are also so many more that you can read here

We were both on a high when we left. It was only a 20minute tour if that to stop the animals being too disturbed but it was thrilling. Our next stop was those mysteries Chocolate Hills. It took us about two hours to get to the hills and once we arrived we decided to get the full experience and have a tour guide show us around the hills. We rode on a ATV while following the guide on a bike. It was 900 pesos which is expensive on our budget but we did travel a long way just to see the hills so wanted a little more than just the viewing platform. We didn’t regret http://smallandtalltravel.com/wp-admin/post-new.phpthe decision. It was thrilling riding around the hills and local area, waving at kids that ran along the road to greet us and seeing chickens crossing the road in front of is (the irony of this never got old in Bohol, no matter how many times I saw it)

Chocolate Hills or ‘Booby Hills’ as Lee liked to call them

After our ride we paid the 50 pesos and headed to the top. It is a steep staircase and some older people were struggling with the walk so if you aren’t use to walking up hills make sure you take your time and some water. Lee and I aren’t exactly fitness fans and we still did ok. It isn’t a long walk and only takes a few minutes of stairs to get to the top.
At the top you could see the majestic hills as far as the eyes could see. We poses for photos and were in awe at the damaged surrounding the hills caused by an earthquake two years earlier. It was terrifying to see the power of nature but humbling to also see the beauty it creates. There are lots of myths and legends surrounding the hills such as:
“a giant named Arogo who was extremely powerful and youthful lived in Bohol. Arogo fell in love with Aloya, who was a simple mortal. Aloya’s death caused Arogo much pain and misery, and in his sorrow he could not stop crying. When his tears dried, the Chocolate Hills were formed.”
Really they are made of limestone and sit on a hard clay base. Many fossils of coral and small marine animals have been discovered within them leading scientists to believe they were once under water. They are named the chocolate hills because in the summer the grass disappears to reveal the brown mud. Whatever the origin, they were great to see and worth the trip for us.
Overall we loved Bohol, despite the food poisoning, it was beautiful, humble, friendly and interesting. I can see it becoming more and more touristy though which is a shame. I hope it can hold onto its charm for as long as possible.