Made the trek to the relatively untouched city of El Nido, Palawan in the Philippines. Everything here is cheap, beautiful, and pure. To get a taste of who I am, the people I'm with, and the kind of person I am, I suggest reading my post below titled The Dilapidated Life of a Social Chameleon.
Today, I was awoken at 5:45am by a rooster crowing right outside my window... Then I was awoken at 8:30 by my roommate who reminded me we have a island expedition to go on.
Absolutely the best $16 I'll ever spend.
The tour was amazing. We went on Tour A today- and the weather really turned out nicely for us. We visited 5 private beaches. Spectacular. At each beach, there were only a few other boats waiting in the crystal clear water.
The first place we stopped at was a lagoon. The tour guides offered a kayak which I quickly took and started rowing my way into the pools of emerald and sapphire.
Blissful.
Aquaholics Anonymous
Screaming colours
For lunch, we were brought to an isolated beach where the tour guides presented us with fresh mussels, fresh crab, fresh fish, local emlons, an eggplant/veggie mixture, and barbequed meats. 100% delicious.
Some of the fresh grub we were provided.
After lunch, we headed to an astounding little crevice in the crags. At first, we were stunned by the crags and the sheer size of these rocks... Until we were told to dive into the water and go through a small little hole. We were a bit confused but grabbed our snorkels and followed the tour guide through the crack, and on the other side we were treated to a hidden lagoon.
One of my friends on the other side of the rock, exploring
Lagoon
This whole trip was surreal. Full of blues and greens across the color spectrum. Turquoises, emeralds, sapphires, navies, indigos, aquas, springs, and more.
Our catamaran sitting on the crystal clear, sapphire water.
Colors. Pure.
The town itself is quaint. It is known as El Nido (The Nest) and it fits the name. It is tucked in a small bay between large hills and rocks. I'd say the population is less than a few thousand, but the locals say it has increased exponentially as tourism has upticked. It's a sweet city, with lots of small shops and tourism-driven stores.
I've had multiple conversations with other tourists about how we want this place to stay pure, stay local, and stay El Nido. Which is ironic because here we are dumping money into tourism. But it is, and hopefully will be, small and friendly.
El Nido Town Proper
Tomorrow, we go to a private beach that is untouched as far as tourism goes. As in, very, VERY few people are there. We'll see how that goes. The weather will hopefully turn out. It's always stormy at night, with pouring rains and lightning. We got lucky with the weather this morning, and hopefully we get it for the rest of this week.
For now, it is time to play beer pong hosted by the hostel, as Gwen Stefani and Justin Timberlake as well as other hits from the early 2000's play from a speakerbox the hostel has. I love the few other people in this hostel. They saw I blog and asked me to show pictures and share more stories, something I happily did.
Also, sorry mom, if you read this, I fully plan on renting both a motorcycle and scuba diving, both of which I know you wanted me to master in the states before attempting.