Peace Corps Reunion in Palawan

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. Fast forwarding through the first few days, we started off our journey on Valentines Day eating street food in Taipei. We then flew to Manila and took a night bus to San Juan for a wedding of two people we’d never met. Reunited with our good Peace Corps friend Andrew. Spent a night in the “City of Pines” where we had merienda (mid-day snack) with his grandparents. Not to mention saw the most impressive in-home mushroom farm. All in the matter of the first few days of our trip! Andrew was only able to join us for part of our month-long Philippines adventure, so we tried to make the most of our time with him while he was here. After all, the idea of this trip began when he casually invited us to his cousins wedding in the Philippines. Still having the travel bug from our last trip and the excuse to escape the Midwest cold, the invitation seemed hard to pass up on. After spending a night with Andrew’s grandparents in Baguio we boarded a plane to Palawan, where we just finished ten days blowing scuba bubbles, paddling through the world’s longest underground river, and hopping on and off a boat exploring many islands around El Nido. 

Palawan’s capital city, Puerto Princesa, is where we had the opportunity to explore the underwater world, checking out the dive sights Putol Reef, Crossings, and Mares Rock. It was just the three of us, plus the dive master and boatman, which made for a fun trip! We decided to do our diving with the locally owned dive shop, Island Divers, and were not disappointed. We saw lion fish, pygmy seahorses, three turtles, moray eel, clown fish swimming in their anemone, big fish, small fish, and so much beautiful coral! 

After a couple of days spent diving, eating good food, and walking around the city, we headed to Sabang in search of the longest underwater river in the world! Nicknamed the “8th Wonder of the World,” Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park is certainly a sight to see. While the river is over 8km in length the tour takes you about 2km (a round trip taking about 45 minutes), which lets you see a good portion of the caves. While we paddled through in a small canoe we listened to an audio guide with headphones, and our boatman pointed out unforgettable limestone formations with a spotlight.  

If you’re going to Sabang only to see the underground river, adding an extra day for another adventure is a good idea, because the river is not the only sight to see. Our extra day consisted of hiking to a nearby waterfall, which had a small pool to swim in, where we relaxed and hung out for the afternoon. 

We also made a trip to a nearby fishing village where we hired a local boat to take us to the private island Isla Rita. After the 45 minute jeepney ride from Sabang Beach to Uluguan Bay, it’s pretty easy to then find some locals to take you in their boat for the 30 minutes to the island. The price for the boat is negotiable and when we got to the island there was no fee. Being the only people on the island besides a local guard, we were able to snorkel amongst the beautiful coral and fish, even spotting a seahorse! Just look out for sea-urchins if you don’t have water shoes. 

Sabang marked the end of our trip with Andrew as he had a flight back to the States the following day. But for Paul and I the adventure in Palawan had just begun. From Sabang we headed north to El Nido where we spent the next few days in the most touristy place we have ever been! 

With stunning teal waters, the popular island hopping tours, any cuisine you can imagine, and an array of accommodation, El Nido is the place everyone wants to be for their week long Philippines holiday. Everyone besides maybe Paul and I. Don’t get me wrong, El Nido was beautiful, but for us the amount of tourists was a tad bit overwhelming. “Instagram Heaven, Tourist Hell” as Paul called it. We spent our first full day in El Nido on Tour C. There are four main island hopping tours in El Nido - A, B, C, and D - and they are advertised and available to be booked everywhere at a standard set price. We opted for Tour C because we were told it was the best out of the four. And after spending the day I must say it was worth it. The tour included five stops including Helicopter Island, Hidden Beach, Manitoc Shrine, Secret Beach, and snorkeling at a beautiful reef. It also included a wonderful lunch with lots of seafood and local fruit! 

Our remaining days in El Nido were spent swimming, reading, relaxing, sun bathing, and practicing yoga inversions on surrounding beaches in the area. These long stretches of beach are more beautiful the farther you go from town. We spent time on El Nido, Caalan, Lio, Napcan, and Duli beach. Renting a motorbike on our final day to reach the last two. If we were to do this again we’d probably only spend one full day in El Nido for an island hopping tour and then find a more secluded place on one of these other beaches for the remainder of our time. 

Our last stop on Palawan Island was the town of Taytay. Only an hour from El Nido, Taytay was the original capital of Palawan, and where we spent our final night. There wasn’t a ton to see in this town, but it was much quieter in terms of tourism, which we liked. While here we found delicious chaolong soup at a local restaurant, went and saw the 300 year old Fort built when the Spanish ruled the island (see picture below), swam in our lodges pool, and got $7 full body massages! It was a wonderful last day in Palawan. 

Now on to Cebu —> Malapascua Island —> Bohol —> Siquijor!  

#costripround2