El Nido: Philippines Day 5-7

Day 5
So we'd arrived in El Nido at dark the day before, and waking up this day we hadn't the faintest where we'd find ourselves. As always in the Philippines, we were woken up by roosters around 7. Emerging from our huts this is the first thing we saw.

We'd arrived in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. This was El Nido; named after the nests from a cliff dwelling swallow used to make birds' nest soup ("gives you power" we were told), nestled into limestone walls, surrounded by jungle on land and breathtaking islets at sea, it was love at first sight. And I don't think I speak only for myself.

After taking in the view and our huts in daylight, Emile's mom made us breakfast which we ate in the gazebo before walking back to town to provision our island drop off. David and Duck were in charge of beer, ice, and a cooler. Turns out a case of San Miguel, "the only beer that fosters true Filipino friendships", runs about 6 USD, and that's before you return the returnable bottles. Brian and I were on lunch duty. We found a roadside stand with bean soup, roasted eggplant, chicken curry, and rice. Enough for 4 costs 8 USD. But it was exploring the town a few minutes later that we found the real gem of Filipino cuisine. It starts with bananas - tiny ones, that's how they come in the PHP, so they're extra sweet to begin with. Take 2 of these baby bananas and skewer them on a bamboo stick. Step 2, roll them in sugar and pan fry in oil until the sugar forms a crunchy, caramelized crust with hot gooey banana insides. All this for 5 pesos a stick, or roughly 7 cents. From that day on all four of us ate at least 3 of these a day. They also treat potato slices similarly, but for me, the bananas couldn't be beat.

Thusly outfitted we made our way back to Hadefes (our beach huts) and Emile arranged a bangca to drop us at 7 Comandos beach for the day. Marselle and his dad were to be our guides for the next 3 days, but on this day we saw little of them. 7 Comandos was breathtakingly beautiful and Day 5 is contending for my favorite day of our trip. See for yourself.


We relaxed on the beach all day with spurts of snorkeling and swimming mixed in here and there. The snorkeling in the PHP was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. Anemones everywhere housed aggressive little clown fish families. The boulder corals that hadn't been dynamite blasted were around 8 to 10 feet in diameter. The antler corals were fire blue and neon green, colors I've never seen in corals. There were tons of blow fish, all uniquely colored and marked. The shallow, snorkelable areas usually had a sharp wall drop off that would've made for great diving.

When we finally went back to town for dinner, everything was candle lit again and enchanting. It was a day well spent. Lots of photos to commemorate it.

Day 6
Next day was breakfast in the gazebo again, but an earlier start in the bangca with Marselle and Dad. This time they took care of lunch, so we left straight from Hadefes on Tour D. First stop was snake island, a jungly little land with a long twisting sandbar that gives the place it's name. Here's Duck's video.

We explored and snorkeled there until lunch. M and D cooked up 6 or 7 whole fish over an open fire and gave us adobo sauce for it. Filipino adobo sauce is soy sauce and vinegar with hot chillies soaking in it. They use it on most meats and it's delicious on rice too. They also provided a cucumber salad, bananas, and rice. We ate on the beach before going to see a hidden cave on another nearby island. There David climbed around with Emile, who was on Tour D with another group, until they reached a high perch. But we didn't stay long before boating over to the Cathedral Rock. This is a cave in the limestone walls of an islet that looks like a Gothic cathedral archway. Again, we didn't stay long, but moved on for our last beach of the day where we stayed for some hours. We had the place to ourselves besides a friendly island dog. 90 foot palm trees, white sand, and a limestone cliff behind it all made a beautiful setting for an afternoon. And the walk into town that evening at sunset was, well, just look at the pictures.

Day 7
Next day rivals Day 5 for my favorite. We had breakfast in town for a change and Marselle and Dad picked us up there for a kayaking trip in the lagoons. First stop, Small Lagoon. The lagoons are amazing because they're surrounded by sheer limestone cliffs and on the edges they're shallow so you can snorkel, but in the center they're extremely deep. This contrast makes the water color even more intense than in other places. Unfortunately, Small Lagoon was over crowded while we were there. But it was still lovely.

Next we went to Big Lagoon. It was huge and there were a few sub-lagoons off of the main hunk. In one of these David and Duck discovered the set for the next season of Survivor. I'm not much one for reality shows, but it was such beautiful scenery I'll try and watch some of it.

We explored Big Lagoon for a few hours before heading to our lunch beach, which was equally spectacular. Whole fish with adobo sauce again couldn't be better. And it was on this beach that Marselle showed us Secret Lagoon. This is a tiny lagoon that's nearly a cave because the limestone walls around it almost enclose it. In fact, you have to climb through a small cave/tunnel to get there. We did some more snorkeling there before going to our last stop of the day, one more perfect beach. We ate up every second of it.

That night was our last in El Nido. We had one more forray into town where David found a monkey friend. His little hands felt like rubber when they grabbed your fingers. Next morning we had a bus ride planned to Puerto Princesa for New Year's Eve.

Check back soon for the last PHP post.