after surviving the hike from hell, the three of us did an island hopping tour the next day around el nido despite the grey weather that was looming about. we started off at the small lagoon which had clear beautiful water and then moved onto a secret lagoon that you got to via climbing through a small hole during the low tide. the big lagoon was off limits since survivor sweden was filming there, haha. after that we landed on another island for a bbq lunch before snorkeling with millions of fish after lunch. i've never swam with so many in my life! after that was another small island with white sand before going to the final island where we got some yummy young coconut juice from a stand there. even though the weather wasn't ideal, i still had a blast!
side note i just wanted to list some interesting facts about el nido. 1. electricity in the entire town only comes on from 2pm to 6am. 2. there is a 10pm curfew for minors and 3. anyone that wants to do anything fun has to pay a eco-tourism tax (read: scam).
we headed back to puerto princesa for the rest of our time in the philippines. while there, we did a tour of honda bay (more island hopping) and the underground river. honda was bay was awesome! the weather was perfect while we were out and about and then turned stormy once we left. similar to el nido, we were taken to a few islands. my personal favorite was the second island. it was just picture perfect and exactly what i pictured in my head when i thought of beaches and the philippines. the only slight issue i had was that the water wasn't quite as clear as the water in el nido. with that said, the snorkeling was amazing!! there were so many different kinds of fish and i saw nemo several times :)
the underground river was our outing on the last day. i've talked to a few people who have said that the river is underwhelming and not worth it. but seeing as i was there and didn't have much else planned, i figured i'd go see for myself. i will say that i was glad i went. the fact that the river runs 8.2km underground is impressive but as a tourist, you are only allowed to go through the first 1.7ish km of it on a guided rowboat. it was stinky in there and filled with birds, bats and 'mineral' water (read: bat piss) that dripped from the ceiling. we were warned to close our mouths anytime we looked up! apparently it's in the running right now to be one of the new 7 wonders of the world. i'm really not sure what's wrong with the current 7 wonders but whatever floats their boat.
pert and i flew back to manila after seeing the underground river and were picked up by wilbert at the airport. it was so gracious of him to come get us, take us to dinner and then let us pass out at his place for a few hours before driving us to the airport again in the wee hours of the morning. i owe you big time, wilbert!! on top of that, his mom got up at 3am to cook us breakfast! i felt so bad but that's how filipino mothers are. it was so kind of her.
i had so much fun in the philippines and will definitely need to go back again someday because there are so many islands to see. it's been really interesting seeing how varied lifestyles are for those who live in metro cities like manila and villages like bryan's. metro manila is comparable to the US while houses in bryan's village don't have internet or running water at times. regardless of the differences, everyone seems to be happy with how their life is which makes me thankful for all the luxuries that we have back at home.
Looks like Ha Long!
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