El Nido, Palawan. - My Second Leg of Summer (Day 2)

Day 2 is actually our first day to tour the islands of El Nido. Since it is a group of island, the community offers 4 sets of tour which can take you to different destination around. There are travel and tours that offers this island hopping getaway and it is quite cheap too. All tours does have an inclusion of lunch which is reallllllllyyyyyyyyy good. The tour guide slash captain of the boat is also our cook and would serve delish grilled seafood and fresh fruits. (Yum!) Oh, you have to buy your own bottled water, by the way.

This is me before leaving our hotel room :)

Hello my veranda view morning ;)

We went to Art Cafe for our breakfast. They're serving  brewed coffee which we badly need that time. Hehe.

   

We did booked tour A and C which is highly recommended by most of the travel and tours people, so since we only have full two days, we did avail them. We hired 'Servant ' travel and tours for this trip because they offered us a discount and Jane (the agent) is quite nice too.


 

We were told to get into their office by 9am but we went a little early by 30 minutes. The boat has the capacity of 16 people including the guides, the captain of the boat and the tourists. Our day's iterinary is Tour A.

Before touring, you need to pay an environmental fee of P200 which is good for 10 days. This is for the maintenance of the island.

 

Touring by the sea brings tension and excitement at the same time. I am not a sea person so I did need to make sure to put my life vest on the moment I boarded the boat. 

 

Our main tour guide is Kuya Miguel who happens to be one of the jolliest person I know. Oh by the way, I think most of the locals do speak good english as El Nido I think was jampacked with foreigns and the only way  to communicate with them effectively is via english language. Kuya Miguel osmone of them. He can effectively gave good explanations to us both english and tagalog and he makes it a point to approach everyone. Don't judge me, but technically, nature and I should be blamed for not paying attention to Kuya Miguel's touring story about the islands as you cannot do more but admire them and just take a mental picture of everything you see nearby. In short, there is nothing much to hear, but there's so much to see, appreciate and be overwhelmed.

Our first stop is the Small Lagoon. We wanted to take much picture though I don't think the camera can just give justice to what's in front. We actually needed to go down the boat by a 5 ft sea water and swam by the lagoon. Yeah, you swim, snorkel, swim, admire and just sigh for not having an underwater camera. It was a breathless sight down under.

 

Since it was an island tour, we need to stop by the island for just an hour. So we proceeded to our next top which is yes, the Big Lagoon. 

    

Lunch was served at the Shimizu Island where I wasn't able to take photos of because me and my friends went to more photo ops and we came late to the food table. It was awesome though with all this crab, grilled pork, grilled fish and fresh fruits!!!!! Yummmmmmmmmmeeeeeh!

Here's Shimizu Beach and the many photo taken there since we have to wait for the food to cook.

 

Secrets were not secret anymore as we went to Secret Lagoon and took pictures from there. We also found our main photographer which is one of the tour guides fom the group. He was following us all the time and taking pictures of us using Juvy's camera. We told him he knows to use it more than we do which is technically true since me myself doesn't even know how to do the zoom in and out of the camera.

Our last stop is 7 Commando Beach where the guides let us swam again and snorkel. I think the weather was too hot that time that we just decided to sit down and sip buko juice instead. 

The girls did felt like playing though so while im lying down the beach, they took an effort to bury me down and made me a mermaid. 

We went home by 430 pm just enough time to take a shower and a nap before dinner. Denise and I were roommates and apparently weren't able to take a nap so we decided to walk down the street for a snack and buy some souvenirs for my family.

El Nido town normally lights off at 10pm so we took our time and went out for dinner hunt by 730pm. 

Someone from Denise's expedition friends invited us for dinner at Altrove' (which is one of the most recommended restaurant in El Nido) so we went there. Unluckily, after our tiring search for the resto and letting ourselves getting wet by the rain, the venue was full and was not accepting morw guests.

We decided to eat at the next best recommended food house which is Squiddos.

Hmmmn, for dinner, and if you're really that hungry, I would recommend you not to eat there. The service is good but the food takes about almost an hour to be serve. We ordered their house special which is stuffed squid then added calamares and mixed seafood curry for dinner. The food is really gooooooood, thank goodness. 

We call it a night after a little chit chat going back to the inn as we need to get ready for our final tour the next day.

For your information about my expenses on Day 2:

Corned Beef and Rice: P170

Coffee: P60

Water: P30

Coconut: P50

Eggpie: P50 (eggpie taste really good and I treat Denise so she can try it before she leaves Philippines)

Shared Dinner: P280

Tour A: P600

Environmental Fee: P200 (good for 10 days)

Pasalubong: 1720