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Philippines

February - March 2017
A 10-day adventure by Vander Wonders Read more
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  • TravelerPhilippines
    Day 7

    El nido

    March 2, 2017 on the Philippines ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C

    After a long drive we went for a walk around town and discovered a strip of bars and restaurants along the beach. The town is pretty rustic and there is loads of developments and building going on, the surroundings are amazing though. I spotted a Greek place which turned out to be fabulous for dinner, we were early hence lucky to get this absolute prime spot at the window.

    {Issy}    Read more

  • TravelerPhilippines
    Day 8

    Two brain cells

    March 3, 2017 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    We are expecting a pickup from our tour company between 8am and 8:30am this morning.

    I go to the receptionist at 7:59am and tell her that we are in the room waiting for our tour company so please let us know when they arrive.

    A few minutes later the tour guide arrives and the receptionist tell him we are not there so obviously he leaves.

    The tour company phones at about 8:40am asking where we are as we are not at the hotel.

    Can you believe it? So I had to ask them to come back and tell the receptionist we are the people that said we are waiting in our room.

    {Roedolf}    Read more

  • TravelerPhilippines
    Day 8

    Tour C

    March 3, 2017 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌙 6 °C

    Miraculously a random tour stall have our names and with little to none communication we are going on an adventure. Like in most 3rd world counties there is some waiting involved. Roedolf is battling poor cellphone coverage (trying to upload a penquin) while I am watching life go by....dodgy electricity lines, stray dogs, crazy tourists driving around with no helmets and irritating vendors trying to sell you a bargain, anything from a pearl to a waterproof bag.

    We wait for a little while longer on the beach before we leave on the so called tour C. It is very interesting they run 4 main tours in El Nido, operated by different vendors but all the same itinerary and it clearly has same protocols. I am not sure if its due to the lack of imagination or just purely because its controlled by the national park. Nevertheless we are not entirely sure what we embark on or how we should manage our expectation...but let the good times roll.

    {Issy}    Read more

  • TravelerPhilippines
    Day 8

    Helicopter Island

    March 3, 2017 on the Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    We boarded our tour boat for the day, on the beach close to our hotel and off we went, a short boat ride further we arrived at Helicopter Island for our first snorkel and beach session.

    The boat dropped anchor about 30 meters from the beach and we had to swim to the beach, obviously we got our snorkel gear on and off we went, most of the others were very hesitant and I even heard a woman say she can not really swim. The poor guide had to swim her to the beach while she was clinching to the flotation device as he pulled her behind him.

    Our snorkel came to an abrupt end when the jellyfish attacked both of us. We got out of the water as quick as we can, thankfully with little burns that will only leave an irritating itch for the few days.

    Our boat left a bit late so as we walked on the beach other boats began leaving and pretty soon we had the beach to ourselves which was great!

    {Roedolf}    Read more

  • TravelerPhilippines
    Day 8

    Hidden beach

    March 3, 2017 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌙 4 °C

    We arrived at a spot with rocky cliffs and no beach in sight, the guide pointed us in the direction of an opening in the rocks and we jumped in to explore. The rocks opened up to a beautiful beach, the beauty of this spot is, its quite a swim to get there and most people are just simply too scared to go see it, so we pretty much had the beach to ourselves apart from the guide and one or two people who got there using their life jackets.

    {Roedolf}    Read more

  • TravelerPhilippines
    Day 8

    A day in paradise

    March 3, 2017 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌙 7 °C

    This is paradise, pristine white sand beaches, snorkeling in crystal clear waters, rock formations that that surrounds the area simply left me speechless. There are loads of swim throughs to hidden beaches which is really unique.

    El Nido which is the northern side of Palawan island is the gateway to the Bacuit archipelago, a group of islands with steep karst cliffs.

    This is by far a highlight of our trip in the Philippines and probably of our larger trip too. The most spectacular thing is it is not jam-packed with tourists, and it is still very unspoiled. (It probably will become more developed over the next few years as it gains international travel status- and by the looks of all the building sites around.

    We were lucky to have a piece of unspoiled paradise.

    {Issy}    Read more

  • TravelerPhilippines
    Day 8

    Epic snorkel

    March 3, 2017 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌙 6 °C

    Just an unbelievable reef from as little as 60cm deep to about 10m deep. This little taste of what the underwater world is like make very excited about our dives tomorrow!

    Isabel and I both lost it on a idiot tourist who stepped on the shallow corral with his aqua shoes and in the process destroying almost 2 square meters of coral.

    I am not sure how travel companies can prevent this but they should not allow inexperienced snorkelers in the water with aqua shoes as they just think because it doesn't hurt them its fine. I would have loved to see that guy try do the same thing barefoot.

    {Roedolf}    Read more

  • TravelerPhilippines
    Day 8

    Secret beach

    March 3, 2017 on the Philippines ⋅ 🌙 6 °C

    The beach was even harder to get to than the others, there was a small hole in the rocks above the water that we had to swim through, luckily it was quite big below the water.
    Naturally most of our touring companions did not even attempt it. One guy actually gave his gopro to the guide to take pictures inside, what a waste to come all this way just to let someone else take a picture for you, you might as well sit at home and watch it on discovery channel.

    Anyway we enjoyed the little secluded beach and Isabel even made fun of all the girls we have seen on our travels posing like models in the shallow waves and I caught her on camera, haha.

    {Roedolf}

    We learned through our wonders people in general are scared... or we just were lucky enough that parents gave us the confidence and fearlessness to do things. We snorkel further out , we swim through tiny holes even if there's waves. We lecture (and shout) at stupid uniformed tourists that step on coral. We are not scared and we love to adventure.

    {Issy}    Read more

  • TravelerPhilippines
    Day 8

    Tapiutan island fun

    March 3, 2017 on the Philippines ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    Thrilled to say the least, this is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Oh so heavenly, with a pristine beaches and dramatic cliffs surrounding it. We had a ball here, swam, I lied in on the sand just in awe of the natural surroundings. They cooked us lunch on the boat while we relaxed.

    {Isabel}

    They started cooking the fish and chicken on the way to this beach and with some rough seas the chicken got a few seawater splashes while still on the grill, must be that natural sea salt that made it taste so good 😂.

    Honestly the fish doesn't look appetizing at all but it tasted great. Isabel tried the fish but her visual sense overpowered her sense of taste and she could not finish her piece, while I smashed it.

    Probably the coolest thing about the lunch was the fact that they cooked it using just the meat and coals, no spices, a lot like you would have to do on survivor and as I enjoyed the food I felt like this is whats its got to be like on survivor as I felt partially wet, sandy,sticky from the saltwater, sun burned , itching sandflies and jellyfish stings, then eating bland rice, fruit and some old fashion plain fish off the grill.

    {Roedolf}    Read more

  • TravelerPhilippines
    Day 9

    Dive at helicopter island

    March 4, 2017 on the Philippines ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    Awesome to dive here after snorkeling here yesterday, I wondered what it looked like down deep and now I know.

    The place has such beautiful coral life and abundance of small fish. We saw 2 blue spotted rays and a banded sea snake.

    Unfortunately the dive company only had a 12 liter tank for me, so I was expecting a shorter dive. I still tried practicing slow breathing and kick and float to conserve air but I was too heavy so struggled with buoyancy and ended up only lasting 42 minutes. The DM urged on the conservative side and gave me more weight than I needed even though I told him I only need 4kg. I get that, its easier for him to deal with a heavy diver than one that does not sink.

    Still a cool dive and showed me I can probably do 50 minutes on a 12 liter if my weight is right.

    {Roedolf}    Read more

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