El Nido, Palawan

I cannot feel more excited the morning I woke up early for our flight to El Nido. After 6 agonizing months of waiting, the day finally came.

Initially, the plan was for me and the boss to go there for the celebration of our 2nd anniversary . But after I did a research on how much it will take us to go there,  and I told him that we needed "back up". Thankfully our contact, Mang Pepito from our 1st Palawan trip organizes tours to the island. One can easily go to El Nido from Manila via SeaAir but the ticket prices are P4,000-5,000 one way. If you are on the cheaper side like us, you can get a ticket worth P2,500 that will take you to Puerto Princesa from Manila and vice versa. BUT, this is the catch: if you travel from Manila to Puerto Princesa you will have to go through a bumpy 6-hour drive to El Nido via private van. And mind you, the roads to El Nido from Puerto Princesa is described as smooth roads, rough roads and rougher roads which is also known as the "abortion road". I told myself that all the pain and headache I felt throughout the trip better be worth it. Some parts of the road are being constructed  though so I hope that by the time you go there, everything's smooth already for a stress-free trip.

So back to Mang Pepito. He quoted us P7,500 per person which is inclusive of the following:

• Transportation to from Puerto Princesa to El Nido and vice versa (he also fetched and brought us to the airport)
• Underground River tour
• 3 days 2 nights accomodation at Marina Gardens
• 3 breakfasts and 2 lunches
• Boat for island hopping (2 days, 2 different itineraries)
• A free trip to Baker's Hill and Crocodile Farm

Not bad for us. We were a total of 9 and even the road was bumpy and all, we had a great time laughing all throughout our trip. :)

Here are some pictures from that day. 

aboard the biggest domestic Philippine Airlines plane I've ever been

 

touchdown Puerto Princesa!

We went straight to Sabang beach which will be the jump off point to the other island where the Underground River is. So after lunch we hopped on to a boat and braved the waves to go there. Weather was gloomy and windy so the seas were a little rough. It was my second time there but I can't wait to be inside the Underground River again.

the whole crew

The ride was 30 minutes long. The boatman kept on telling jokes and gladly entertained our questions regarding the river's history. It was around 4pm when we arrived back at Sabang beach and then proceeded to go to El Nido town. After 3 hours, we had dinner at this restaurant where they serve affordable dishes. I guess we were all hungry that's why we just ate whatever we ordered. You can see that the quality of their food is really "affordable" because of the way it tastes. *Insert sarcastic smile here.*  The restaurant has a mini zoo and a playground where the tourists can lounge and relax after a long trip. But since it was getting late, we just ate and left.

We arrived in El Nido at around 11 in the evening. We needed to literally dust our bags because of all the dirt it accumulated while we were passing the rough roads. Something also happened that night, Maria Isabel Lopez (the actress) shouted at us and told us to keep it down because we were disturbing their sleep. We wanted to argue and tell her that she didn't need to shout at us but due to fatigue we just kept our mouths shut and let Mena be the wonder woman of the night. Haha!

BTW, here are some pictures of our room:

The rooms are clean and neat. The beddings and linens were fresh and the bed was soft. We all got a total of 4 rooms. The three couples got their own room and Mena, Cacai and Jules shared a room. We all retired for the night and called it a day. Everyone was excited for the island hopping activity the next day.