We spent Christmas into New Years in the Philippines. After a 14 hour Christmas Eve red eye flight we landed in Manila early on Christmas Day morning. We both mostly slept on the flight having had quite a bit going on in December and a fairly long day leading into departure time. With such an early arrival, when we got to the immigration area, the officers were just getting on shift. No other flights had landed so there was no queue and it was a breeze getting through. First stamp in my new passport which I had to get in time for this trip. We had a connecting flight to El Nido a couple hours later and found the terminal transfer bus with a little help from a couple locals. Our flight to El Nido was a short hour and a half on a small propeller plane operated by Cebu Airlines. The El Nido airport is tiny and appears to only accommodate one flight at a time with only one arrival and departure gate. Our luggage was rolled into the arrival area, no conveyor belt. To get to our resort, we took a tricycle… a motorcycle with a covered sidecar attached. The tricycle was weighed down by not only us but our luggage as well and on some of the uphills I wondered if we would make it.
El Nido is a developing city with some infrastructure but with many sign of neglect and poverty. The main road from the airport to the town centre was in relatively good condition though still made for a bumpy ride. To get to our beach resort though, part of the route involved driving on the actual beach to reach another road that led to our resort and a few others.
We stayed at Cadlao Beach Resort in a lovely rustic garden view bungalow. The resort had beautiful grounds and beach access, only the tide was always out during the day so making it not a swimmable beach. We did however take then opportunity to go for walks along the beach and explore the beachfront that way. One thing that really struck me as saddened me all the same was how much litter was just thrown everywhere and anywhere. It was quite disheartening and I kept saying the beach was in dire need of a shore clean up but Z commented that it likely wouldn’t make a difference and just end up in the same conditions again. So sad for a very beautiful beach that has such potential.
The staff at the resort were gracious and super friendly. On site there were three separate pools, a spa, and an open air restaurant. We enjoyed some extremely tasty Filipino cuisine here for breakfast, each morning trying something different including a sample of their baked items. We also enjoyed Christmas Day dinner here and their special holiday dinner menu. We may also have enjoyed a couple of their unique desserts as well which were delicious and full of flavour.
El Nido town was about a 20 minute walk away and shorten by a hotel drop off to the edge of town where the road meets the beach. The town looks like you would expect from a developing country, lacking modern amenities and infrastructure but yet with all you needed. There were stray dogs roaming around the streets everywhere. We witnessed some road work being down with a worker using a jackhammer wearing flip flops; clearly different safety standards. There were restaurants and shops lined along the Main Street through town. Most had some sort of Christmas decor and music playing. It was quite a festive feel. Part of the main street was sand, sidewalks were in some spots, but not everywhere so most people walked along the street dodging the tricycles and other transport vans. Everyone we encountered was genuinely friendly. We stopped in at one restaurant for a drink and enjoyed the atmosphere so much we ended up having dinner there the following day after our day long boat tour.
The reason for staying in El Nido was to do a tour of the surrounding pristine lagoons and beaches. There are quite a few tours to choose from and we settled on tour A which was more a scenic tour than full on activities. Tour A had five stops starting with Big Lagoon which was incredibly breathtaking. Here we got to kayak into the lagoon and explore for about an hour. Heading into the lagoon was one of the many pristine beaches we’d get to see. The water was quite calm and easy to navigate and quickly turned to turquoise blue before becoming crystal clear. The bottom was sandy and in several spots into the lagoon was shallow enough you could get out of the kayak and be standing in the ocean bottom. The lagoon was surrounded by limestone volcanic rock formations that rose out from the ocean and each was uniquely shaped with peaks and crevices and some even with caves. These rock formations are all throughout the waters that surround Palawan. It is quite the site to see and nothing sort of spectacular.
Our second stop was a short boat ride away for half hour of snorkelling. I struggled here, guess my stamina wasn’t what it needs to be for back to back water activities and I just couldn’t calm my breath enough to feel comfortable but Z was like a fish and really had an enjoyable snorkel after bringing me back safely to the boat.
Our third stop was lunch on a pristine and secluded beach. Well maybe secluded isn’t exactly the right word because all the other boat tours seem to stop at this spot but secluded in that no one lives on that little island. We got to enjoy a lovely Filipino buffet lunch which our tour guides brought on shore in coolers they had to carry through the water including floating a table to shore where they could place all the food. We couldn’t dock close enough to just hope onto the beach so we all had to swim a bit as well to get to lunch.
From here we then set off to stop number four which was a secret lagoon that required us to climb through a small opening in the volcanic limestone before immersing ourselves into the enclosed circular shaped lagoon surrounded by limestone reaching high into the sky. Some of the unit limestone shapes included a crocodile snout and a dinosaur’s teeth.
Our last stop on this tour was to an incredibly pristine white sand beach for some beach time after a full day at our other stops. The water here was crystal clear and warm, great for some bobbing around and swimming. It was a great final stop to end our amazing tour before we head back.
At first we didn’t think there was much around our hotel and that for different restaurant options we’d have to go into the main part of town. But we quickly discovered how wrong we were and we ended up finding two incredibly lovely restaurants a short walk from our hotel. For one lunch we went to a place called Alimos a small restaurant attached to a hotel where Z enjoyed yet another fish dish; he was in seafood and fish heaven on this trip with the fish being caught daily by fishermen we could see from the shore, while I enjoyed a tasty pork dish. Neither of us could complain about our preferred proteins. We learned to owner of Alimos was actually the head chef at Cadlao until a couple years prior when she decided to focus on her own place.
For our last supper in El Nido we tried a small family run restaurant called Cool Station, also a short walk from our hotel. Here we met a lovely German couple just finishing their meal. We learned they too were travelling around the area for a couple weeks. The restaurant house dog and cat were roaming around the tables and quickly befriended us when our food arrived. The dog was bold enough to stare at me with his puppy dog eyes and extend a handshake to me. We did resist the urge to feed either and instead enjoyed our vegetable curry, my chicken curry, and Z’s fish ourselves with an explosion of goodness in every bite.
We really came to love Filipino cuisine. Every dish we had was just so flavourful, fresh, and aromatic; not a single dish had a flavour we didn’t like.
After three nights in El Nido it was time to transfer to our next destination, Flower Island. We made our transfer arrangements directly brought the hotel and included an hour van ride to Sibaltan Pier for a 40 minute speedboat ride to the island. Tide was out when we arrived at the pier which meant we had to wade into the water about knee deep to climb into the boat. It also meant the staff had to do the same but also while carrying our suitcases so they wouldn’t get wet.
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