My time in El Nido is coming to a close and it has gone so fast.  I spent two days island hopping.  Basically you get in a boat and it takes you to some good places for snorkeling and kayaking as well as swimming and just relaxing on the beach.

This is called Helicopter Island because it sort of looks like a helicopter (you may have to use your imagination). 

The great thing about El Nido is that it is a largely untouched tourist destination, because it is hard to get to.  For this reason the waters are very clean and clear so it makes it a great place to see fish and coral.

You can see the water here.  In many places I had schools of fish follow me while snorkeling and at one point I saw a giant turtle.  Hopefully the place stays like this, but some people are concerned that as more tourists get here they will damage the coral and hurt the environment.  I guess only time will tell.

This is the kind of boat that you take.  It’s covered at the top, but in rainy conditions pretty much everyone gets wet.  It is possible to take this kind of boat to Coron, the northern most tip of Palawan.  That trip however takes 8 hours and I am told in bad weather it can be really rough!

For myself, I must now head back to Puerto to catch my flight into Manila and then onto Osaka.

I am now pretty much at the northern most point you can travel by land in Palawan.  From here, Coron is the only island further north, and it’s 6 hours by boat.  You can also sail to Manila from here in about 40 hours.

It’s a fairly relaxed beach town and is for sure off the beaten track, although it is gaining in popularity.

It is 300km north of Puerto and took 6 hours by minivan. It was a very slow ride with a lot of time spent stopping to pick people up.  Saying they, apparently I did better than some other people.  I have heard stories of vans breaking down and people having to push! 

In 300km my van managed to stop not once, but twice at a gas station.  Basically the first time he didn’t have enough passengers money to fill the tank! 

There is an airport here, but only charter flights leave from it and they are fairly expensive, especially by Filipino standards.  Most people take the bus.  There is also limited power.  It runs from 2pm to 6am.  Well, it’s supposed to.  It stopped around 4am this morning.  At that point my lovely air conditioner was only good at looking pretty in the window.

Wired internet is very slow and almost non existent, however SMART 3G works very well, much better than many places in the Philippines.  Just remember you can only charge your phone / laptop when there is power.

Most importantly, there is no ATM. You must bring all the pesos you need with you.  There are a couple places that will do currency exchange if you have US$ or Euros.

All of these things add to the novelty of being so remote and in such a scenic place.  Several tours are offered for snorkeling, diving, and kayaking.  I’m going snorkeling tomorrow, but today I just spent the day relaxing on the beach while writing blog posts.