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.
This is El Nido.
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.
