Day 1- After a long 5 hour shuttle ride through some incredible jungle mountains and beach side roads we arrived in El Nido just in time for dinner. El Nido is a very small town located on the northwest tip of Palawan that is mostly used as a backpacker hub for island hopping tours. There is no real western influence here although that is about to change as you can see a few small hotels popping up. Alyssa did a great job picking our hotel. It is located right on the bay with the beach only 15 ft from our patio. We can listen to the waves lapping on the shore all night. Most hotels and businesses here only have electricity during the day and WIFI is only available in a few spots. We haven’t found a restaurant yet with WIFI. Our hotels has 24 hour electric that only went out for short periods a few times and the WIFI has been fairly reliable. This is more important here than in most places since the rainy monsoon season has finally caught up to us. We ate dinner at a beach front café and then walked around exploring for a while before the rains began.
Day 2- There are several island hopping tours that you can take from El Nido by boat but when we woke up this morning the coast guard had canceled all tours due to weather so we ended up spending the day in bed relaxing, watching movies and getting some work done. At one point we went for a walk to get some food and drinks for the room and got caught in a downpour. There are signs everywhere along the beach saying “Swimming is not allowed in the area due to high coliform count.” Over the last year there has been an increase in tourists being hospitalized with bad Ecoli based infections from both human and animal feces in the water. This is one of the most stunning bays I have ever scene with views of rock cliffs covered in jungle flora on one side and blue water with small mountain islands jetting up on the horizon. It’s a shame the waters have been contaminated by pollution yet again.
Day 3- Once again the coast guard has canceled all boat tours leaving from El Nido due to weather so we spent the day being lazy in our room leaving only to go out to eat and go get Thai massages. Authorities are saying that it doesn’t look like any tours will be going out anytime soon so we booked airline tickets off of Palawan for tomorrow morning. El Nido looks like it would be a good place to return to in the right season. I absolutely love the mountains and jungle combined with a really charming harbor. Lets hope they can do something about the fecal infested bay before it’s too late. Steady electricity would be nice too. Next stop Cebu!
