Weekly #9: Living our tropical dream in the Philippines (Bohol & El Nido)
We are still living our dream in a paradise that is called the Philippines. This week we travel from Bohol in the Visayas area to El Nido in the province of Palawan. Stunning lagoons, hidden beaches and also better weather are waiting for us! It is hard not to fall in love with this country.
Lazy working day
Thursday, 27 February 2020
The weather is very unpredictable here in Bohol. Today we get to experience clear blue skies, rain storms and everything in between. We had planned to visit Dumaluan Beach, what is said to be the most beautiful beach on the island, but due to the stormy weather we decided otherwise. We ended up spending our day chilling at Bo’s coffee (love the big tea mugs!) and at our private roofed terrace. This should be the dry season in the Philippines but either we have bad luck or these are the results from climate change. Now that we are travelling for a longer time, I don’t mind some days of bad weather so much. It saves me from pressure to go on an adventure and it allows me to spend some time blogging and picture editing (we have a lot to catch up with!). I also worked on the 5th edition of my book about Berlin, as the 4th edition is completely sold out. Whoohoo! New edition will be coming soon.
Travel day from Bohol to Puerto Princesa
Friday, 28 February 2020
We are leaving the area of the Visayas islands and move on to the province of Palawan. To get there, we have to take a flight from Bohol-Panglao to Manila and from Manila to Puerto Princesa. There are a ton of islands in the Philippines and not all of them are connected with each other. It made planning our itinerary for the Philippines a bit more complicated, but we forgot all of that when we got assigned seats next to the emergency exit. Especially Kai was super happy to finally have some space for his long legs on the plane! Our total travel time (including transfer) was about 6 hours, so we were happy when we arrived in Puerto Princesa. The hotel owner picked us up at the airport and taught us some local words on the way (“I love you” = “Mahal kita”). On our way to a restaurant, we were followed by two kids, that wanted to know our names. I can’t get over how cute the local kids are! We also had a fun experience in the local supermarket, where employees were singing karaoke in the tech department. I tell you, the Filipino’s take every chance to sing!
5 hour van ride to El Nido
Saturday, 29 February 2020
We spent 5 hours on the back row in a mini van today, to get from Puerto Prinseca to El Nido. We passed palm tree plantations, rice fields, local villages, basketball courts (it is the most popular sport in the country), schools and kids playing around. We got lunch at a canteen. It was a beautiful but also exhausting ride, because of the many curves. El Nido town is very touristy (which I had read before) so we booked an island hopping tour for tomorrow to escape town. Excited! We watch the sunset from our balcony with a San Miguel beer and call it a day.
Amazing boat trip to hidden beaches and stunning lagoons
Sunday, 1 March 2020
Yesterday we booked a boat trip for today to visit some of islands and lagoons in the area. Apart from a lot of hotels, restaurants and tour agencies there isn’t much to see in El Nido town so is is recommended to spend most of your time outside town. There are 4 tours available in El Nido: tour A, B, C and D. Tours A and C seem to be the most popular tours and as didn’t wanted to share natures beauty with hundreds of other tourists, we opted for tour D. We shared the boat with 10 other tourists from Germany, Italy and the Philippines. Always fun when there are local tourists on the tour! We visited some hidden beaches that can only be reached by boat and went swimming and snorkeling. We even had lunch on a secluded island! The staff brought tables, plates and a whole lot of food to the beach for us to have lunch. What an experience! Also good to see that the communities make sure to bring everything back to the boat and not use single use plastic. The beaches in the Philippines look very clean and there seems to be less trash flying around than on the beaches we’ve seen in Thailand. After lunch we stopped at our personal highlights of the tour: Cadlao Lagoon and Small Lagoon. We rented kayaks to explore the clear turquoise waters and cliffs of the lagoons. I was totally flashed by the beauty of these spots. What an amazing day!
Beach and bar hopping around El Nido
Monday, 2 March 2020
We took it slow this morning, starting our day at Glow for breakfast again with a fruit bowl with coconut cream. The fruit here in the Philippines is truly the best! Especially the mangos, pineapples and bananas here taste like from out of this world! We continued our cafe hopping tour to Happiness Beach Bar for iced lattes with a view on the harbor of El Nido town. It was fun to see al the boat trips departing around 9:30 AM. We took a tricycle to Tao Philippines to check-in for our upcoming 3-day island hopping trip. We received all the information and I am really so excited for this, to spend 3 days on the water and sleep on secluded beaches. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beautiful Las Cabanas beach, drinking coconuts at Maremegmeg Beach Bar (recommended!) and we had lunch with the best view at The Nesting Table. We definitely overspent on food and drinks today but hey, that is okay for a day! In the evening we bumped into a local basketball tournament which was fun.
Kayaking like Robinson Crusoe around El Nido
Tuesday, 3 March 2020
Yesterday night I realized I forgot our favorite water bottle with water filter from Life Straw at the Nesting Table. Of all places I forgot our bottle in a restaurant that can only be reached by climbing a ton of steps... But luckily, the bottle was still there and while I was there, I enjoyed the stunning view for one more time. Somehow we already managed to lose some items, so far the list includes: a power adapter (forgot in our hostel in Bangkok), a long sleeve shirt (forgot somewhere) and nail scissors (forgot to leave them in my hand luggage at Bohol airport). Nothing important fortunately!
After we were reunited with our bottle, we took a tricycle to Corong Corong beach to rent a kayak and explore some of the less visited beaches around El Nido. Not all islands are included in the standard tour itineraries, nor connected to a road, which make them harder to visit but also more worth to visit. The current was a bit stronger today, resulting in lots of water in the kayaks and in our face. After 15 minutes of kayaking, we took a break at the beautiful Lapus Lapus beach, which has crystal clear waters and is surrounded by lime stone cliffs. We went for a swim and were joined by a local dog and some jelly fish. On the journey to the next beach, we saw a sea turtle that accompanied us on the way. What a surprise and what a beautiful moment! The next beach, Papaya, beach, was also stunning. There was a small bamboo hut where we bought fresh coconuts. As the wind was much stronger here, we spent most of the afternoon back on Lapus Lapus beach. Except for one family living here, we were all by ourselves. I truly felt like Robinson Crusoe!
Happy but a bit exhausted from the kayak trip, we had a pizza at Bella Vita (one to share as our cash was running out) on the beach and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. This was another beautiful day to never forget and I am still so grateful that we can live our dream together.
Waves, palm trees and long stretches of beach in Nacpan
Wednesday, 4 March 2020
I’ve read online that the gravel road to Nacpan Beach is a bit hard to master on a scooter. We preferred to play it safe and took a tricycle there. I was happy about it, because the last 4 km gravel road was quite bumpy! But also very much worth the ride because Nacpan Beach is the widest and one of the most remote tropical beaches we have ever seen. There are about 500 people living in Nacpan, mostly in small bamboo huts without electricity. Apart from a few small bamboo hut resorts and bars, there is not much going on there. We enjoyed the high waves and clear water for a few hours and really felt like we have arrived in paradise. In the evening, we pack our stuff for our 3-day expedition to Coron! We have bought an additional dry bag to pack all of our clothes and things we need for the night. More about this unique experience in our next weekly update.
