#backpacking

El Nido is Neato

Let’s start from where I left off. Las Cabañas. Great beach day and a bucket of beers. AP2 and I went back into town after the beach, showered, and went into town to get some dinner. We decided on a restaurant right on the beach. Adam ordered a tuna steak, and I had a seafood curry. Holy crap was it delicious! We also asked for some rum and coke. They charged us for the cokes but not the rum. I legit don’t think they care about rum here. They’re just like here ya go! Anyways, it was awesome. Oh by the way, that entire meal cost us $6.90 each including the drinks. After that we sat up at a little bar on the main strip. El Nido is so much better than Coron! It’s how I remember other parts of South East Asia being. After our drink we both decided to get cheap massages. I think I fell asleep - but how could I not after all the free rum?

The next day we woke up early and Adam went to the gym. I had some coffee and FaceTimed my mom. We the got ready for the day, had some breaky, and rented SCOOTERS! Yasssss. Another first for AP2. He loved it! We ripped around the island. Our first stop was at Bulalacao Waterfalls. We parked our bikes and hiked about a km and a half into the jungle. We trudged through rivers and up slopes to get there. But when we arrived it was beautiful! A perfect first stop on our scooter tour. We both swam in the fresh water. Unfortunately I slipped on the rocks and fell onto my elbow. For a solid 5 minutes I couldn’t move and was in a lot of pain. All I can say is thank god I didn’t break anything! Just a bruise and a sore arm. We hiked back down to our scooters and made our way to Nacpan Beach. Holy Schmoly the ride into the beach was muddy, slippery, and awful. Adam’s scooter ended up falling and he went into the mud . At least no injuries. Nacpan beach itself is quite beautiful! We stopped at Mad Monkey hostel for some lunch and another little beach bar for a drink. It wasn’t the nicest day (rainy and overcast), so we didn’t want to stay at the beach for too long. We saw what we wanted to see and scootered on home! That night we met up with our friends from Coron, went for dinner, skyline bar, and wouldn’t ya know it another reggae bar.

Adam and I booked another boat tour for us and all our friends from Coron. We had about 15 people join us. So we went down to the beach to get ready for the day. We had to walk in the ocean out to our boat and we all loaded on like little sardines. No idea why - but we waited for an hour on the uncomfortable boat before even taking off. It was annoying, but “everyone was in the same boat” HA. Anyways we finally took off for our island hopping tour! You guys - the Philippines are so absolutely stunningly beautiful. I can’t explain. So I’ll post pictures. We were on the water all day snorkeling, exploring lagoons, swimming, eating lunch on a paradise beach….

We headed back to El Nido just in time because it was about to storm as we made our way back. Adam, me, and our friend Giannis went for dinner back to that beach bar with the amazing curry. Again, cheap and delicious. After dinner I stopped by sky bar to say goodbye to everybody because Adam and I were leaving early the next morning for Puerto Princesa!

Okay yesterday sucked. It took us about 6 or 7 hours in a tiny cramped van to get to Puerto Princesa. I tried to sleep most of the time, and poor Adam was so uncomfortable in the van. The time did pass though and we made it to our hostel. Alesseo Hostel had a big beautiful pool to swim in. That was a bonus! After some food and a swim I could barely stay awake anymore and basically went to bed at 7pm. Adam went for a few drinks and food with some people from the hostel, but I needed to sleep.

Now we are on the plane to Cebu! Bye bye Palawan ❤️

AP xo