Day 2: Road Trip and Island Hopping – Longest Day Ever!

The following day, our group woke up at around 2 am to be able to leave Puerto Princesa and start our road trip to El Nido. Based from Kuya Neil’s estimation, the trip would take about 6-8 hours, depending on the road condition, traffic and of course, speed. Since we didn’t want to waste one day of our vacation to traveling alone, we computed for the best and latest time we could leave Puerto Princesa to arrive at El Nido by lunch time. Based on our computation, we should leave 3-4 am in the morning; thus the 2 am ‘call time’

We had our breakfast c/o Kookaburra. It was nice of them to accommodate our request to have our breakfast be ready by 2 am. From what I can remember, I got one of their Filipino Breakfast offerings. The food was good. I think it’s the earliest time I actually ate breakfast. Afterwards, we packed our things and left Kookaburra and then Puerto Princesa.

I don’t remember much about the first few hours of our road trip to El Nido. I slept through it. The ride was quite smooth and peaceful until a few hours after; we finally got to the end of the cemented road and start of the dirt road. Yes, the “highway” from Puerto Princesa to El Nido isn’t much of a highway. The smooth ride became a bumpy one. And then, we found ourselves literally in the middle of nowhere. The view around us was literally green all over and there were no signs of civilization. If we got stuck there, I don’t think anyone would find us. There were no cars coming from any direction and our cellphones weren’t getting any signal from any cell tower. Well, we did pass by several houses after several hours so it’s not like the place is devoid of people. But still, it’s just 9 people in the middle of a jungle. How freakishly alone.

By 10 am, we found ourselves ‘gliding’ smoothly on cemented pavement. The ride was smooth again. After a few more minutes, we found the sign, ‘Welcome to El Nido’. We’re here! We took a few photos and then went for another few minutes of driving to find Marina Garden Beach Resort. Upon arriving at El Nido town proper, we were greeted by an amazing view. The town is situated perfectly along the beach line overlooking several islands and a mountain made of limestone. The sight was breath-taking.

We finally got to Marina Garden Beach Resort. The place was not a typical resort that I’m used to seeing in more commercialized beaches. It’s a simple place, which is strategically situated near everything. But then, El Nido is a small town where everything is likely a walking distance away. Anyway, back to Marina Garden; it’s a beach front resort where you have a full view of the El Nido’s coast line. Not only that, it’s easier to access boatmen-slash-tour-guides who are offering island hopping tours. Well, good thing for us, Kuya Neil already knows one of the owners that handles the island hopping tour business. He was already able to get a package deal for us. By 11 am, we were off island hopping, the package A tour.

There’s no point going to El Nido if you won’t island hop. Besides, the electricity in El Nido town proper is scheduled; electricity is off from 6:00 am to 2:00 pm then on from 2:00 pm onwards. Aside from lounging around the beach area, touring the town and searching for souvenir shops, there’s really nothing to do for tourists but island hop or snorkel or other water activities. Island hopping is definitely a must when you visit El Nido. There are 3 standard island hopping packages; that’s package A, B, and C. Some guides offer packages D and E, but they vary depending on who you talk to. The standard price could go from P600-1000 per person. For us, Kuya Neil got us a nice deal of P1800 for the whole boat rental and Package A tour plus an additional P100 for each snorkels per person. That’s P1800 divided by 8 people plus P100 [P325 per person]. Nice deal huh?!

So back to the boat ride… the boat ride towards our first destination was absolutely breath taking. It’s not my first time to island hop – I’ve actually done this at Hundred Islands in Pangasinan – but the view of the islands was just incredible. Then, add the calm sea and fresh air… it’s just perfect. Pictures can only do much, you must be there to experience it. But at this point, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.

Small Lagoon
Great place to snorkel. Make sure that you’re strong swimmer or you’re wearing a life vest before you go in. Water can be very deep especially the area inside the lagoon.

Simizu
This is where we ate lunch. Great place to swim and snorkel.

Big Lagoon
Great place to kayak. Too bad we were on a tight budget. Kayak rental costs about P800-1000 the whole day.

Stopping here. The boat can’t pass because it’s low tide. We had to go down the boat and ‘walk’.

We were already near the “inside” of the Blue Lagoon and the deeper part of the area when Kuya revealed that there were baby sharks there. (Uhm, okay thanks for telling us now, kuya.)

7 Commando
This is the last stop of Tour Package A. This is where we lounge around and drank buko juice.

At around 4pm, Kuya Boatman (Yes, I don’t know his name) told us that it’s time to go. It was getting dark anyway.  And this is where I’ll end my Day 2 El Nido experience. LONG DAY, huh? Day 3 to follow soon.

Picture credits: Mine, Bunny, Kat, Norman, and Ton