El Nido

Why do you want to go there, somebody said in Puerto Princesa, there is nothing to see there...

Well, decide for yourself after seeing the upcoming - despite the bad weather - pictures. In the hotel in Puerto they offered a daytrip to El Nido. Leaving at 2.30 am, return at 11 pm. By now I know that the return time should be taken with 2 more hours. So, I decided to transfer for 5 days.
The trip was very bad, we were transported in a India-quality van. (Sorry Devendra). That took 5 hours. But this was the first I saw upon arrival:

 The way to here was very nice, but you cannot enjoy that in a van. Later I did part of the same way again with a taxi and we stopped a several very nice viewpoints.
It is off-season so everywhere they are working on the roads. It is quite a mess at the moment and we had some trouble finding the hotel. But as usual first thing I did was walking the surroundings and El Nido is very small. I can walk every destination within 5 minutes. Here a little impression:

 

There are a LOT of islands here and every 10 m there is a shop offering boat-tours. They all ask the same price for the same tours divided into A, B, C  and D. I have been into 5 shops and finally booked a tour in the shop most close to my hotel. Nowhere I was given any additional information about the tour, nor about the extra costs. The first tour you make is at least 600 pesos more expensive then the advertised price.  Because you have to pay 400 pesos taxes, and have to buy additional stuff. Everywhere they are selling plastic bags for your mobile and you really need that if you are going to take pictures with your mobile. You also need 1 for your passport, papers, money, etc. And finally, if you want to keep some things dry, like clothes, you should buy an 'ocean bag'. Waterproof bag.
The additional information you are not given is:
1. You cannot get onto the boat dry. You have to walk through water to get onto the boat, which can vary from knee-deep to up to your shoulders. Very bad service.
2. And yes, you cannot get dry OFF the boat, if you are lucky, see point 1, otherwise - see pictures - you need to swim.
3. Nobody is telling you to bring your swimming suit. So, should you ever be here: make sure to wear it BEFORE you go. Towels are provided in the boat.
4. Nobody is telling you that you have to wear shoes, should you go snorkeling. You cannot stand there without hurting your feet.

The day I went on a boat-trip, the weather was a disaster. So the pictures I made are not showing how beautiful it is here when the weather is sunny, but I suppose you canget an idea about it. Well, at least the boats went out, the days before and after they stayed ashore.

Leaving, you must wear a lifejacket (wellll, after some time some of us ignored that rule):

We needed to swin ashore at the first stop. I decided that there was nothing interesting to see, which was later confirmed by those who went there.  So I stayed on the boat (apart from not having my swimming suit with me):

See at the top of the picture how low the clouds are:

We would stop at 4 locations, they skipped 1, and the others were all close to another, but far from this one. Moving from here, we got very heavy rain, and with the speed of the boat, the rain was coming in horizontally. So the roof was of no use. Before I  could take my raincoat on it was already to late.
 I still will post some pictures, they will at least give you an idea how beautiful it is here:

 

Here was the snorkeling site, and because I never did that and wanted to know if you see more underwater I decided to also go for a swim. In my underware, hoping that nobody would care. The shores here are very steep. You can walk horizontally 5 meters into the water and already need to swim because it is to deep. Everybody was wearing a life-jacket except me. No need for, I can swim quite well. But the water was to salty to be able to dive, I could not get lower so swam to the shore and then was trying to stand. So that is why I know now that you cannot do that. The bottom is very sharp and uneven. And no, not the trouble worth except from a nice swim. The water however is very clear.

Time for dinner, which was prepared at the boat. And seeing it done, I must say that when they served it, it was far above my expectations!:

 

 

Next rainshower

And back to town

 

Well  I had it with the non-information of the tourguides, so no new tour for me (I had a lot of trouble getting my passport dry again and separate all pages), while I at first wanted to do 1 more. Well, about that.... I was talking about the tours with someone I met here when I got a deja-vu. They had advised me to take tours A and B, and then I knew she would say tour C was better. I had that moment about 1 year ago.  But ok, next day all tours were cancelled again.

I decided to try to hire a taxi and take me around 1 of the next days to some nice places cq viewpoints. Apart from the islands there must be enough to see in the surroundings. Right, a lot of shops have signs were they offer taxis but in the end there was only 1 shop I could find which indeed could provide a taxi. It's this shop, in case you ever come to El Nido:

2500 pesos for upto 4hours plus gas. Ok.

I went to the tourist-information for a map. They only had a very bad small map, which not even mentioned El Nido on the map. But at least it mentioned 2 waterfalls, so I asked the driver to take me there. And I ended up at a very nice waterfall which was NOT on the map. Nice man, I could stop wherever I wanted to take pictures and he showed me some nice viewpoints.

Well, this took me quite a while, so I am going to a bar now, finish this tomorrow.

First some views on our way along the road:

And after about half an hour he took a side-'road' which you would overlook completely if you did not know it was there:

The falls are called the Kuyawyaw falls. You are accompanied by a guide, which is really necessary. The tour was devided into 3 parts, you cannot find the way without the guide and you really need his help. At several places we crossed sidestreams (no bridge) and sometimes had to wade through the falls to the other side to continue. The 3th climb was very tough and a very steep climb. I am glad that there was a rope, the last part I needed to pull myself with both hands up  by the rope because  my legs could not handle it anymore. The majority of the other tourists stayed at the second waterfall. But it is certainly worth coming here :

This is the upper waterfall

 

 Well, nice man that guide only not so good in making pictures...

Well, that was it, here. Tomorrow going back to Manila. A few days early but Cebu is not flying here and the company which does - Airswift - is quite expensive, only tomorrow an affordable flight left. It might take some weeks now until the next story.

Conclusion sofar: Palawan is VERY beautiful!