The Philippines

The Philippines: 1 L, 2 P's, colonized by Spain in early 1500's until the 20th century, located in Southeast Asia, made up of 7,000 islands and one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited.

If we spoke to you over Christmas, our original plan was to volunteer in the Philippines to help with relief efforts in places that were destroyed in the super typhoon. But our plans changed and with flights already booked, we decided to travel on the island of Palawan.

Palawan is known for its beautiful beaches, water and diving and is not visited as much as some places in the Philippines such as Boracay and Cebu. It sounded like the perfect place for Michael and I to spend two weeks!

We flew into Manila and took a flight to Puerto Princesa City. Then we visited Port Barton for 4 days, El Nido for 6 days, and back to Puerto Princesa.

Puerto Princesa is the "city" we started in. We spent our first morning walking around town. 

Tricycle-the mode of transportation in Palawan

Walking around Puerto Princesa

After lunch we decided it was time to visit one of the local beaches. As you know, we always miss the sea. It was cloudy the first day, but it was good thing or we would have been fried! 

The next day, we took a bus to Port Barton. That was an experience...after 4 hours of bumpy roads, and stopping at a hundred houses, we made it to our destination. Port Barton is a small fishing village. Not many people stop there on the way to El Nido, but we were glad we did. It's basically one cove with small cottages, inns and restaurants along the beach. The town itself is rural, relaxed and remote. Michael and I didn't wear shoes for four days! The power goes out in the morning, but we didn't need it. I read most places to stay here didn't have AC and thought that was crazy, but we didn't need that either! The sea breeze was perfect. 

Port Barton

The first day we went island hopping. The banca (traditional Philippino boat) took us to a place with great snorkeling, then to Paradise Island for more snorkeling and lunch, and lastly German Island. 

Paradise Island

During our stay the food was amazing!! Every meal we had fresh seafood, fresh veggies, fresh fruit and rice. I was in heaven! Dinners were about 10 dollars total for me and Michael-that included our 1 dollar beers! (and yes, that's in USD!) 

We spent some time relaxing on the beach in Port Barton, which was glorious. While we were on vacation I was able to finish two books (exciting for a teacher who doesn't get the chance to read!) 

Our last destination was El Nido. It's a little bit bigger, but most of the activities were the same such as island hopping and kayaking. We rented kayaks one day and made our way to two islands. The first was just me and Michael; we had the whole beach to ourselves! After some snorkeling (or as my dive husband says, dorkeling) we kayaked to the second island. I hope the photos do it justice!!  

kayaking

The second island

We also went on an island hopping tour. It was a lot busier compared to Port Barton, but the islands were incredible. We saw caves and lagoons and did some dorkeling. 

We stayed in Corong Corong Beach, which is about a 15 minute walk to El Nido. It's famous for the beautiful sunsets. Every night we sat on the porch, had a drink and watched the sunset before heading to town for dinner. 

We're very blessed to be able to visit countries like these, and I hope the job search for next year takes us in a place as stunning as Palawan! 

My plan was to write about Nepal (months ago) and Istanbul, and another post about Kuwait with a neat video I found...I'll get to it Insh'allah before our February trip when we meet Mr. Steve and Mrs. Debbie in Rome, Italy!