All you El Nido is love

Coron has some big shoes to fill, there’s no doubt about it. I think both Billie and I had a sense that it had to be a step down and we should manage our expectations to avoid being disappointed. Well, El Nido definitely not a step down and we’re definitely not disappointed. Is it better than Coron? No… It’s not worse either. It’s more beautiful, somehow, but also more touristy, which comes with its own benefits to a degree.

We managed El Nido well by taking advantage of the touristy town which had a cool sandy streets vibe and restaurants galore, but then avoiding the tourists on our trips out, which are mostly to enjoy the beauty of nature.

And what beautiful nature El Nido has to offer! Mostly in the form of landscapes – limestone rock jutting out of the sea, the imposing cliffs over El Nido town, perfect white sand beaches lined with palms and the clearest water you’ve laid your eyes on. It’s remarkably picturesque, and the photos don’t do it justice.

Day 4 cont. – arriving in El Nido

El Nido is a proper beach town. Frankly, I can’t abide by sand and I have very strict sand policies that Billie wisely pretends to agree to then secretly breaks to spite me.

We got a tricycle from the port to the Golden Monkey Beach Hotel. We were a bit surprised when the road just sort of ended at the beach, but the driver drove on regardless, across the sand. We rejoined a new road later down the beach… We did this many times ourselves on Scooty V2 as it’s the only way to access the area our hotel is in, Caalan. It’s a very cool little community with a windy road running through it and various ‘hotels’ (not in the traditional sense… more like rooms), shops and locals’ homes. Dogs and children play in the street, sometimes together. It’s lovely.

We spent what was left of the day settling in, drinking beer and eating dinner like normal honeymooners might!

Day 5 – Beach hopping

We weren’t quite ready to dive into the big boat tour bonanza that is the main attraction of El Nido. There’s Tours A, B, C and D and so many companies to choose from. We weren’t quite as organised as in Coron, so we decided to do a more simple activity, and one we’re somewhat practiced at: beach hopping.

With our somewhat rugged, capable looking, slightly off-roady Scooty under bum, we set off for a beach that some blog promised nobody else would be at. It was a bit further north of some other beaches on our list and so we would go there first, work our way back down for lunch at the popular beach and then go to a beach south of El Nido town for sunset. Ambitious.

It turns out the reason nobody is really at Dagmay beach, is because it’s bloody hard to get to. A good 50 minutes after leaving for it, we had encountered the following scenario several times:

1. Drive up a very steep, unpaved dirt road (slightly sketchily).

2. Try to go down the other side but it’s too steep and Scooty starts to skid down.

3. Billie gets off and has to walk down while I roll down it at a slower pace than walking.

4. Get laughed at by schoolchildren or locals sweeping their paths.

It was quite the ordeal in the hot, hot, HOT sun. However, it was absolutely worth it. The beach was stunning, enormous and empty barring a few locals. We were in the sea in a jiffy and swam for a good 20 minutes, soaking in our victory. We wandered around the beach taking some pics and stretched out to read our books for a while.

There came a time, however, where we could delay no longer. The return journey would have to be made and, unfortunately, that involved more walking down hills for Billie. I’d estimate we had to do that about 6 times each way and these hills were not small! Anyway, we made it to our next stop, Duli Beach.

We loved it here. A few surf schools (in huts) which doubled as beach bars and that was it. We had a beer and laughed at some kids who were playing on the swings outrageously and trying to get our attention. We toyed at the thought of coming back for surf lessons later in the week but never did sadly. Maybe on one of the next islands!

Onwards we went, and therein lay our greatest mistake. We should have stayed at Duli. It was fabulous and there was food available. Instead, we biked till our bums were numb in the hot midday sun to a crowded beach with people clamouring for the half decent shaded seats. We both went a bit doolally in the heat, but managed lunch and weren’t too unhappy to rent some sun loungers and read our books for a couple of hours which restored us and eventually rescued the poor manoeuvre.

Nacpan beach did have one beautiful surprise in store for us, though, and it comes in blog related fashion – Piña Coladas. As sunset approached (our ambitious plan to make it to the beach south of El Nido discarded), a full enough recovery from the heat had been made for me to announce I was going to order a cocktail. I went over to the Tiki hut style bar and looked at the menu – as soon as I saw piña colada on the menu, I knew it was fate (‘cos of the blog title obviously). Billie agreed and we ordered two. The man said it would take 10-15 minutes to make and I said we’d come back then. He said sure then mysteriously added “unless you want to stay and watch the process”. Thinking I probably wouldn’t, but assuming there was something to it, I went to get my book as insurance then returned. I then witnessed a most glorious piña colada be made. He literally drew several small crowds throughout the process of making it and received a round of applause at the end.

After extracting a coconut from it’s husk, he dramatically split it in half with his machete, and caught the water in a cup. He then proceeded to dessicate it with a special tool.

He then put gloves on and laboriously squeezed the cream from the dessicated coconut, and strained it.

Lastly, he blended it all together with booze and a freshly chopped pineapple.

Needless to say my book remained unread. Do we like Filipiña Coladas? Hell yeah!

Day 6 – Kayak exploration

Gliding over glistening water, the kayak purred to our synchronous paddling as Billie called out the rhythm softly. One final push and we rounded the headland, lay down our paddles and gasped in wonder.

One hour earlier…

So it was that we decided to go kayaking today. As previously discussed, there are a plethora of tours available, going to all sorts of locations accessible only by boat – hidden beaches, caves, sandbanks etc. The main drawback to these being that you spend an entire day on a boat with 10-20 other people and tour guides. We prefer, generally, to be on our own time and make our own decisions. Tour A (of A-D) is the most popular and stops at a place called Seven Commandos Beach (I’m sure there’s a story I haven’t looked up). We knew we wouldn’t do this tour as it is too crowded, but thought we could make it to the beach by kayak before the tour boats arrived. This was the plan, and so we set off from our hotel at 7.30 on Scooty.

We managed to hire a kayak and snorkels at Corong-Corong beach, South of El Nido and set off paddling away. As my dramatic opening may suggest, we managed to get some decent kayaking going and picked up a bit of speed! The water was very smooth and clear and we made good time to Seven Commandos Beach, about 30 mins when we’d read it takes about 40.

With much anticipation, wondering whether we’d beaten the crowds, we turned and found the beach to be largely deserted. One tour boat had made it and a few other kayakers, but that was very little for a beach of this magnitude and magnificence. It was a lovely beach and, like the many similar to it in El Nido, it came resplendent with perfect clear water, soft white sand, a few rows of palm tree for shade and then an immense limestone rock formation behind it for drama. We settled up under a palm, had a snorkel, and read our books for a while.

It didn’t take an awfully long time for the boats to arrive, and that was just fine. We’d beaten them, we’d had the experience, and now it was quite enjoyable to watch them arrive and see just how crowded it got. We agreed that had we come by tour boat, we’d not have wanted to stay long… A beautiful beach isn’t so beautiful with sunburnt Brits sullying its shores… Oh wait, that’s us!

The beauty of our arrangement was that just back round the headland we’d come past was Papaya beach, almost connected if not for a big jutting rock. That beach could only allow one, MAYBE two tour boats at a squeeze, but was otherwise just as bliss. We stayed here much longer, and enjoyed the tyre swings too.

Our plan was to return to El Nido town for lunch, so we left Papaya beach at 12.30 and after a slightly more tiresome kayak into the wind, we made it back for a restorative lunch and beer.

After a mosey around the shops, and organising our tour for the following day we biked on to Las Cabañas Beach for what we’d heard was the best sunset spot fairly close to El Nido. It was a lovely way to end another fantastic day in paradise.

Day 7 – Tour B

One does not go to El Nido and NOT go on a boat tour. Tours B & D are reportedly the least busy, with Tour A blowing it out the water and C being busier than most would like. We wanted D, but it wasn’t running, so we settled for B.

Our boat, the Princess Nicole V6, comprised of two fun & young tour guides (Jason cracked many a joke), a Moroccan couple and about 12 Taiwanese people, 10 of which were a young group with plenty of energy. Everyone was perfectly nice, though watching each person / couple spend 10 minutes taking ridiculous posed photos on the front of the boat, dare I say shamelessly, did grate after a while. After we arrived at one beach, two of the group bought drinks then spent 10 minutes taking pictures pretending to drink it before actually drinking it.

The Princess Nicole V6, never far from the Queen Mitch?!

ANYWAY, that’s me just being an old fart – the vibes were nice and off we went to our first stop, Entaluta beach. Twas a smallish beach (by Philippine standards) on its own little island. Very picturesque with an arrowhead-like standing rock. We had a good snorkel and brief chill (we get 35 mins at each of the 5 locations, though it’s not strictly adhered to.

Second stop was Snake Island. This one was very cool! It’s a sandbar that connects two islands (one VERY small one) at low tide only. It is formed due to two colliding currents, and can change shape depending on the strength of each. That, along with it’s curvy shape, is where it gets its name. Cool fact, there are 45 islands in the El Nido area, but at low tide it becomes 42 as 3 islands connect up to others via sandbar.

We climbed up a path on the small island to a little look out point where several angles of each person and couple could be captured by our professional photographers… I mean guides.

Location 3 was Cudugnon Cave, and also our lunch spot. We had little pre-cooked lunch sets that we’d pre-ordered, and then went ashore for a beer and to first explore a “small cave” that didn’t need a guide.

Then it was time to enter Cudugnon Cave, which requires a squeeze through a smallish gap. There was no water or anything (don’t worry mum) so it didn’t feel sketchy. Within was quite a cool cave!

As we set off to stop 4, a phenomenon occurred. So, throughout the day, this one guy just kept falling asleep whenever we were on the boat between stops. Fair enough, I thought, he must be jet lagged. Well, me and Billie were chatting and I looked up and this guy was asleep again. I looked to the next person, asleep. The next, asleep… About 10 or more of the people on our boat were asleep where they sat. In some cases fully upright, in some, head drooped forward on their lap. It was absolutely mental and for a second I thought we were part of some Battle Royale-esque plot, and we’re being drugged before being left on a remote island – last person standing gets to live. Thankfully, this was not the case. We thought they were a bit like babies, all energetic vigour and excitement then after lunch boom, out like a light. It was hilarious. I took a picture because I am evil.

Stop 4 was a snorkelling site. The tour guide gave us quite a interesting talk about coral here. He reported that during the pandemic, absolutely loads and loads of the coral around Palawan died. Due in part to global warming, but apparently also in large part to a huge population increase of the Crown of Thorns starfish (which we saw once while snorkelling and wondered what it was). This starfish, which looks evil and is covered in spikes, wraps around hard coral and then feeds on it, killing it. Perhaps due to a change of temperature in water or some other ecological reason, the numbers of this starfish skyrocketed over the pandemic and, because there was no tourism, nobody was diving or snorkelling to notice. They returned to open the island and began a huge de-thorning movement, with all the tour companies and guides out there to manually remove them and save as much coral as possible. He estimates 80% was destroyed… who knows how accurate that is! There are lots of initiatives to re-grow coral, which is great. We’re diving with a company in Anda who are pioneers of this so hopefully we learn a bit more there.

This spot, however, was good, healthy coral! We snorkeled it for a good while, seeing plenty of fish including clownfish. Another couple reported squid, but we were not so lucky.

Final stop, after much napping, was Pinagbuyutan Island. This was our favourite stop by far. The beach is private and only our tour company has access. We were the only ones there and the island cliffs were immense behind the most perfect beach you can imagine. Better than any other beach we’ve been to so far. In the world.

So, we considered the tour a great success. We were absolutely knackered by the time we made it home and showered the sand off. We lay in bed for an hour, soaking in the aircon and cleanliness… Tonight was NYE. There was no way in hell we were making it till midnight. After a lovely meal, we were in bed and snoring by 9pm! At midnight, there was a very, very rude awakening of fireworks seemingly going off right next to us. Indeed, next door were doing a display… Billie went out to catch some…

I finish writing this in 2024, just as the UK will be erupting in celebration of the turning of the New Year. We’re on a flight to Bohol – land of the chocolate hills, tarsiers and maybe, just maybe – a whale shark. But probably not a whale shark.

See you next time!