Enjoying the Maldives of the Philippines: El Nido

Dear traveler, 

This isn't a blog post about tours and packages. 

This will be a diary narrating how we enjoyed the entire zone of El Nido. More or less, I will be showcasing some of the photos in my iPhone in both day time and night time. (I have previously mentioned how Samsung phones work BETTER in daylight). 

I took this photo above around 6 in the morning. You can surely read in my previous post about El Nido that we docked at around 10 in the evening and all we ever saw were silhouettes of these mountains surrounding the Poblacion (Spanish word for town). 

Me and my friend luckily took shots at these cliffs knowing how these can support tourism and make mother nature happy; the entire stretch showed how the people of Palawan preserved the ecosystems thriving and made sure they can be both modern and backward. I remembered Los Banos, Laguna in this breezy area where the Mt. Makiling heights covered this mini urban zone. 

There was a pit stop where our van was thoroughly checked for any local mangoes being exported. With how the locals are strictly monitoring these, Palawan as a region is a beautiful desire island to wander and be lost--all at the same time. 

As a traveler, you seek out those breezy places where all you will ever do is breathe in and out. Inhale and exhale the fresh mountain wind that you'll never ever find in modern areas. 

As a present to fellow travelers, this photo near the coast houses the boats used for its main livelihood: island hopping tours. At this very hour, you'll see various locals selling pearls and sadly, some try to lure you to buying the fake ones. (this remains a warning since they carry around IDs to make sure they are valid vendors but some are tricky). They went from a pearl earring worth 1,000 pesos down to 500 and this convinced my colleague (the one in the photo) to buy it. 

This should be good information to everybody that buying pearls in El Nido is a good business. Other travelers make this as their bow and arrow to finance their travels. Pearls in Puerto Prinsesa are more expensive but you'll find a couple few individuals disparaging Pearl sellers in El Nido who sell the fake ones and add colorful descriptions just to lure their buyers. Who are we to judge by which we all know fire melts plastic and all their merchandise tolerate the 2-second flame. Local ordinance in El Nido disallows the selling of fake pearls so you be the judge. 

The early morning stroll marks a good traveler's hunch. The crowd walks at 8 so better be here as early as 5 or 6 to witness the morning by the beach spectacle. These kayaks near me are colorful and vibrant. Some locations like the Small Lagoon offer 300 pesos for 2 people and 500 pesos for 4 people. 

The same goes to the boats queued as the low tide is evidently beautiful in El Nido. It's quite unfortunate for a tropical country to welcome the rain showers but that's just the beauty of it. 

I took another shot hoping you'll see the rest of the island hopping paraphernalia right behind me. This is unlikely in Boracay where you'll see every other tourist walking down the aisle and occupying large spaces. 

PS: Welcome to the Philippines. 

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