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  • Tag: tour c

    • island hopping in el nido: part 2

      Posted at 8:19 am by jasminedesirees, on April 28, 2015

      Continued from Part 1.

      After our morning of frolicking and getting pretty sunburnt on Hidden Beach, we loaded back up on the boat and headed to Matinloc, which was about a 20 minute boat ride away.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      Matinloc is an absolutely stunning island. It has an abandoned mansion and religious shrine built on it, although the mansion is in decay and has been looted. It’s pretty mysterious, and if you feel like doing more research, there are some theories about buried treasure on Matinloc that are kind of cool.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      We had about an hour there to explore and take pictures. There is a set of stairs carved into the side of one of the hills, and you can climb up to the top to get a vista view of the turquoise bay and the emerald green cliffs.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      It is one of the most stunning views I’ve ever seen, but you take your life into your hands a little bit. The cliffs are made from very sharp rock, and you have to climb up a little bit to really get the best view, and if you slipped, even just a little bit, it would have been agony.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      After Matinloc, we headed to Talisay to relax and have lunch. The beach was gorgeous and the water was super clear, I went snorkeling and chased fish around for ages.  Our lunch was really good, our tour guides caught and grilled fish on a BBQ right alongside the boat, and one of the Swedish girls that was in our group had a portal speaker, so once we finished eating we just lazed in the sun and listened to reggae. It was perfect.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      The last stop on our tour was Secret Beach. When we were about 1/2 an hour from Talisay the driver stopped our boat right in front of a solid cliff, and told us to jump out. We all kind of looked at each other, and then did what we were told, and our guide led us to a hole in the cliffs under the water.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      We had to swim up through it, and on the other side was a circular lagoon type beach with towering cliffs all around it. One of our guides showed us that right when you come in, you can actually swim underneath the rocks that make up part of the lagoon floor in tunnels, and go almost to the other side.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      It was the stuff of my worst, most claustrophobic nightmares, but he took our go pro with him, and it’s a pretty cool video.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      El Nido, and especially this tour, was my favourite part of the Philippines. I know there are so many pictures in this post, but I honestly couldn’t choose, the whole day felt like magic.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      Next time we’re in Palawan, I’d like to go diving at the Tubbataha reefs, and check out the Underground River, but I will definitely make time to come back to El Nido.

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      el nido palawan

      Posted in Philippines, travel | 2 Comments | Tagged el nido, Hidden Beach, island, matinloc, palawan, philippines, secret beach, tour c, travel
    • island hopping in el nido: part 1

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on April 16, 2015

      We only had a couple of days to spend between El Nido and Coron, so after taking the night bus from Puerto Princessa to El Nido, hunting aimlessly for our hostel, and then getting 3 hours of sleep, we were up at 7 am to take the El Nido Island Hopping tour the next day.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      There are 4 tours that take you to different beaches and coves, but we were told tours A and C were the best, and they looked like the ones we would enjoy the most. We ended up choosing Tour C, which included stops at Secret Beach, Matinloc Shrine, Hidden Beach, and Talisay Island.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      There were about 10 people in our tour group, from all over the world, and they were all pretty cool. We spent the initial boat ride chatting about the Philippines, places we’d been, and places we’d like to go. Our first tour stop was Hidden Beach, and that’s where most of the pictures in this post are from because it was absolutely awesome.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      Our captain parked the boat, and encouraged us to get off and look around. We got off the boat onto a shallow little rock ledge, and weren’t sure exactly what we were looking at, the cliffs were pretty, but nothing amazing. I guess that’s why they call it Hidden Beach? Cleverrrr…..

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      He directed us to walk to the right towards an opening in the cliffs, which we did, with some difficulty, as the waves were crashing against the rocks, and people kept losing their balance and falling over. It was actually pretty funny, except most of us, including me, were a little scraped up by the time we got to the opening. Do not attempt this journey without some kind of shoes, you’ll be sorry.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      Once we got through the opening, we were faced with one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen. The towering cliffs loomed overhead, hundreds of feet in the air, almost completely surrounding the beach except for the openings at each end. The water was crystal clear turquoise, and it was so peaceful and serene inside.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      We spent about 40 minutes there, taking pictures and then swimming and relaxing and just enjoying it. Once we were back on the boat, we set off for the Matinloc Shrine, more pictures of that in my next post.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      The Island Hopping tours are an absolute must if you are in El Nido, it was one of the best days of our entire trip. The tour only makes 4 stops, but there are so many beautiful beaches and rock formations in that area that the entire day on the boat feels like part of it, you don’t feel like you are just commuting from sight seeing point to sight seeing point.

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      To Be Continued…

      el nido island hopping

      el nido island hopping

      Posted in Philippines, travel | 0 Comments | Tagged beaches, el nido, island, island hopping, palawan, philippines, tour c, travel
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