Da Jeepney Diaries: El Nido

There will probably be no other place I can say is more beautiful than El Nido. The long 7 hour trek on a one lane bumpy dirt road , in a 15 person shuttle van, that should ideally hold about 10 people, was a big pain in the ass but I guess you have to travel through hell before you can get to paradise. El Nido is a place you want to describe to people so they can have a glimpse of where you've been but also not tell a soul, so you can keep this place all to yourself. It's a place where getting there will make you never want to travel again and when you arrive will never need to.

Once there we were greeted by the most personable and laid back hotel staff/ waitress I've ever met, Carla, Jocelyn and Beth. The staff here are the kind that if you ever need anything they'll go above and beyond to assist you but could also catch them taking a nap on the couch overlooking the beach or swimming in the water to cool of from the hot weather. The hotel accommodation was a standard room with two single beds, a clothes cabinet, a bathroom (with no defined space of toilet, shower, and sink) and all lighting was fluorescent. The room might of been upgraded since we were one of the few rooms that had air conditioning.

The day usually starts when the power turns off which is daily between 5am- 6am. That's when our air conditioner and fan automatically turn off. We could be sound asleep but the second the the power shuts down the humidity sinks in and your up the rest of the day. Since there's really no infer structure in El Nido, each individual building is runned by it own generators.

In El Nido you can spend the day however you like, whether it would be lounging on a hammock by the beach reading a good book, going on a boat ride to a secret beach, hiking through the forest to a the top of mountain over looking the islands, snorkeling, island hopping, an over night back packing trip to different small islands or you can just get pissed drunk all day on the beach. In this town there's no fixed schedule or itinerary, you're free to make the day however you like.

Here are a few pics of El Nido. Unfortunately I didn't take nearly enough.

Landing on heart island before having lunch on the beach.

The bout tour which is roughly 650 pesos= $ 13 dollars each came with lunch barbecued right on the beach. We had fresh fish, BBQ pork chops, rice, some sort of tomato and zucchini plate and banana's