Taking A Few Steps Towards El Nido

View from Marina Garden Beachfront Inn

Day 0 - 26 November 2015

So it begins. Our long wait was over. Rewind to June 2015 - we have booked our round trip ticket to Puerto Princesa for 2,011php per person. I know this is beyond cheap but then, not bad for a round trip fare. We were a group of 6 people, particularly my office mates.

Our flight was at 10:00 AM, 26 November 2015. According to blogs, November is the start of the peak season in El Nido. Expecting fully-booked accommodations, we have checked several resorts and inns in the island and Marina Garden Beachfront Inn. We booked 2 standard rooms with aircon directly with them for 3,250php per night. This includes 1 double bed and 1 single bed with a bathroom and complimentary daily breakfast for each person.

As expected, we had a delayed flight with Cebu Pacific. We arrived at Puerto Princesa around 12:00 noon. Just outside the airport, we were welcomed by Kuya Rey, the driver of the van transport that was referred to us by our office mate. But I DO NOT recommend him because we sought help from him on getting tours arranged for us and it did not went well. Anyway, we stopped by Robinson's Mall to have our lunch and buy some groceries since there is a limited supply in El Nido. I suggest that you buy your stuffs in the city especially if your have a private transportation because some items can be present in the island but it can be expensive.

After eating, we started our 5-6 hour trip towards El Nido. The road was like leading to Baguio -full of zigzags and some sharp curves. I tell you now, those people who have weak stomachs must bring their anti-"biyahilo" medicines and some handy plastics just in case. On our trip, we had two stopovers where you can pee and buy something to eat.

Sunset in Taytay, one of Palawan's municipality

We have arrived in El Nido after 6 hours. We went off the van just near our resort since the road was quite small for plenty of vehicles. Also, it's better to walk around to be familiarized with what's around. Well, the town center was small enough that you can walk and explore around. It has a lot of accommodations and food establishments scattered everywhere. It felt like I was walking in Boracay's main road it's just that El Nido had a lot of side streets and it's more peaceful.

Marina Garden Beachfront Inn was located in front of the PNP station so you have the assurance of additional security during your stay. Check-in was smooth and the resort staff were very friendly. We dropped our bags and rested for a few minutes before having dinner. The room was very good and had a home-like feel. I say that you won't expect that the rooms are good unless you see it in the inside.

Gateway to the beach

The resort has a lot of rooms to offer with it's not-so-big property. You can check their website at http://www.mgelnido.com for more information.

Flat screen TV with cable

We decided to buy pork barbecue and isaws for our dinner at a nearby eatery. They several selections for grilled food that are only 10php per stick. My dinner was only 50php for 3 barbecues and 2 cups of rice. Awesome, yeah? Happy tummy plus happy pocket!

We dozed off to sleep early this night for we'll be meeting Mark, our contact for our tours, as early as 8am. So good night for now!

Our Home Away from Home: Coco Grove Dive and Beach Resort

So we arrived at Coco Grove Dive and Beach Resort, our home for the next 3 days at Siquijor .It is along the main highway of the island which made it more accessible for travellers. Actually, most of their resorts in the island are located along the highway so it's easy to look for a place to stay. The resort has 2 entrances, one leading to the main resort and the other is at the Casa Coco Hotel - the hotel part of the resort.

The resort is big enough to have several cottages (with aircon), 3 swimming pools, a gym, a spa, a floating bar, a volleyball court, diving shop and school, 2 restaurants, a pavilion, a souvenir shop, game room, 800-meter beach and many more! For more information, you may check out their website at http://www.cocogrovebeachresort.com/.

When we arrived, the resort staff served watermelon juices to welcome us. (Wow! Did I tell you guys that watermelon is my favorite?)

Here's Macky to welcome you to the resort

The resort itself offers tour packages and various water activities that you can enjoy but it’s a little bit pricey here, as you can see on the picture above. We did not avail of the tours and activities because we had our own arranged tour the following day care of Levin.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring this big resort that we almost got lost. HAHA! The rooms are actually just along the pathway when you take stairs from the shore. Once you get to familiarize yourself with the landmarks, you have nothing to worry about. :) However, it's advisable to use a flashlight when you're out and wandering during night time. There are lamp posts, yes, but it's still pretty dark going back to your rooms at night. Good thing flashlights are provided in each room.

Front view of Salamandas

The resort takes pride its Tubod Marine Sanctuary which is a home for various schools of fish and corals. When the tide is high, you can just actually gear yourself with your snorkeling stuff and do a little swimming from the shore and voila! - you'll be surprised how beautiful LIFE is, under the sea. During the last morning of our stay, our group was fortunate enough to have Levin with us who taught us the basics of snorkeling. He even took care of renting our snorkeling gear at the in-house Dive Shop for free. Haha! Anyway, you can also bring your own gear to enjoy swimming with the sea creatures. But you have to be careful of some Sea Urchins along the shallow area of the beach. It's advisable to have a pair of diving shoes for this activity. For me, I don't have this gear yet so what I did was to walk carefully towards  the snorkeling area and swim (with our life jackets on) once possible to avoid those Sea Urchins. We were on the water for more than an hour that made some of us felt itchy. According to Levin, it was the school of (little) fish, biting us and saying "Good morning!" Hahaha Silly. Anyway, during our activity, we were able to see VARIOUS kinds of fish, weird starfishes that are blue in color and beautiful corals. What a way to start our day, right? :)

Below, you can see other pictures taken at the resort during our stay:

When it comes to food, it’s quite hard to stay  on a budget. We have to eat at in-house restaurants because they do not allow food bought outside the resort. Also, there are limited stores nearby for you to buy food. But if you are a backpacker and a budget traveler, there are plenty of different cheap resorts in Siquijor. You might want to rent a motorbike to go around the island because you can actually do it within a day, as they say. That's how small the island of Siquijor is. 

On my next post, I'll talk about how our day tour went.  

Exploring a Part of Cebu: OSLOB

11 July 2015: Day 1

I was very fortunate that I was able to join a group that decided to travel 3 Philippine provinces in one trip. Bea, whom I known since highschool, told me last April that her boss and a group of friends were planning to do a Cebu-Siquijor-Dumaguete trip in July. Since I have to travel plans yet for that month and me being an adventurer, asked if could join them. When she gave me a GO signal, right there and then I booked my flight from Cebu Pacific. Good thing that they still have a discounted fare that time. I got a MNL-CEB then DGT-MNL route for about 2,200php (Not bad!)

July 11 came and we are to depart MNL at 5:55am. I met Ma'am Jacq (Bea's boss) and friends at the NAIA T3. They were nursing graduates from Makati Med and now some of them are working here and abroad.

We boarded just in time on one of the Airbuses of Cebu Pacific. The flight was on time as well and we landed in Cebu a little past 7:00am.

Kuya Achilles, a MIASSCO accredited driver, picked us up at the airport to have our trip towards Oslob. It was a 3 to 4-hour drive with stops in between for we bought our breakfast at Jollibee and also dropped by Carcar to buy some lechon and drinks. We arrived at Lagunde Beach Resort (part of our Oslob Tour package), around noon to freshen up and drop our bags.

Lagunde Beach Resort's pool area

The resort was okay. It has a lot of rooms and when we got there, we were the only ones who were checked-in that day. They have a pool as you can see above and an access to the beach as well. They also have their own restaurant so you don't have to worry on getting your tummy full. However, their food was a bit pricey. (Tip: You may bring outside food and drinks to save some money) We had a family room that has 3 double deck beds and one queen size bed. The room has its own kitchen and bathroom.

At 1:30pm, we went to meet Kuya Jerome (our tour guide) at the resort to start our agenda for that afternoon. Sumilon Island was our first stop.

Here we are inside our van, excited to explore the famous island in Oslob.

Approaching Sumilon Island. See the turquoise color of the water?

The time that we visited the island, the famous sandbar was still submerged under water (Too bad!). But this did not stopped us from enjoying what Sumilon Island has to offer. The water was so beautiful and was warm too so my friends had a plunged to beat the heat!

 Panoramic view of one side of Sumilon Island

The girls showing of their modeling skills

A little sea creature spotted inside one of the rocks

It's actually fun to examine the rock formations here. Some part of the rocks had water dripping on it that made it moist and maybe that's why there are creatures living inside it.

After Sumilon Island, we headed towards Tumalog Falls. It was just near the drop off point where we road a boat towards the island. We rode the van again going to the falls. There is a 20php per person fee upon entrance. However, we needed to either walk or ride a motorcycle from the parking area leading to the falls. I can't remember how much the ride costs going down but I think it was around 70php per person. We decided to just walk since the road was downhill and a part of the road was very steep so be careful!

Follow the sign

There's Dreb walking down the road

The Tumalog Falls

I was not really expecting much about the falls. But when we got there, I was in AWE. The feeling was very surreal. The water was falling and passing through different rock levels that made it so beautiful. Like I can stare at it for one whole day. You can feel the cold moist coming from the falls once you go closer to it (Ahhh, so relaxing!)

You can see the unique formation of the rocks where the water falls 

Kuya Jerome taking a picture of the girls  plus Jason 

According to Kuy Jerome, the locals fixed the wall when Yolanda struck the country. It is the wall that holds the water from the topmost level of the falls to maintain the level of the water.

After enjoying the cold water and the view, we took a motorcycle (with a driver of course) back up where the entrance of the falls was. By the way, the motorcycles are parked just below the falls so you don't have to worry on walking your way up. It costs 50php per person for a ride. 

Small stores near the parking area

We had our merienda at the small stores near the parking area. There are rice meals, snacks, drinks (water, softdrinks, etc) for a reasonable price and fresh coconuts too!You can buy one at 50php and drink directly from the shell then they can open the coconut for you to eat the its meat for a fee of 20-30php (I'm not sure).

There, there..

After having our merienda, we went back to our resort to enjoy the rest of the night.

Stay tuned for our Day 2 adventure with our Whaleshark encounter.