Tour A

Besides the towns power switched off 6.30am to 2.30pm the other annoying thing about El Nido is that theirs no ATM’s and “OG’s” the place I’m staying only takes cash so they don’t accept credit cards. Also most of the activities around here that cost money only take cash. I knew about the no ATM issue but would think the accommodation would take credit cards. What this meant I had to be careful as to how much I spent in my time at El Nido. I only had around P10,000 on me, so that would need to pay for my accom, food, booze and the activities (one night I had to sacrifice my dinner so I could booze it up). One thing for sure if I wanted to see more of Bacuit Archipelago id need to get on a boat.

Organised through my accommodation I was set to do some island hopping for the day. There’s three types of tours which take you to different places around the Archipelago. From word I heard that tour A and C were the best tours. I picked tour “A” cause it was the cheapest at P700 but then you have to add some bullshit “Environment tax” which was P200, a tax which I believe is just being pocketed by the mayor, because I remember on my kayak voyage rubbish was just littered all over the islands that I visited. Is it that difficult to pay a clean up crew to clear it up?

The tour goes for the whole day. Another 3 tourist accompanied me for the day, a couple from Korea and a Filo chick on vacation. Around 9.30 we headed to the islands, which was a bit rough! It was pissing down and the winds were strong. I had my SLR out and it was getting drenched. As I was the one sitting right at the front so I was exposed to what ever the ocean had to give! Thankfully one of the Korean couple kindly let me put my cam in their waterproof bag. Once we eventually got to the islands the seas started to ease and we begun cruising through the protected parts from the winds. The first stop was a little beach spot where we would have lunch. During my time here in the country I’ve noticed the people love to have early lunches/eat a lot. Anyways the price of the trip included food, so the boatman’s prepared our lunch, which were fish, rice, chicken, pork and salad. While that was getting cooked this gave us the chance to wander around the area, swimming and taking in the new scenery.

After enjoying our lunch we set sail to the next island. It was a snorkeling spot so we got the chance to swim around with the tropical fishies for a while. We then headed to a place called “Secret Lagoon” because it’s only accessible by swimming through a little rock opening. The lagoon reminded me of that other lagoon I went by kayak. Aqua coloured water and just scenically beautiful. We had one more spot to go, it was nothing special just a beach like spot where they had a little shop where u could buy some snacks and of course fresh coconuts. From there we headed back to El Nido at around five in the arvo and that pretty much wrapped up my day.