Palawan – El Nido and Port Barton 

After two flights, an overnight in Puerto Princesa, two tricycle rides and a six and a half hour van ride we arrived in El Nido – a beach town on Palawan island. We settled into our hostel (Spin) and set about to explore the town. The town is buzzy with tourists, full of stalls selling various jib (as Daz would say), restaurants, bars, dive shops and tour operators. El Nido is considered quite touristy  (although everything is relative and to us it didn’t feel too busy) and attracts young backpacker travellers (like us lol!). 

One of the main things to do is go on boat tours. There are four to choose from – Tour A, B, C or D with A and C being the most popular. We opted for Tour A which we booked through our hostel (the cost was 1,200 pesos per person which included lunch, water, towels and snorkels). As we went to bed on our first night the rain began and didn’t stop! It was still raining as we got on our tour boat the next morning. However, the sea was warm and it was nice to swim in the rain…we were wet anyway! Usually the boats have about 20 people on them but it was only about 10 of us – Daz, me and a bunch of very happy Brazilians. The first stop was the Secret Lagoon into which we climbed through a hole in the rocks. The lagoon is surrounded by limestone karst cliffs and was created when the roof of a cave collapsed. There were a few people leaving the lagoon as we arrived but then we were lucky (well our group) to have the lagoon to ourselves. We then moved to our next stop (Shimizu Island) for a bit of snorkeling (during which one of the Brazilian guys had his shoulder pop out. Daz had to swim over and pull it back in while snorkeling- what a hero [he made me write that]). We then had a delicious bbq lunch (cooked on the boat) and visited the Large and Small Lagoons. The Small Lagoon is not accessible by boats so we rented a kayak and paddled in through a gap in the rocks. The lagoon was amazingly serene (again we were pretty much the only people there) and was one of the highlights of the tour for us. As was the 7 Commandos Beach, which was our next and final stop. The night before Daz and I were discussing what would be our ideal beach and 7 Commandos pretty much nailed it. A cove with a beach flanked by palm trees, golden sand, clear, warm  and relatively calm waters – perfection! We spent a couple of hours swimming and basking in the sun which finally came out!

As we only had two full days in El Nido we decided not to do another tour and to check out the surrounding beaches instead. You can read more about this on Daz’s blog post El Nido: Nacpan + Las Cabanas = Awesome. We capped off the great day with a delicious meal (pizza and pasta) at L’Atrove restaurant for which we had to queue for over half an hour! Apparently you even have to queue for restaurants on tropical islands! But it was well worth it. 

Spin was a great hostel, clean with friendly staff and a yummy breakfast (omelette, pancakes, and fruit). We also had our first experience using a twin tub washing machine. To those not familiar, Google it! 

The next day was an early start as we had to catch a van to our next destination, Port Barton. As with our first van journey, we sped along the two lane highway with our driver eagerly overtaking tricycles, motorbikes and buses. The country side is really lush and green and it seems that life is concentrated alongside the road. We passed homes, schools, shops, dogs (many of them! And they seemed to love sleeping right in the middle of the road!) and saw the locals go about their day. The drivers would gently toot the horn to signal our approach…the dogs and people were clever enough to move out of the way! As we got closer to Port Barton we veered off the main road onto a gravel path. There is work in progress to build a road but at the moment it is still largely a rocky and muddy path. Our driver skillfully navigated our very full van but we did come to a stop as there was another van bogged in the mud which was eventually pulled out with the help of a tractor and our co-driver. 

Port Barton is much quieter and less touristy than El Nido and we instantly liked it. We had a couple of hours to kill before the boat pick up for our accommodation and went in search for much needed coffee. As we were wandering aimlessly a German girl called out to us and ended up taking us to a great recently opened cafe (Mabuti). The place is run and owned by a very cool Polish family (island hipsters!) and we had great French press coffee. There were also pamphlets on the table about daily yoga classes and at that point I really wanted to stay in town! However, our accommodation, Sunset Colors, was on another part of the island only accessible by boat. 

One word to describe Sunset Colors – amazing! It only has four cottages which are right on the beach and a larger house with a restaurant and a couple of other rooms.  It is basic, that is, no luxuries like hot water and limited electricity (only a few hours a day) but we totally loved it. Sebastian who owns/runs the place and team were very welcoming and the food was delicious. I don’t think we’ve ever come across such friendly and personal service anywhere. 

On our first afternoon in Port Barton we ventured to a local waterfall about 60 minutes walk from Sunset Colors. The waterfall is past a lovely little village, the path to which was super muddy and resulted in multiple thongs (aka flip flops) blow outs…more so for me then Daz! The village itself was beautiful with paths lined with flowers and bushes and as we walked through we passed roosters, (I got chased  by one!), hens, chicks, ducks and pigs. The waterfall itself  was lovely and cooling! As we walked back we also discovered a secluded cove beach nearby where we went for a swim a couple of days later when we visited the waterfall again.  On the way back we even came across a couple of land turtles just chilling on the path.

We returned just before sunset and after a nearly year long hiatus Daz was reunited with his beloved Nikon DSLR. We walked to the tip of the island, sat on a couple of rocks by the mangroves and as I watched the glorious sunset, Daz took photo after photo (a couple of which made it to Instagram). 

Lights went out every night at 9pm and we used the opportunity to catch up on some needed sleep, usually in bed before 9 o’clock. As the generator turned off we were lulled to sleep by the sound of the ocean…quite nice until you wake up in the middle of the night to a raging storm…torrential rain, lightening, thunder, and strong winds. And then you remember you left your clothes on the line (….somehow they were still there the next morning). 

Island hopping boat tours are also popular at Port Barton but at about half the price of those in El Nido. Sunset Colors offered it’s own tour to its guests and we ended up having a private tour (as there was no interest from others on the day). Weather conditions were not perfect, although it didn’t rain it was super windy especially on ‘German Island’ (where we spent a couple of hours and had lunch) but that didn’t detract from the trip and it actually felt less windy once we were back on the boat. 

The afternoon was spent laying around in the hammock and reading the Lonely Planet for our upcoming destinations….ahhhhhh bliss!

Our favourite day was our last full day in Port Barton. We woke up to a sunny morning with calm waters and took the kayak out to a nearby island where we had the beach to ourselves (can you spot a theme here?!) until three other tourists (Brits) arrived. Paddling back was a bit harder against the tide but we did pretty well and barely shouted at each other! 

In short, Palawan was awesome! We both would have loved to spend more time there and hopefully we’ll be back one day.

After a 12 hour journey we made it to Cebu and checked into the Radisson (a bit of an upgrade but I would take Sunset Colors any day!). Now, a hot shower. Tomorrow, Bohol!