Port Barton and El Nido

Port Barton and El Nido were the second part of our stay in the Philippines, still in the island of Palawan which we decided to stick with, since we have been taking so many flights we couldn’t be bothered to fly in between other islands having just two weeks to spend here.
We got picked up from Puerto Princesa at 8am, with a minivan that was empty at the time which made us hope well for the trip. We tried to sit at the front since Bruce has long legs, but they told us we had to be in the second row, (which was too small even for me) since the mini van would be full and some people had reserved the front seats. I tried to argue saying that they didn’t tell us we could book, and the driver conveniently pretended to have forgotten his English at that point.
Anyway we slowly picked up people until 9:30am! It was 14 of us in total, in a minivan that we thought could only fit 9 people. All the bags were put on the roof, with ropes to try and keep them from falling – luckily it didn’t rain otherwise we would have got everything soaked.
Amongst others that joined the bus, there were three dutch, two girls and a guy, all blonde and very beautiful. The guy was taller than Bruce and also struggled at the back with his knees being squashed against the seat for three hours.
There was also a family of three, parents in their 60s and daughter, and the parents had never been out of Europe, and they literally took photos non stop during the entire journey.
The trip wasn’t particularly pleasant, the driver went so fast, and the road was so windy that I became different shades of green and white and almost vomited on the people sitting in front of me.
When we arrived we had the last 20km on an off track road which was so bumpy. We were warned before, but it was worse than expected.
Once in Port Barton we had to register our names and wait on the beach for the boat to pick us up to go to Thelma and Toby’s Camping adventure. A deserted beach that can only reached by sea, with only 7 tents. The boat arrived 1 hour late, and we were left on it for 1 hour before setting off to the island. The captain re-appeared after an hour with a large piece of exhaust pipe and no explanation or apology. Okaaay.
It was very humid and it started raining SO much while we waited that we started thinking whether it was a good idea to go on a deserted beach under the rain and sleep in a tent.
The boat on the way there took 45 minutes and the rain and the rough sea soaked us along the way making us even grumpier.


We arrived and had a quick lunch as it was already 3pm. All the food is included in the price of the stay, and it’s very delicious (only philipino dishes, but very good).
Slowly our grumpiness faded away, as we realised we were in a paradise place with a private beach, the sound of the ocean, amazing food, and like-minded people to socialise with.
We met Don and Adam, very funny London lawyers, and we met a nice couple Josiane and Bruce that lived in Antibes who gave us good tips on El Nido which is where we are going next. Along with Joe from Leicester who works for a tour company and was good fun. Toby, the canadian owner is also a very interesting guy. He told us the story of this place, and how he discovered this beach 35 years ago while he was kayaking on his own looking for somewhere to camp. He stopped here and hasn’t left since, and we can understand why. Initially it was just a small camp with tents, but slowly they imrpoved it adding a roof so that they could leave the tents here, and then cut the jungle back a bit more to add a couple of cottages too for themselves. One day 5 years ago, a friend of Toby’s that came here several time told him he should do this for a living, as people would be willing to pay to spend time here. Ever since it has become a paid for camping spot, and the friend also has to pay every time he comes! It’s always fully booked, and Toby has no plans of making it any bigger (luckily as the size and privacy is what makes it special) – so make sure you book in advance, and ask for the further tent from the kitchen as our was quite noisy. Toby also told us that they tried to build a road at some point but he made them stop, as he wants the place to remain secluded, secret and deserted. It was so amazing to spend a couple of days here.
The first afternoon was very chilled, swimming in the sea and having a drink looking at the breathtaking sunset while chatting with the guests in front of the bonfire as the dark started to come. There was also a very cute little boy playing around, who was the son of one of the staff, and also a very cute puppy which as you can see from the photos kept us very entertained throughout our stay.

Day 2
We woke up early since our tent was quite close to the kitchen, and also the humidity was very strong overnight which kept us a bit awake. The sun was shining! We had breakfast looking at this breathtaking view of the clear water and a little deserted island in front of us. After breakfast we took a kayak and went snorkeling near the deserted island. We saw a lot of fish, probably about 15 different types and also some very interesting looking corals. At one point after about an hour of swimming, I spotted a stripey eel (purple and black) exactly in front of me and I started panicking and moving like crazy. Since we were in a shallow bit, I started to hit corals all over with my knees and elbows, and made Bruce also freak out so he started doing the same. It would have been so embarassing if anyone saw us! Luckily no one did but we still felt pretty ashamed of ourselves.
As we got back we started walking on the beach towards some beautiful rocks at the end of the beach.
We had lunch and realised that we had the entire beach for ourselves (just us, and our new friends Don from Scotland and Adam from Newcastle), since most people had left and the new people hadn’t arrived yet. After lunch we just enjoyed the view, chatting away about travels, life, love, work and much more. Such nice people! We are sure that this place only attracts nice people.
After being lazy we decided to have a game of beach volley. After the first ten minutes we were already sweating! Brucey and I lost the first game but won the second.
We decided to have a sea break before the final match, but the final match never happened as we were enjoying so much our fresh swim after playing that we ended up staying there almost until sunset, when it was time for the first beer and then many more during and after dinner. The new people arrived, and we met a nice couple from New York and a nice couple from France that lived in Reunion Island near Madagascar.

Day 3
If it wasn’t for the bad sleep in the humid tents, and the lack of showers since there is no running water here (also no flushing toilets), we would have stayed much longer at Toby’s and Thelma. But we are so happy we stopped here and this is definitely our highlights of the Philippines so far!


We took our boat after having a huge pancake for breakfast, with Don and Adam who are also heading to El Nido today. While on the boat we were all really quiet and sad, as we slowly saw our spot of paradise fade away over the super calm and clear sea water.
This time we didn’t go back to Port Barton which is where we arrived, but we kept going to San Vincente which is a bit further North. This great tip from Toby saved us an hour and a half of rough roads to get to our destination. The mini van was much more pleasant this time, less fast and more comfortable since we got the front seats. In only 2:30hrs we arrived in El Nido. We got dropped in the centre and had to take a tricycle to get to our resort, but the tricycle left us at the beginning of a road without really showing us where to go… We walked 20 minutes in the baking sun at noon, and finally arrived in our tiny but clean resort called Angel Nido. I had a huge smile on my face when I realised the owner is Italian (from Rimini, although unfortunately couldn’t meet him since he is back home now as the season is almost finished here), and they have prosciutto di parma, and I had an amazing pasta for lunch which made me forget about the long journey straight away!
The view from where we eat was pretty stunning. The rest of the afternoon Bruce spent it snoring away, while I caught up with la mamma who is about to depart for her Camino de Santiago tomorrow! 700Km in one month, I am so proud of her, and I wish I could give her a hug of support before her exciting departure.
We had to go to El Nido town to try and get some cash, and we ended up walking around for about 2 hours, trying 4 different places, only to find out that the only one ATM ran out of cash, and all the other places were either closed or didn’t do cash back. In the end Don and Adam gave us a useful blog where you have to register and order money for yourself (World Remit) which you can then pick up later in the day. It was quite busy in El Nido, with lots of trycicles around, and after our two days in a deserted beach we were pretty spaced out by the traffic and the noise.
Defeated, too hot and without cash we decided to have a nice meal next door from our hotel, in a resort called Cadlao which looked very nice and posh and also takes card (one of the very few), the portions were huge and SO tasty. I had the fish of the day with coconut milk sauce which was just amazing, and Bruce was defeated by a massive seafood curry. He reckons even Dave “Fatboy” French would have struggled.
Bed early as we are knackered, and early start tomorrow for our boat day.

Day 4
After hearing horror stories about the organised tours being so busy and touristy, we decided to get a private boat and set off early to beat the crowds (as weirdly with 4 people or more it costs the same per person as group tours). Luckily we had Don and Adam to share the boat with, and also we met a lovely couple from Kent, John and Becky who also joined us for the day.
We decided to do tour A (there are tour A, B, C and D here, very unusual names, each doing different island hopping… we keep hearing that A and C are the best ones so we started with A).
We set off at 7:30 am, and visited small lagoon first where we swam in, and it was just the six of us. Very beautiful. Bruce wore a life vest, which made us all laugh since the water was quite low and you could stand!
Second stop was big lagoon, which we had to canoe in since it was too big and too deep to swim. Very nice and again only us! We had to pass through a small entrance in between rocks, and apparently that’s where it creates a cue when it’s busy.. but luckily we were so early there wasn’t a soul!
Third stop was to snorkel off the boat, we saw some beautiful fish but we had to swim within a million jelly fish which did spoil it a bit. Luckily they weren’t stinging but still quite annoying!
Fourth stop was secret lagoon, which started to get a bit more busy. The beach was still beautiful though, and we had our lunch of barbecued fish and chicken and some amazing mangos and bananas for dessert.
After lunch we went to our last stop, papaya beach, where we snorkelled again and chilled on the beach. Snorekelling was better this time, with less jelly fish. We saw a couple of sea snakes, stripy black and light purple/blueish with a yellow head (Banded Sea Kraits). Once we got back to the beach we asked the guys from the crew and they said the snake is not aggressive but it is actually very poisonous and you need anti venom pretty quick if it bites you!
We got back at about 3:30pm, a bit burnt like little lobsters, but happy and satisfied after a great day. After a quick shower we had to head to town to get our cash, and we then met with Don, Adam, John and Becky again to have a few happy hour drinks in a nice bar called Mezzanine which serves 2 cocktails for 1 between 4 and 6pm for only £3.50 (200 pesos).
After a few, we got hungry and started wondering to get some food. The most famous pizza in town was our number 1 choice (called Altrove) but it had a huge queue, so we moved on to a place next door but found some awful reviews on trip advisor so ended up just ordering one more beer. We then had dinner at a place called Habibi which had slightly better reviews but the food was pretty average. Despite that we had a lovely time with great company.
Tired and blasted by the sun we went home for a long night sleep, ear plugs and no alarm tomorrow!

Day 5
We literally did nothing. Chilled around our hotel, and met a few people passing by. We tried to plan a bit more of South America, and I started reading the Japan Lonely Planet since our trip there is getting closer!
At around sunset we started chatting with a friendly couple, the guy from Australia called Matt and his girlfriend Tatiana from Spain. We ended up booking tour C with them for tomorrow, again with a private boat since the cost is no higher than the public tour!
We watched the beautiful sunset with them in front of a beer, and then decided to get some food together, with also John and Becky, again at Cadlao next door to where we are staying. This time we ordered one main in two as we learnt our lesson from last time. Very nice meal with great company. Tomorrow early start for tour C.

Day 6
We left just before 8am with the boat after a nice English breakfast. The boat crew is formed by two brothers in their (very) early twenties, and the boat is owned by their dad. Their names are Jay and Jerek and they were very friendly and nice.
Our first stop was hidden beach, and we were the first and only ones there. So beautiful, probably the most beautiful beach we’ve seen so far… Some fantastic pointy rocks surround a pretty secluded white sand beach with palms and jungle behind it. One of our favourite stops amongst the different island hopping spots.
Second stop in the morning was Secret Beach (they all have such unusual names…NOT). The only way to reach it is to swim through a hole in the rocks, which is underwater when there is high tide (so the only way to get in is to swim under) – as we swam through the small entrance with the snorkles there we so many amazing fishes under it and so many colourful ones when we got in as well. This one unfortunately was already very busy at that time, one boat arrived at the same time as us, and it was full of people, and two boats arrived soon after. The noise and the amount of people in the small space spoiled it for us. Also as we snorkelled we could see that many corals had been ruined by tourists, and people wrote their name on them with rocks…What’s wrong with people? It made me so angry. Bruce also slipped on the rocks and hit very badly his toe against a rock and was in pain for a few minutes. Obviously the complaint went on for days, but to be fair it did look pretty nasty and the toe went purple.(Rob: Nurse!!!)
Anyway we left pretty quickly, it’s a shame because it would have been very beautiful otherwise.
The next stop was an amazing snorkelling spot, where we saw huge shoals of fish, colourful and weirdly shaped corals, a huge angel fish (very very tall and thin, like a leaf) and some amazing long ones with a very thin nose. Bruce also claimed to have seen a pretty blue seahorse, but I have no guarantee.
He broke his mask as he swam, of course in the furthest place from the boat, and since there were a lot of jellyfish I had to get back to the boat and get him a new mask. Good for fitness, but I was pretty destroyed when I got back to him even if we met half way through. It was the most beautiful spot for snorkelling and we really enjoyed. Like in a safari, you never know what you are going to get! As we left we saw a huge sea turtle floating in the surface, and she popped her head out as if to say hello. Very cute, shame we didn’t swim with her!
Our next stop Star Beach was yet another deserted beach, with non other boat than us. So nice, and the water was so clear. Like in a postcard. We chilled here for a bit and then it was time for lunch, which we had on the boat.
Just before lunch Bruce tried to fish with the line, as he saw our crew fishing earlier (they allegedly caught our lunch when we were snorkelling!). After five minutes of trying Brucey had a catch! A funny looking puffer fish, which all of a sudden puffed up and became ball shaped (pesce palla!).


After lunch we made our way to our last stop, Helicopter island. The island looks like a helicopter half sunk in the sea, or as we noticed it could be a guitar or a double base or a whale. Nice beach, which got busier and busier. It was again the right decision to have our private boat (for the same price as a public tour!) since we arrived first in most places, and we left as they started to get busy.
We chilled on the beach for a while, and as we were lying down in the shade for a bit, we suddenly heard a goat making a sound very near us. She wanted to steal the remainder of a coconut that we had drunk and that was in between us. So funny, she kept digging her horns in Brucey’s (fat) belly!
I wonder how goats survive on these almost deserted islands!


We got back at 4pm and had a nice shower, watched our amazing sunset from the terrace of the hotel, with a beer of course and then headed for dinner at a place called Maruki which also has an outdoor cinema and live music. We had a steak and a couple of nice glasses of red wine, and finally had some dessert (which are very rare here) a chocolate fondant as I was craving very much my chocolate intake! After dinner we ended up staying to watch Blow with Johnny Depp. It was a bit spoilt by a group of locals burping on our neck UBER loudly every 5 minutes.
Day 7
We wanted to do some admin but didn’t hugely succeed as wifi was sooo slow – one thing you do miss sometimes – fast wifi. Bruce also had a (another!) leak in his flat to arrange to be fixed. I started to study the Japan Lonely Planet though and we kept working on our South America plans. In the evening we had dinner at Altrove, a famous pizza place. We had to cue for 20 minutes, and wait for the pizza half an hour but I must admit it was worth it – the pizza was very very good, with wood oven (forno a legna) and with real parma ham!

Day 8
We decided to not get caught in admin for too long, as it’s our last day in El Nido. We booked a few things for South America in the morning and then went to Las Cabanas beach at lunch time. We wish we came here earlier as it was a real paradise and only 15 minutes with the tricycle. We had a very nice lunch (spicy fried squid) and chilled all afternoon with great music, comfy chairs and a great atmosphere. Our friends from our hotel Matt and Tatiana also joined us and we ended up having a few beers and then cocktails and dinner with them at Mezanine. A great and relaxing last day…

Day 9

A bad day. We had our last breakfast at Angel Nido and were sad to say goodbye to our new friends as well as the very helpful family that runs the resort, especially Nora who was so nice and helpful. The day then involved 6 hours on the horrible minivan with swirly roads and zero sleep, and my face getting greener and greener very close to vomiting, then flight to Manila and stayed overnight near the airport in a very surreal condominium with thousands of flats that looks a bit like an endless prison. The room was ok and we’ll be here only a few hours before we head to Japan tomorrow – I am overly excited as it’s the country I most wanted to visit and I most waited for as part of this trip!

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