Excursion to Palawan

I know our last couple of blogs have been novels, but Robby and I were finally able to take a break from the craziness of research and go on a vacation! So this blog is going to be mostly photos, hooray!  Before I get into things, I should also say that our blog apparently doesn't send updates to all of you when we post (sorry!), I'm not sure how to fix it so I guess just check back every week or so.  We have not given up blogging and are going to do our best to keep them coming so just keep checking back!  Alright, now for the vacation!

While Easter in the Philippines does not get the month-long celebration that Christmas gets, the country still takes the holiday a bit more seriously than we do back home.  Not much work gets done in the week leading up to Easter Sunday (referred to as Holy Week), and most people travel home to the provinces to visit family or celebrate with friends.  There are also several festivals, one in which people nail themselves to crosses just as Jesus was.  Just a little more enthusiastic (read: fanatical) than they are back at home about the holiday! Robby and I decided to skip the crucifixions and instead take advantage of Holy Week as a chance to get away from his field sites and explore other parts of the Philippines.

We decided to go to the island of Palawan, the western most island of the Philippines:

The long, skinny one SW of us in Manila.

Northern Palawan, beginning with the town of El Nido and heading north, is known for the Bacuit Archipelago: a bay with islands and rocks jutting out of the water. Most tourists rent bangkas (the local boats) and go on day trips exploring out in the bay.  While perusing through the Lonely Planet Philippines book we have, I came across a company called TAO Philippines.  This company took this idea and expanded it into a much larger expedition where you take 5 days and 4 nights and make your way from El Nido to Coron (see map below), or visa versa.  They do tours that are off the beaten track and away from typical tourist destinations and offer a more local view and experience of the Philippines.  The trip isn't really planned other than the time you leave El Nido and the time you arrive in Coron.  The in between is up to the crew and the guests as far as what they want to see, how long they want to spend on an island or how long they want to spend in the water.  It is a relaxed, go with the flow kind of vacation and it sounded perfect for us! 

Zoomed-in photo of Palawan island.  El Nido is at the northern most tip of  Palawan and Coron is on the smaller island just north of it, but also a part of Palawan.

The tour had availability for 5 days and 4 nights during Holy Week so we booked three spots!

Yup, three because...

My sister came to visit!

Christy and I try to go on a "sister trip" every year, and so this year we decided to do a week in the Philippines (as I was conveniently already there) and then we went to Thailand for a week (another story for another blog).  Christy arrived without any issues at customs which was a relief because...

We were a little worried as one entire suitcase 

was full of tubes for Robby's research and we had no idea if bringing in thousands of them would raise any suspicions.

I believe she actually brought over 3,000 centrifuge tubes as well as two scales as back-ups to the ones Robby's mom had shipped.  Since we can't buy the scales here we figured it would be a wise precaution to have a back up of each one in the event that one of them breaks before we finish collections.  It turns out tubes are ridiculously expensive here as well so Christy's trip couldn't have worked out better for Robby and his budget, bringing these over saved him hundreds of dollars.  Thanks sister!

 Christy got into Manila late and we flew to Palawan the next afternoon so there was not much time to show her around Manila.  

Before heading to the airport we stopped by our favorite local restaurant for lunch and ordered 5 of our favorite Filipino dishes for her to try.

Then we headed out across the gorgeous blue waters of the Philippines to Palawan.

 We spent the first two nights in El Nido town.  Our hotel sat on a beach looking out over the Bacuit Archipelago.  There are rocks jutting out from the crystal clear water, some of them are large enough to have villages and beaches, others are just stone coming out of the water. It is a breathtaking setting and we could have easily spent the week there and enjoyed it!

Looking down the beach toward El Nido town.

The streets of El Nido.

The view from our hotel.

While in El Nido we all went scuba diving.

We saw more unique marine life than I've ever seen, and Robby even saw some that he had never seen before.  Check out the video as we got a bunch on the GoPro, here are some screenshots of a few things though!

Believe it or not that is a fish! So camouflaged, wouldn't have known until it moved! 

There were also these cleaner shrimp that would come up and pick things off your skin, look closely they are clear.

We saw several different kinds of puffer fish and box/cow fish, my favorites!

Including this fish, which is a type of puffer called a Toby!

There were a lot of clown fish, and several with babies.  The parents defended them whenever anyone got close.

The little guys weren't afraid of anything!

We got to see a lot of Grouper as well

And schools of huge Jacks, just an unreal number of fish surrounding us!

More clown fish, they love their anemones!

Christy also got to see her first turtle!  She said her scuba diving career is now complete and will probably never go again.  Can't top getting this close to one!

Those are fish on its back, usually they attach themselves to sharks, but there are hardly any sharks left in Filipino waters so I guess they decided to find a new host.

My favorites were the nudibranchs.  These tiny guys are gorgeous colors and are small but pretty majestic looking in my opinion.  We saw several, one was all white with orange designs.  So so cool! 

After our short stay in El Nido, we had a briefing with our crew where we were told how things would go, roughly, and also were able to meet the other people on our boat.  There were people from all around the world.  We were the only Americans, there were people from Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, England, France, Jamaica and the Philippines all on our trip.  We had a great group of people and our crew were all local guys from various parts of Palawan, some from small islands that we saw as we meandered our way up to Coron.

This was our boat, the largest bangka I've ever seen!

Remember bangkas are what the boats are called here, they have the beams on the sides to prevent the boat from tipping, and also allow them to go in much shallower water than a normal boat.

This was the crew (in blue shirts) plus the rest of us, we are on the right tip of the bow.

The trip was exactly as it was described.  A very relaxed atmosphere.

Every couple of hours we would stop at either a beautiful beach,

a good snorkeling spot,

or to find a deep spot

and go cliff jumping!

There is Christy taking the plunge.

Beautiful form!

I couldn't tell you what happened each day, they all sort of blurred together, so I'll give it to you in photos that are in no particular order!

Some coves/caves we explored.  The water was this beautiful color the entire trip, it was unreal!

Most nights we had a stunning sunset.

We always found our island campsite before it got dark so we were on land before sunset.

Accommodations varied from night to night, but TAO has done an excellent job finding locations for camps en route.

They either rent land from locals and use their lodging, behind us is an old village now owned by TAO.

Or buy land and build their own.

They have hired architects from all over the world to help them design typhoon proof structures.  The design they came up with looks very much like a birds beak (above).  It is open in the front and back and built out of bamboo and local leaves as well as nylon.  Everything in the Philippines is held together with nylon, from houses such as these to the bangkas.

They provided us with bug nets, a sleeping pad and a pillow and we slept on bamboo platforms inside (this is inside of the bird beak structure).

Some nights the structures were huge (look closely, remember clicking on the photos enlarges them) 

and everyone slept in one as they were two stories and had enough platforms for all 20 of us!

Other nights we were in cabins or these stand alone platforms with a roof and canvas sides that folded down.

Regardless of what we slept on, the view was always breathtaking when we woke up! This is looking out one of the bird beak structures!

The crew would provide breakfast before we got back on the boat.  It ranged, but was always delicious and mostly local food!  

This morning they climbed the trees and got enough coconuts for each of us.

They cut them open, with a machete of course, and gave us the water, then we filled them with fresh fruit and yogurt to eat for breakfast.  So yummy!

After breakfast each morning we would break down camp and go back to the boat.

The crew shuttled things on the kayaks

The boat was always off shore a decent distance so this meant snorkeling or swimming out to the boat. 

 Once on board we would set out and spend the day cruising around.

You had to swim through a cave to get into this little cove, luckily we arrived at low tide so you didn't have to go underwater to get through the opening!  We left before the tide came in as well, thankfully.

In the cove there was a cuttlefish (or as D would call it, a Cuddle Fish) one of the crew found, first time any of us had seen one!

Hanging out in our secluded cove!

We tended to not have the cameras off the boat with us, but occasionally we got some photos with the three of us! 

Here is a look at another one of our campsites.  The beach between those rocks was our camp, so tucked away our bangka couldn't even get that close.  We all either swam or took the kayaks from the boat to get to our camp.

View from camp, looking out from the beach you could barely see in the last photo.

Robby was in absolute heaven and as the resident Marine Biologist, he was constantly answering questions and impressing everyone with random facts (there was a 10 year old on the trip who prompted a lot of the questions, but everyone was eager to hear the replies)

One beach that none of us will forget is the one pictured below.  We anchored here for lunch, we always ate lunch on the boat.  For those of us that got seasick it made lunch pretty miserable which was a shame because the food was phenomenal!  Anyway, as we pulled up we saw tons of large blackish looking circular things in the water.

Our crew told us they were turtles, but they kept laughing so nobody was really sure what was going on.

On closer inspection we found out they were actually HUGE lions mane jellyfish.

After seeing the enormous jellyfish, everyone opted to be taken to shore in the kayak after lunch, minus Robby.  He put on his rashguard and jumped in with these huge jellies.  He couldn't understand why everyone wasn't clamoring in to get a better look at these beautiful creatures!  

He got the footage on the GoPro so you all can enjoy from a very safe distance!

After seeing that he made it unharmed to the beach,  Robby and I went out on one of the kayaks so that I could get a closer look at them.  They were a beautiful purple color and their tentacles were short so I decided I would swim back to the boat with Robby.  He gave me his rashgauard and he went in without one.  They were the most amazing form of life I have ever seen!  They also had tiny little fish living amongst their tentacles as they used the jelly as protection from predators.  Absolutely fascinating and gorgeous to watch from inside the water!

I'm trying to think what else to tell you all about. There was constant laughter and immediate friendships between the crew and all of the guests.  It was really a great group of people.  Oh let me tell you a little about our massive bangka!

Our bangka had two benches under a shaded tarp in the center of the boat.

Below the benches was the cabin where we kept all of our bags so they'd stay dry.

There was also an upstairs sun deck with lounge chairs (left) and the kayaks were stored on planks on the side (right)

There was also a large kitchen in the back of the boat, under the upstairs deck, where the crew was generally congregated preparing meals and snacks.  I wish I had more photos of the boat, but unfortunately Christy and I are having trouble sharing our photos so all I have are the ones from our iPhones and GoPro, none with her nice camera!  So go ahead and click the link and enjoy the video of our trip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lnw7UeLlN7s

As I said, I wish I had more photos to show you all of the beautiful sites, but just know most places

 looked about like this 

and we all had a fabulous time!

It was the tropical paradise you'd imagine 

and Christy, Robby and I relaxed and enjoyed it to the fullest.

Unfortunately, I was sick throughout almost the entire trip.  Ever since my accident I have become really susceptible to motion sickness and I was sea/land sick for the majority of the trip.  However, it was hard to be miserable surrounded by that beauty and I would honestly probably do the whole thing again, with a lot more medicine.  I was not the only one who suffered, I think everyone except for Christy (somehow!) was down at least one day or night.  We wondered briefly if it was something we ate, but more likely it was a combo of sun all day, forgetting to drink enough water, sea sickness and the heavy drinking that went down each night.  The crew provided liquor drinks every night, an endless supply of local rum and ice tea (I think, I didn't actually get to partake in the drinking).  Before leaving, the crew also took orders for cases of San Miguel beers so guests each put a request in and were encouraged to buy enough for themselves for each night so nobody ran out and started drinking someone elses.  A case is 24 beers so Robby and Christy got one for themselves.  Turns out the two men from the Netherlands bought 12 cases, each.  That's 288 beers for a 5day/4night trip, a piece.  Like I said, heavy drinking went down at night, but there were many cases leftover at the end of it as, despite everyones best attempts, they couldn't finish all the booze that were purchased.

On that note, I will leave you with a fun fact about not just the drinks, but the food on our trip.  TAO actually has a farm on one of the islands and a sort of training camp where their crew is taught how to use local products and cook excellent meals as well as how to handle the boats, etc.  We were actually able to stop by and get a tour of the place and have lunch.  Due to the fact that the TAO expeditions travel in such a remote area of the Philippines there is no infrastructure in place, it is mostly local fishermen villages or empty islands.  We were on a boat with 20 people plus about 10 crew which was a lot of mouths to feed and, as such, there was no way to keep all the food we needed on board.  We picked up supplies throughout the trip at different islands and brought it on board.  Since there was no freezer on board, not only did we pick up fruits and veggies on our stops, but we also picked up our meat.  Sometimes it was fish, or squid or mussels or something fresh from the sea. 

Other times it was fresh from the land.  Look up front, you see that?

Yea, it's a pig!

There were mixed responses on board the morning our dinner showed up still alive.  We had some who were pretty upset (a couple vegetarians) and others eager to see how it would be killed and cooked.  I fell somewhere in the middle.  I figured if I am going to eat the animal, I should be able to handle seeing it killed and prepared so I watched.  Don't read on if you don't want to know more details (or see them).


Scroll down only if you want to.



















The boys were taught how to kill it quickly (a knife to the heart) and then set to work prepping it (skinning and gutting) for dinner.  

Then, they put it on a spit which was a pretty uncomfortable process to watch.  In one end, out the other.  And they stuffed it full of seasoning and other veggies and then tied it up with what else, but nylon!

Then they brought it to camp that night 

and we had a pig roast!

I'd never had pig cooked that way, it was pretty tasty but I felt too ill to really enjoy it.  It was quite an experience though!

They did the same when we had chicken.  Brought them on board and allowed us to watch from the killing to the prepping.

The food was absolutely delicious, fresh food really does taste different.  Absolutely no processed food for five days either.  We got so spoiled!  If any of you ever make it to the Philippines I would highly suggest an excursion with TAO!

Miss you sister, so happy you were able to visit!