El Nido March 13th
Island hopping today in company with the French couple, Fred and Jessica from the room next door.
Fred and Jessica had done a couple of trips previously with the same operator and had negotiated a favourable price for the boat, skipper and lunch. The skipper, Raymundo or his wife, Jocelyn can be contacted on Ph, 09106990115 if you want to avoid the booking agencies.
The boat is based at Corong – Corong Beach so Raymundo had organised and paid for a trike to collect us three from Cliffside Lodge for transport to his beach side house.
After wading out to the boat and loading up Raymundo started the un-muffled single cylinder petrol engine and immediately shattered the morning peace. How Raymundo or Jocelyn have any hearing ability at all after such regular prolonged exposure to that din is beyond me. I have to say that finding a bangka with a different setup of engine will be pretty difficult, from observation they all seem similarly equipped.
The first stop was Hidden Beach, so named due to it being obscured from view on the ocean side by a slab sided limestone island that stands out about two hundred metres from and extends beyond the limits of each end of the beach. Spent a short time here snorkeling, the sea floor was unremarkable but I was lucky enough to find a sea anemone with the Nemo family in residence. Time to try out the underwater capability of my Olympus 850 SW. I'm pretty happy with the result although I have to say it's much more difficult than snapping off shots above water.
From Hidden Beach we motored noisily to Secret Beach, from the number of other boats arriving soon after us it seems the secret is well and truly blown. This is an amazing sight all the same. Access to the beach is gained by swimming through a tiny opening in a limestone cliff into a shallow lagoon, about half and acre in size with a small white sand beach at one end. The lagoon is completely surrounded by walls of jagged dark grey limestone covered in hardy plants.
We visited a few more swimming spots, all of them stunning in their own right but after being surrounded with such spectacular scenery for a few days the impact has dulled somewhat. At one of the beaches we had a lunch of grilled fish and squid with the obligatory rice and a tomatoe salad followed by fresh sliced mango. In my travels in the Philippines I am so far, unimpressed by the cooking. To say it is basic is an understatement when compared to the dishes on offer in China and Thailand. Blue Azul Cafe in El Nido stands out as having made the most effort in preparing the food to add flavour with spices and presenting it in an attractive manner.
After lunch we visited the shrine on Heart Shaped Island, this concrete abomination in an otherwise unspoiled natural landscape is the result of a number of “visions” claimed by various members of the faithful over a number of years. It started out as a wooden cross placed unobtrusively in a natural cave but with ever grander visions has expanded into what stands there today; a decaying concrete dome with a few marble statues of religious significance plus the really ugly concrete pier, doubtlessly built to aid in the construction of the other buildings.
One more stop for a swim on Helicopter Island and then back to Corong – Corong, all in all a pretty good day in good company and with capable skipper and first mate.