It's more fun in the Philippines Part 5 (Palawan Trip Day 3)

We woke up for Day 3 with the air reeked of fresh rain and we realised there was some rain in the night. It had stopped so we can still go for the island hopping tour. We were still glad to get a good night's rest at Bill's, decided to get breakfast there before going back to Swiftlets to get changed for the tour. The breakfast was buffet style but food didn't look appetizing, there was corned beef and rice so P was mainly having that. I remember the reviews mentioned that we can get the staff to cook eggs for us, so P ordered two sunny-side-ups.

The tricycle that came to pick us up, this belong to the vendor Faith Agape

After breakfast, we were told that we will still stay another night at Bill's, so we left our overnight stuff with them and walked back to Swiftlets. The guy who was supposed to pick us up for the tour arrived promptly in his trike at 9am. He sent us to Marina Garden Resort where groups of people were gathering to set off for the tours. It is the shoulder season so only some of the bunkas were getting ready to leave and the beach was not too crowded. 

Many many bunkas at the seafront

We boarded the boat and realised that we were actually at the seafront just in front of Seaslugs. Now in the daylight, we could see the restaurant and its surroundings much more clearly. Unlike the previous night, not many tourists were up and having breakfast at the restaurants. 

View of Seaslugs and beachfront in the daylight

There were 9 people in total in our boat, all Filipinos except for another lady and me. The boat sped out towards the nearby island and we stopped at helicopter island first, it got its name as the whole island is shaped like a helicopter. We went up to the beach and were given 45min to snorkel around the area. We took some pictures and wade out to try our snorkels. The guides pretty much left us on our own but they took good care of two ladies in our group who were non swimmers. I reckon it's not easy to do island hopping when you don't have the water confidence, there is so much swimming to do. 

Boatmates took this for us

We took many selfies too

More selfies on Helicopter Island (before we went snorkeling)

The second place we stopped at was quite interesting. It was surrounded by tall limestone mountains and the part we disembarked was shallow with coral reefs so we were told to wear our slippers. After we went into the water, we put on our snorkels and swam along the rocks to this beach hidden among the tall mountains. I believe El Nido used to be even more amazing years back when the view under water and above water were both awesome. Now it's mostly left the top part as too many tourists step on these shallow corals daily to get to this Hidden Beach. Other than the first Helicopter Island, I counted no less than 20 boats docked at the remaining sites even at shoulder season. El Nido is still being discovered and developed into a tourist spot, I believe years later things will get worse if nothing is done to protect the environment.

Entrance to the Hidden Beach

BBQ pit set up by the guys on board

I was starting to get hungry and looking forward to lunch. Once we boarded the boat earlier, the boatmen had set up a bbq pit on one end of the boat and they put a big fish and other seafood onto the grille. As they were getting lunch ready, we stopped at this snorkeling area to do more swimming and snorkeling. When lunch was ready, I was amazed to see the spread prepared by the guys on board. The fish and prawns were really fresh and succulent, it was the best seafood we had tasted in Palawan. The fruits like mango and pineapple were sweet and tasty too. Kudos to the guys for the good seafood lunch!

Very clear water at the lunch area

Very unforgettable seafood lunch

The third destination was also interesting, we stopped at shallow corals once again, but this time we can snorkel and swim through this small hole among the rocks. With our snorkels on, we could see that it was actually hundred feet deep beneath the rocks so it was quite awesome. Beyond the rocks, it was the Secret Beach, I must say this is the most beautiful part of our two days island hopping tours. There were shallow corals all around and also a small beach area surrounded by very tall limestone cliff. Sitting on the beach, the view was magnificent. Unfortunately, we did not have a waterproof camera and did not get to take any photos at all. Nevertheless, we promised ourselves to keep this beautiful view in our memories. 

Boats in front of Matinloc Island

The smaller statue near the beach

Bigger shrine area with seats (some broken)

We had already done a lot of swimming and snorkeling for the day, so I was glad that the final destination was an island we can do some sightseeing. There were two Mother Mary statues on the island and they call this place the Matinloc Shrine. After the previous experience, we made sure we brought our selfie stick and iPhone with us to capture the view. It was not easy as we had to tread on shallow rocks and corals before getting on shore (I was holding my breath and praying hard that P will not lose his balance and drop the iPhone) but it proved to be the best thing to do as there was a spectacular view on Matinloc. Among some huge and steep rocks, some people put in some cemented steps so that we can get on top to a small viewing point. We could see the very clear blue waters surrounding the place from the height, so we took our time to get the selfies done. 

Fabulous view from the top, glad we had our selfie stick!

The shallow corals showing up under clear blue sea

After this island was done, it was time to make our way back home. The boat sped on the sea for quite some time to get us back to where we started as Tour C route went quite far. All of us were quiet, mostly enjoying the moment and a little exhausted from the day's activities. 

Left our footprints here

P reliving his childhood days

We spotted the iconic El Nido words on the beachfront and took some pics there. When we were walking to Swiftlets, we saw children running out of the village school after lessons. We stopped to get ice cream as there were several ice cream and titbits vendors waiting outside the school. We bought some freshly fried turons along the way and it was really delicious too.

Ice cream vendor on the street

Swiftlets in the day

We took our shower in Swiftlets (hot shower run on solar energy thankfully) and packed our things to go over to Bill's. P needed to catch up with his NBA series finals so I took a nap after eating some turons and surfing the Internet. I woke up again to the ringing of the phone and the staff informed me that the electricity supply has resumed at Swiftlets and we can move back if we wish too. After some discussion, we decided to move back for the night even though there was a risk of electric outage again. I felt more comfortable at Swiftlets even though the room was smaller. 

Art cafe spotted but it failed us :(

Looked nice but service was lacking

We walked back to put our stuff at Swiftlets, we were glad to see it in lights again, although we seemed to be the only ones back at the inn. It was almost 9pm, so we walked to the beachfront to look for dinner. P still preferred to have seafood for dinner, so I had been researching hard online. We passed Artcafe and Boutique on our first night and it really have good reviews in Tripadvisor (ranked 9) so we decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, things didn't go well there. There wasn't a dinner crowd by that time but the server seemed a bit nonchalant when we wanted to order. We saw that angus beef steak was the specialty on the menu, P wanted to try it although it was really pricey (900php). He's very particular about steak gravy, so he requested to try the steak gravy before ordering, but we were told there will be a charge. Next, we ordered buko shake and avocado shake and both were not available. P was fuming and looking so angry with the restaurant although we already placed a pizza order with them, I suggested canceling the order and leaving to look for another dinner place. The servers started looking anxious and convinced us to wait for the pizza, we decided to takeout and eat in our hotel room.

Back to Seaslugs again

As the shakes from Seaslugs were pretty good, we decided to get our shakes there again. Fantastic beach time in the summer goes really well with shakes! I lost count of the number of avocado shakes I had during the trip. We also nbought some balots along the way back. The nice thing about our inn was that we could use the microwave and borrow some plates from the 'kitchen area' to have our dinner. We also moved the breakfast table into the room so that we can eat and watch videos on our laptop.

The pizza from Artcafe turned out bad although some reviewers left good comments about its pizzas. The hawaiian pizza had big pieces of tomatoes? and pineapples on it and I could not even taste the ham, luckily we left the place or P would have thrown the pizza on their faces.