The last three weeks seemed to have come and gone in a blink
of an eye. We have been thrilled to have Tony’s parents here to show them
around the Philippines. It is one thing
for us to talk about our life over here, but totally different when you actually
experience it. We were sad to wave goodbye to them this morning, but I think
they will be happy to get back to American soil…and central air conditioning!
As a last “hurrah” before sending Pawpaw and Giggy back to the
states, we scheduled a trip to El Nido. I had always heard that El Nido was
beautiful, but the resorts were quite expensive. Tony and I did a little
searching and found a resort that just opened in December and was a fraction of
the price of the other resorts. Just as we were about to hit “book this trip”,
I came across the fact that it is an alcohol-free resort. Time out. No wine
with my dinner? No beer after my kayak ride? I mean, we are on vacation, right?!
No worries. You can bring your own. We
decided this could help us save even more money in the end. There is always a
hiccup, though. We booked the NON-REFUNDABLE resort before researching flights.
You guessed it; no flights were available on Sunday. None. Zip. Zilch. So the
result of me trying to save money backfired when we had to purchase an extra
night at the resort. I have to say, though, not a bad place to be stranded. El
Nido was stunning, the resort was beautiful and we had a relaxing weekend with
Tony’s parents. If the resort could just fix their loading and unloading
process, it would get 5 stars from me!
Just a few (okay MANY) photos from our weekend: (By the way,
Hannah Grace was in Hong Kong for a softball tournament…in case any of you
wonder why she didn’t make the photos)
Coming in for our landing and I thought we might land in the water!
Making their way to the "terminal".
The airports livestock?
It was a little rustic.
And our luggage arrived...fairly quickly, I will add.
To get to the resort, we had to ride an outrigger. First things first, though. Here is our guide, Elmer helping me purchase all the beer in El Nido town.
I am not kidding when I tell you we had to wade out to one of these outriggers to board. I told you the resort needs to work on their loading and unloading.
Helicopter island...I thought it could pass for a whale.
Check out the two toned colors on Tony's shirt. That is how wet we got boarding the outrigger.
And then we had boat trouble. yay. Once they got the boat cranked back up, we came across a sea turtle. The boat driver started to slow down, but we all yelled, "NO! Don't stop!" All of us.
After having the boat stall out and then travelling through quite rough waters, I was so glad to have the resort in sight!
At first I thought they were trying to make it so we would walk from our outrigger to the one in front of the loading dock. I was considering just swimming in.
That wasn't the case, but I really didn't feel this option was much better.
To say I was happy to arrive...without going overboard...would be an understatement!
Just get me a chair and one of those beers Elmer helped me purchase!
My boys!
The next day we took an island hopping tour. Here we are on our first stop at the secret lagoon. You had to climb through this tiny hole to get to a spectacular, hidden lagoon on the other side.
We had the lagoon all to ourselves!
Next we did a little snorkeling. Unfortunately I had the camera in the wrong mode, so I didn't capture any great pictures of the blue starfish or Nemo and Dory. Guess I will have to go back!
Giggy giving snorkeling a try.
Elmer took us to an island with a cave. He told us to climb in this tiny hole and drop to the other side...and we did what he said. That is a lot of trust we put into someone we have known for 24 hours.
Inside the cave
After cave exploring, Elmer took us to Snake Island where two of the resort staff had barbequed a delicious lunch for us.
Luckily the lone monkey on the island didn't try to steal any of our food!
We headed to the big lagoon next. Here our boat was able to ride in amongst other boats and kayakers.
After the big lagoon, we travelled to the little lagoon. We trekked across some rocky waters to get there. In this picture, I am trying to show how another outrigger looked like it was getting swallowed by the sea!
In the US, we have ice cream trucks. Here, they have ice cream outriggers...with music and all!
They also have beer stands.
We transferred from our boat to kayaks to tour the little lagoon. Zoom in and check out who is paddling that kayak!
Here I am with our guide, Elmer. Don't let the paddle fool you. I was taking pictures most of the time.
The next day we kayaked near our resort. Holy cow, it was tough getting to the next island!
It was beautiful, though!
The rest of our trip was spent lounging by the pool and beach.
Fun times! Just missing Hannah Grace!
