El Nido to Puerto Princessa

Today was a travel day for us, making that grueling five hour ride back to Puerto Princessa, over the partially unfinished road. Phillip wanted me to say that this is what we rode in; however, I strive for accuracy! We actually rode in a van like we had been in to get to El Nido. It was an adventure, though, as the bus terminal staff put 20 people in a 15-passenger van. I was lucky and got the seat next to the window. The boy beside Phillip had a grocery sack with the handles hooked over his ears, as he was prone to motion sickness (we talked to his dad at the rest stop). However, it was his sister beside him who actually became ill on the bus. The man crouching in the step area was quick to slide open the window, so at least no incident occurred in the van… just along the outside of the van. Once in Puerto Princessa, we took a motorcycle taxi, similar to the one pictured to our hotel.

Phillip says that this is his favorite hotel so far. The security/doorman got our bags out of the taxi as I paid. The Underground River tour tomorrow, that I had emailed to hotel to arrange, is on. That’s the tour we are most looking forward to, so we were very happy. The hotel had a welcome sign for its guests just outside the reception area.  Nice staff, wonderful room. A table and two chairs on the porch in front of our room. Within a few minutes of trying out the chairs, a staff member brought us an iced drink of some sweet, coffee-tasting juice with little tapioca-feeling balls in it. Not sure what it was, but it was refreshing. Our room has two twin beds, which I prefer as the “big” beds are only an American full-size bed, not even a queen size. In Manila, in a “big” bed, Phillip stole my pillow twice in his sleep and woke me up. The walls are covered in woven bamboo. There’s a desk and stock mini-fridge (bottled water: 22 pesos, i.e. 50 cents. A good price for hotel water… $2.00 in the US at a hotel!) Electrical power 24/7 (we liked our El Nido pension, but it didn’t have a generator so no electricity from 6 am to 4 pm).

After settling in and dropping off our laundry at the reception desk (they have a laundry service!), we walked down the street from the hotel and found the Bay Walk, called a boardwalk or malecon in other countries. Clean, with vendors setting up for some event tonight. A group of kids were rehearsing on a stage. I’m not sure we’ll still be out for that as we are tired from the van and want to rest well for tomorrow’s tour. While we strolled along the Bay Walk, we noticed what first appeared to be a while plastic grocery sack in the water’s edge. As we got closer, we saw that it was a jelly fish, about the size of an inflated Walmart sack. This guy could do some serious harm, unlike the mucousy, translucent small ones that I saw yesterday while snorkeling.  I still don’t want to tangle with any of them.

We had dinner at the hotel this evening. Phillip is developing a taste for pork adobo. He really liked his dinner tonight. I had pork chops with rice (always, dinner come with rice). No mango shake today, but we did have a crepe filled with mango (a la mode) … delicious. The ice cream started to melt when I took this picture, but that just made it taste better. Tomorrow: Underground River!