Underground river and bumpy road to El Nido

Thursday, 19 July 2012

Another early morning in Priscilla's tough vacation programme. After spending half the night twisting and turning in our hot room, I finally found out that switching on the fan in the roof would help the distribution of the aircon air better, so hearing the alarm go off just a few hours later at 7.30 am was not the best of sounds. However, seeing the never ending smile on Priscilla's face helps...

The sun was up as we went up to the open top floor of Puerto Pension for our complimentary egg and toast breakfast. Like for all Lundes, starting off the day with a stunning view is always appreciated..

Like Bobby the Hotel/Tour bus Manager had promised us the day before, the bus showed up at 9.00 am sharp. For 13,000 pesos we had our own driver for 3 days, not bad. Bobby didn't however tell us that he had hired the former local formula 1 champion to drive us around. This guy drove like Mika Hakkinen on speed, crazy...Doing 60 mhp on narrow, winding, terrible conditioned road with men, women, kids, dogs and water buffalos walking just inches from the car is just plain madness! Amazingly, just two hours, a few whiplashes and minor concussions later we finally arrived Sabang and our destination for the afternoon - the underwater river.

The underwater river was recently put on UNESCO's 7 New Natural Wonders of the World list. It's a 8 km long underwater river (tourists only allowed 1.5 km) where fresh water from the mountain meets the ocean. The tidal feature of this river makes it a unique place, especially because of the animals living here. The river is habitat for 8 different types of bats, fish and birds. The swallow birds living here have developed the same type of "navigation" system as bats, using sonar and not their sight to avoid hitting the tall pointy rocks inside.

To enter the river you need a pass from the local government in Puerto Princesa. Normally it takes a few days to get it, however we managed to get one (probably because its low season) on the spot.

The drive was short but fast thanks to Mr. Hakkinen. As soon as we stepped out of the car overlooking the clear blue/green water and the docks where the boats picked us up to take us to the river, it started raining. So freakin typical. We waited a few minutes, changed into our rain coats and ponchos and ran over to the ticket office. The line wasn't that long. After a 20 min wait the boat took us over to the beach where the entrance to the river is. The rain kept poring down on and off, thank god Priscilla reminded me to pack my poncho in addition to the umbrella I already packed (lost that one on the flight over to HK).

The beach was beautiful but crowded with tourists in front of us in the line. Alan and I bought a instant coffee to overtake the napping crave. It worked fairly well. The forest surrounding the river has a rich wildlife with monkeys and iguanas walking freely around the coffee stand. A few of the monkeys looked suspiciously towards us and our coffees, but I guess they weren't as desperate as us to consider the instant kind.

After clearance from the guide we walked the short walk across the small bay to the river entrance. After a short photo session with the cove and the beautiful water as background, it was our time to enter the small bangka boat for 9 pax.

The guide was a happy camper that focused mostly on what type of fruit or obstacle the different stone structures in the cave looked like. "See to the right, this stone looks like a giant banana, and this one a pepper...and here a poo upside down". The cave was filled with bats (all of them were sleeping during day time) and birds. It was quite smelly due to the all the bat poo, a feature the guide apparently had written all his material around. "So, you notice all the bat poo...you know what Obama said; when you are in deep shit, shut your mouth". "You notice the small cave on you right with all the bats inside, we cannot go there..only batman is allowed in there, not even me, I'm only a boat man". "This is like a giant bat(h)room". He kept going for the entire tour, also navigating Alan who was in charge of the flash light in front. "Sir, a bit further up..no sir further..no the other up...sir, more to the right..." All in all, Alan did a good job. Anyhow, the river / cave was really a magnificent place.

On our way back to the boat that would take us to the car, we walked around a bit to take photos of the monkeys and iguanas. I was walking in front of the others spotting after monkeys. All of a sudden a loud scream over sounded the general jungle noise. The sound wasn't similar to Tarzan's roar, it was more like that of Jane's. I turned around and saw Alan in shock behind me. Apparently one the monkeys had taken revenge on him for not sharing coffee earlier and stolen his chocolate bar as he was opening it. After that near death experience we decided to keep together on the final stage of the walk.

We had a quick lunch in Sabang before we continued to El Nido for some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. At lunch a guy joined our table and promoted Civet coffee to us. Apparently he is a distributor. We kindly listened to his stories and got a free sample but didn't buy more, at 500 US dollars a kg we decided it was too expensive.

The 6 hour drive to El Nido was horrible. We had changed driver to his brother Willy, who drives much better than his brother, however the roads the last two hours were sooooo bad. Every three meter there was a huge pot hole sending us back and forth from side to side in the car. I managed to sleep a couple of hours by strapping two belts around me avoiding me from ending up on the floor every time Willy made a turn.

After six hours we arrived at El Nido in poring rain. Willy stopped at a tour agency for directions to our hotel and got help from a friendly lady named Ann. After calling the hotel we found out we needed to be picked up by a tricycle to get to the resort. Willy dropped us of and we piled on to the tricycle.

We arrived after 5 min to the resort in poring rain and in pitch darkness. It seemed however that we had picked the right place. For 5400 pesos a night for three people this was a real treat. We had half of a bungalow, really nice with a porch outside. The hotel had an infinity pool and a restaurant overlooking the sea.

After the tiring drive, we decided to eat at the restaurant an not go into town. After a good meal we turned in around midnight.