El Nido, Palawan Excursions Part 2

Another early start the next day as we go on to do another full day of excursions and exploration.

Shimizu Island
We started off heading towards Shimizu Island. We didn't go on the island itself but rather we snorkled in the waters around it. Shimizu is one of the islands at the edge of the bay that is between the relatively calm waters of the bay and the strong currents of the South China Sea. The waves here are choppier and stronger than the other places we went swimming in so it's important to always be mindful that you don't get carried away. However, the corals seen in the waters here are huge and the diversity of fish even more extensive.

Dibuluan Island
Dibuluan Island is not a resort, rather just an island to stop by somewhere and hang out. It has some basic amenities but it's not a place you can stay overnight. I really love this island because of how much more remote and untouched it is compared to the other islands. It doesn't have corals on its shores so you can actually swim and enjoy the beach.

Most of the islands shores are also covered in Mangroves, which protect the inland parts of the island from the harsh sea water. We once again took to our kayaks and explored these mangrove trees.

Swimming with the Jacks
This one is right on the shores of Miniloc. Right of the pier the large Jack fish know exactly what time is feeding time and begin to gather around in large numbers. Guests can swim with them while the staff throws food around you. It's a really cool experience. Other types of fish also populate the area and even the occasional sea turtle comes around.

aww look at my litle bro, so brave

Surprisingly, that's it for my El Nido posts. We were there only for a short time and although we did a lot of things, there were still so many other excursions I would have loved to do and would have willingly paid for. Oh well, maybe next time.

El Nido, Palawan Excursions Part 1

The resort has a great selection of excursions that are included in the price of our stay, as well as some extra ones if you are willing to pay a little bit more. The excursions are divided into morning and afternoon with all guests returning to their home resort by 5 or 6 pm for dinner.

Small Lagoon
The first excursion is going to the small lagoon located on Miniloc Island. It is on the other side of the island so just a short boat ride away. From the boat, we then got on two person kayaks and went into the small lagoon. That entrance to the lagoon is so narrow that you really need to be careful. Once inside, the water is so calm and clear. You can even see the fish and the stingless jellyfish in the water.

Big Lagoon
The big lagoon is just that. It is a bigger version of the small lagoon. It has quite a large entrance so boats can go in and it is a lot deeper. The water gets very shallow in the entrance channel but then becomes very deep again. We only took the boat there but you are also able to kayak into the lagoon from the resort. Afterwards, we were allowed to snorkel outside of the lagoon where there were many corals.

Lagen Island Resort
We also wanted to explore the sister resorts so we had lunch on Lagen. Lagen is newer than Miniloc and was also designed with a much more modern feel. However just like Miniloc, it has wonderful corals just off the shore.

Cave Exploration
Afterwards, we went to explore some caves. One was called Cathedral cave in that it had a huge open entrance towards the water and the cave is large and extensive inside. We only saw the entrance. Unlike the usual idea of an island, this island cave is made entirely of limestone so it's just a rock in the middle of the bay. There is no beach whatsoever to land on. You just tie your boat to a rock sticking out on the side. The other cave was actually on an island where we landed on the beach and walked into the cave. The entrance was tiny and you had to crawl into it.

Snake Island
Snake island consists of a small island with a winding sandbar that connects it to mainland Palawan. I encountered a starfish on the sandbar! My stepdad got a cool video following a school of fish as well. It's very remote. We also climbed to the top outlook of Snake Island to get a wonderful view of the bay. The path to it is windy and a bit treacherous if you aren't wearing the right shoes, which I was not.

Afterwards we returned to our home resort. My brother and I went kayaking around the island and got very up close and personal with the surrounding corals. Meanwhile my parents had their massage at the seaside cottage. We went to bed early to get ready for another day of excursions.

Isn't my brother so cute? He's only 11 <3

Miniloc, El Nido, Palawan

For the longest time, I have told my mother that we should vacation to Palawan. Honestly, I'm sick of the Boracay scene and I had been going there since I was little. I wanted something different. A family friend of ours went to El Nido and their pictures were perfect. The place looked like Bora Bora! It was a pricey trip but my family and I decided to go ahead and go for it.

From the beginning, the customer service was exceptional and I could tell was catered to foreigners. The resort is paired with the airline. The short airline trip had food included. We were bused from airport to the small airplane. When we arrived at the tiny and remote El Nido airport, we were bused from the airplane to the waiting area. We didn't have to worry about our luggage since it would be sent directly to our rooms for us. The waiting area had bathrooms, food, and entertainment. We were then bused from the waiting area to the pier, where we took a boat from the mainland airport to our island resort, which was about a 45 minute boat ride.

Then finally we reached our destination, resort island of Miniloc. We were greeted at the pier by singing, a full song performance at the main resort lobby with drinks and necklaces. The buffet lunch was already ready for us. Afterwards we met with our personal guide who would organize our whole stay's schedule to fit all the excursions we wanted to do. Then we walked up to our cottage to see our luggage already there waiting for us. It was a wonderful first impression.

Our cottage was small with two levels. The first level had two single beds for my brother and I then one bathroom. The second level had a full sized bed for my parents. It is unfortunate that there was only one bathroom. Also, we weren't able to get any of the seaside cottages since it was completely booked. I was pretty disappointed by that.

The rest of the day consisted of exploring the resort. We had to walk up quite a few stairs to our cottage but our view was amazing. Monkeys would even come down from the mountains and hang around our cottage.

The beach area is actually quite small. Miniloc itself is a small resort in that it doesn't hold a lot of people because the resort area is small. They pride themselves on being green so they try not to invade the island too much. So for a resort, it has a small intimate group kind of feel. The beach is filled with corals so definitely wear water shoes. The water is so blue and the weather throughout our whole stay was perfect. It hardly rained and it was never too hot. Out first day was pretty uneventful, but beauty of the island kept us in awe all day.