El Nido

We got back from our vacation to one of the most beautiful places in the Philippines (the world?). The lonely planet write up was right on. With some help from dramamine I survived my first flight on a small plane onto a dirt runway (see video below). As part of our resort package we got a private boat trip each day to a place of our choosing. The first day we went to two lagoons that the area is known for. The small lagoon was the best. We don't have pictures because we had to swim through a hole in the limestone to get to it. Inside there was blue-green water and tall limestone walls with jungle vegetation. There was some cool stuff to see via snorkel along the sides of the rock.

The next day we weren't as excited about our destination but it turned out to be beautiful as well. It was called Snake Island and it is the white strip of beach in the picture to the right. We also went to some caves (Cathedral Cave below).

Day 3 was our favorite day. It was the first day where we didn't see other boats with people. We went to Helicopter Island (video below) which was a deserted island with a white sand beach, jungle, blue green water and coral for snorkeling. We felt like castaways. Then we went to another lagoon (Cadlao Lagoon video below) where we saw all sorts of cool wildlife like birds, crabs and a 5 foot long lizard.

Day 4 we went to some other deserted beaches and then back to helicopter island. The best thing about the trip was observing nature. We saw lots of flying fish in the water. There were tons of crabs on the beach with beautiful shells. The limestone cliffs and lush jungle were homes to all sorts of tropical birds. We were really sad to leave (and even more sad to have to get back in the small plane). Check out the picture slideshow for more photos!


Plane Landing in El Nido



Helicopter Island



Cadlao Lagoon