Week 2 Palawan

Palawan is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been in the Philippines. Upon landing in Puerto Princesa we went to Lorenas friends place (the ones that we stayed with in Manila). Their house in Puerto Princesa is not as nice or as new as their Manila house but in many ways much better. First its lived in so theres things on the walls and secondly Puerto Princesa is a much nicer city then Manila. I learned a few more things about the family (The Castros). They’re main business is a series of pawnshops about 125 over the whole Philippines they also own a mango plantation and a resort that we visited in el nedo.

Puerto Princesa is around 100,000, its far cleaner then Manila and the atmosphere far less chaotic. Outside of Puerto Princesa and throughout most of Palawan there are beautiful rainforests with a wide variety of plant and wildlife. We visited a salt-water crocodile farm and the Castros plantation the first day. At the crocodile farm (which is more of a zoo then just a crocodile farm) we explored by ourselves (practically no on there). If we cared to we could have gone into any of the cages, there were no locks. I think I enjoyed the monkeys the most. They didn’t seem well fed and were eager to snatch leaves we gave them (see pictures). Most of the animals at the “zoo” were captured by poachers. The plantation that we went to after the crocodile farm was a real treat. As its summer most of the fruit is in season here and there is a lot of fruit. Fresh coconut is nothing like what you get in Canada! My favourites so far have been calmance (a small lime) and mangos. There are so many Mangos! I have no idea how a country so small could have so much of one fruit. Needless to say I’ve had my share of mangos. I think I average at 4 a day.

The next day we went to the underground river. The river is the longest underground river in the world. It was really impressive! It stretches almost 5 km underneath mountainous terrain. The tour went 2 km. I can’t even speculate at how high the tallest areas were but from what it looked like the mountains covering this underground lake were only shells. After the tour we had lunch in a picnic area close by. There were tons of dragon lizards and monkeys who’s obvious food source were tourist lunches. The lizards were over a meter long and there were over two-dozen monkeys running around. One monkey somehow got a mirror. He’d frequently pause and reflect on himself, making sure he was groomed for the pictures we took of him.

The following four days were spent in El Nedo. Its located about 250km north of Puerto Princesa. Half that distance is paved the other half wasn’t. It made for an extremely bumpy ride. Worse yet was for whatever reason they are currently in the process of constructing about 30 bridges all at the same time along that road. On the way back it rained hard and the road was extremely muddy. El Nedo is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. It only has power 12 hours of the day and no running water. We spent two days in El Nedo island hoping. Unfortunately due to a cold and bad sunburn I only went one day but it was very fun. Snorkelling was really neat. I saw all the fish except the turtle and whale from Finding Nemo. The terrain in El Nedo is wickedly beautiful. Huge heavily vegetated shear cliffs everywhere.
I’m spending my last day in Puerto Princesa relaxing and uploading photos. Todays the last day with Lorena and Peter the rest of my trip will be on my own (unless I meet my uncle near the end). I’m looking forward to the adventure. One day in Manila, then off to Kuala Lumpur. I’ve read in my Let’s go book that theres a couple of hostels next to the bus station in Kuala Lumpur. That’s where I’ll start. I’ll explore the city then go north to a national park, then farther north and explore some of the coastal islands. Hopefully I’ll meet a few people with advice of what to do because as of right now that’s all I have. I’m sure it will be fun… I’ll post later.