Summer El Nido Vacation

And so summer had ended and A(H1N1) cases in the country had increased, drastically.. :( 4-6 cases had already been found in the university where I used to study so the school has been closed for 2 weeks… And now, all universities in the country had pushed their school opening for another week because of all the cases.

Anyways, I just came home from a summer vacation from an island in our country last Monday… El Nido, Palawan to be exact. It was SO fun! I haven’t had so much fun ever since we visited the United States.. Everything was a new experience to me since this is really the first time that I had fun in the water.. I discovered that I love being on a boat! Funny I know..

So then here is a list of what we had done for 3 straight days there..

DAY 1

• Woke up about 7AM and prepared to leave the condo
• Arrived the airport about 11AM and left about 11:45AM
• Arrived at El Nido about 2:30PM and arrived at Miniloc Resort about 3:15PM. A welcoming gang was there upon our arrival to greet us and sing us a song.
• Ate lunch then went to our cottages. Then we changed into our swim suits and walked to the beach to find Alex lying in the sand (she supposedly said that she didn’t want to go swimming and there she was… )
• Two of my sisters went snorkeling while I sat there watching their towels by the pier
• After dinner, onee-chan and I remained by the bar taking pictures and watching the Cultural Show they had on. My other sisters and our parents are back at the cottages sleeping.
• For the last dance, the dancers danced one of the Folk Dances in the country, the Tinikling, and they were asking people who wanted to try it out. Onee-chan and I were both curious about it as we got the Wii controllers and the game. So she tried it first. Then I tried it next. It was fun! My right big toe was almost squished by the bamboo sticks that were opening and closing as I danced (they give the beat). It was fun though. I haven’t been dancing for the past 4 whole years so I really REALLY feel refreshened..
• Onee-chan and I played Wii for about 2 hours I guess. We both were exploring the console because we didn’t know how to use it… The game too… It was the Beach Sports and we didn’t know how it worked so we experimented on it a bit until we got how it was played and we got bored.
• About 10PM, we both went back to our cottages (onee-chan stayed in a different cottage than our parents, and me and my younger sister because my oldest sister reserved late, so they weren’t able to get a bigger place) and went to bed

DAY 2

• Woke up by my dad at 5AM. Took a bath and then we went to the other cottage to wake up the others. Alex was SO funny, she’s definitely like us when being woken up (she’s not used to being woken up, she’s used to being the one to wake up people) – she goes back to bed after being woken up. She was being woken up by my dad who was making her dress up. But then she went fishing on her PJ’s!
• About 6AM, we went out to go fishing! We were there for, maybe about 2 hours, and we were only able to catch 3 fishes. Haha. Ate Pam caught the first one, then my dad caught the next and the biggest, then the boat person caught the next one (Arnie, Onee-chan and I were only feeding the fish instead of catching them )
• Because the rain was picking up, we had to return to Miniloc. We then ate our breakfast, the fish was served, and then left again for our tours.
• While we waited at the pier, Alex went to go pee by the waters. Then her bottom swim suit suddenly floated out. She then cried out “Wala na akong panty!” (TRANSLATION: I have no more panties) and kept crying until the diver got her pants for her. My parents said it was SO hilarious. I wasn’t able to see it cause they asked me to get something
• The Big Lagoon was first. It was beautiful. It had a limestone formed so much like Mother Mary praying at the top. And also, another limestone that was like Batman.
• Next was the Small Lagoon. First thing we did here was kayak. We kayaked in a small opening and inside. It was beautiful….! There were even people inside who were snorkeling..
• After that, we went snorkeling. Actually, they did. The time I got down the water, after a few minutes, planktons bit me and it was SO itchy and it hurts! So I had to go back to the boat and they had to put vinegar to where I was bit. Then I just went with my mom and Alex for another kayak ride while the others went snorkeling.. We didn’t go inside the Lagoon this time though. We only kayaked around the area (like a shore near the boat and the place near the entrance to the Small Lagoon.
• We went to another island for lunch. It was a picnic lunch and it was SO fun and the food was delicious! The sand there was so fine too. Onee-chan and I walked over to the other side of the island and played around with the sand (trying to capture Footprints in the sand photos) and we tried to see if we can go to the other shore. But the water was too deep to cross the limestone. I was trying to create a sand castle but we had to go for the Island Tour so I left my base as is..
• So then we first went to a cave. I don’t know the name of the cave but it was so nice. Also, I didn’t know that Yamashita’s treasure was real! The guide said that the hole was new, about not more than 2 years old…
• Next was the Cathedral Cave. We weren’t able to go inside because the water was high and the waves were strong… But outside, it was so nice.
• We went back to Miniloc Resort after that. Onee-chan and I started to create a sand castle by the shore. The sand there wasn’t as fine as the sand on the other island.. But it will do… After about 2 hours or so… We completed it..! Mom was calling us for dinner then and the tide was starting to go high so we took a picture of it as soon as we were done… Even though it wasn’t much nice.
• And so we named the castle, and the valley, and the lake, and the mountains around the castle.. CASTLE NAME: Castle Forever Doomed (go figure ); VALLEY NAME: Valley Once Upon A Time; LAKE NAME: Lake Palitaw (Palitaw means it’s there and then it’s not.. The high and the low tide to be exact); MOUNTAIN NAME: Mount SOS (we had it formed around the castle and the lake)
• After dinner, we took a bath and then Onee-chan, Arnie, and I went to play Wii again. But it wasn’t as fun as Day 1 because we already knew what to do…
• About 10:15PM we went back to the cottage and went to sleep.

DAY 3

• I woke up about 5 only to find that it was raining HARD outside. My dad sat next to me thinking I was asleep and called the Front Desk. We were supposed to go to another island for breakfast but since the rain was hard, they decided to cancel it even though they said that the waves weren’t strong.
• I slept again and then my dad woke me up about 8AM I think, for breakfast. After that, we went to watch the people there create hats out of coconut leaves.
• When Arnie and I were on our way back to our cottage, we met a monkey on the way up the stairs (we were on cliff-side cottage) We just looked at it, and suddenly it ran towards us making us run down the stairs. We were laughing all the say because I was the one bringing the umbrella and when I suddenly ran, she was exposed to the rain (though it wasn’t hard). Then when we were on our way back up again (after a maintenance shooed the monkey away) I saw a group of monkeys by the rocks under another cottage then ran back down again. My parents then arrived and were laughing at us because we couldn’t go up because of the monkeys.
• We were packed and we waited by the restaurant for our boat. And while we waited, Alex, Dad, Arnie and I fed fishes by the pier with bread..
• And then, the ride to the airport was SO wet. The rain picked up and even though we had rain coats, they were useless… Then again, the plane ride wasn’t as bad as the one on the way to the island….

The trip was all in all fun and full of laughters, especially the laughters that Alex gave us.