Tuesday 8th September
Finally on a tour! After asking around for a bit, we decided to go for a Tour A, even managing to get a discount! After a quick breakfast of yummy, fluffy pancakes, we headed to the boat, wading waist deep to get there through beautifully warm clear waters. Our guides were all friendly and entertaining, quickly explaining our destinations. So first we set off to 7 Commandos Beach, a perfect white sand beach and crystal clear waters with cliffs on both sides. It was stunning. None of the pictures we got could do it justice.
Our next stop after that was the Secret Lagoon, and this is where things started to get interesting, and difficult. Because of all the rocks and corals and a low tide, we had to jump out of the boat (life vests securely fastened and strapped around me), and wade to the shore, where the entrance was a little hole in the rock wall, water gushing out the bottom, the rock of the entrance all smooth and easy to manoeuvre over and through. It was so cool!
... Then we had to get back to the boat, which was quite far out, waves pulsing strongly now at this point, rocking the boats and splashing against the side of a curved rock face. We slowly picked our way across the stones and rock, which I would soon intimately learn were actually dead coral, attempting to get to the boat, but being pushed back by the waves, and all of sudden getting stuck between the cliff face and another boat slowly creeping towards us in an attempt to get out. Quickly having to back track against the waves and trying not to fall over, I felt a sharp pain slice into my big toe, where I sadly lost a part of it to the sea forever. Sore and achy and annoyed, we finally managed to get back far enough, a group of us holding on to each other for support, before we could finally clamber on board, my toe bleeding sadly along the surface. Little splash of iodine and it was fine!
Next stop, Shimizu Island for lunch and the most amazing snorkelling I've had the pleasure of doing! It was so beautiful, although unfortunately quite damaged. There were so many different types of fish swimming about. I even managed to see a blue starfish, a puffer fish and Nemo!! We did see quite a lot of sea urchins and it was upsetting to see a few people standing on the corals. It was such a cool experience, and definitely out of my comfort zone, but I'm glad I did it! And just off the coral was a massive drop into endless deep blue sea.
It was really upsetting to see so many people stepping on the corals, and it makes you wonder how much of this can be preserved before Palawan turns into the new Boracay. There are already big plans for development, an airport being built in El Nido and the airport in Puerto Princesa being developed into an international airport. I am really glad we had the opportunity of seeing El Nido and Palawan in its prime before it gets too crowded.
The Big Lagoon was our penultimate stop, and definitely the most traumatising experience. We had to swim out to the lagoon area, as the tide was too low for the boats to go over the corridor leading to the lagoon. This wasn't too bad, with the coral being quite pretty and big fishes swimming out of their homes and stopping to stare at you inquisitively before swimming off. Simon was happily have the time of his life floating on his back with his life vest and letting me drag him along backwards, much to the amusement of the massive crowd of tourists behind us! The Big Lagoon was pretty and serene, quiet and so still. We didn't spend very much time here, just floated about and enjoyed the view of the cliffs looming over us.
The wade back was hard, and pretty horrible in all honesty. In the time we spent at the Big Lagoon the tide had gone out even more, and the waves, although small, were strong, pushing you back with every advance you made, and suddenly the coral was everywhere and much too close! Panicking, I tried heading towards the side to find a deeper area, but it was useless and made it all worse. Turning back, I felt the horrible scrape of coral against the front of my life vest! Trying not to panic and make things worse, I tried to be as delicate and calm as possibly, gently frog legging along over the coral, arms wide and outstretched to paddle me along, wincing every time my life vest or legs scrapped the sharp coral. It was horrible! Even Simon had a rough time of it, the guy swimming in front of him full on panicking and thrashing about when he scraped his knee quite badly on the coral, kicking up loads of bubbles and making it harder for Simon to get anywhere. It was such a relief to get back on the boat, the majority of us a little worse for wear and bleeding in one place or the other.
I ended up forgoing the last small lagoon, where you could kayak through a small entrance in the rock, or swim through over coral, and sea urchins as Simon told me later. Instead I happily stayed on the boat, tired and hungry, but content to just watch monkeys running around on the far beach.
All in all, despite the trauma, it was a pretty spectacular trip, and worth the money we ended up paying. It took me way out of my comfort zone and I'll probably never do something like that again, but I'm glad I did it.
