For my final weekend in the Philippines, we headed to the beautiful island of Palawan. But before we get into the details of the weekend, let me tell you about my love of the Philippines.
In case you haven’t noticed from my posts and my photos, the Philippines completely blew our expectations out of the water. Between the friendliest people and the most beautiful beaches, the Philippines take vacationing to a new level. For anyone who has talked to me recently, you know I’m on a big Philippines kick. Well get this… I’m not the only one! Conde Nast Traveler just released the 2016 Readers’ Choice Awards, and you’ve got to check out the rankings for Best Islands in the World.
Spoiler alert: the Philippines took three of the top five spots!
- #5 – Cebu, Philippines – where we swam with whale sharks
- #3 – Palawan, Philippines – what this blog is supposed to be about (ha!)
- #1 – Boracay, Philippines – the insanely beautiful place where we snorkeled, sailed, ate BBQ, etc…
Bottom line: Book your Philippines vacation ASAP. You won’t regret it!
Now back to Palawan… We flew into Puerto Princesa Friday evening in time for dinner. We checked into our unbelievably charming hotel. For a mere $45/night, Floral Villarosa offers an intimate feel, a nice room and a delicious restaurant. Oh yes, and the hotel provided our airport transfer as part of the nightly rate, too!
With only six rooms, the property beautifully maintained the garden and pool and took great care of us. We ate dinner at the onsite restaurant out of convenience the first night, but the incredible food brought us back a second night!
We opted to do the Underground River excursion, which monopolized our entire Saturday. We loaded up into a van at 7:30am and began the 2-hour drive north. From here, we stopped and explored a mangrove (it was pretty boring, but we were waiting for a boating permit). The entire excursion involved a lot of killing time: driving two hours, waiting for a transfer boat permit, waiting to get on the transfer boat, then waiting to get on a smaller boat to go into the Underground River. Thankfully, we made friends with everyone in our group, which helped the time pass more quickly! Another time-killing activity: lunch. We had a pretty average buffet lunch, but the company and Cokes helped.
When we arrived to the transfer boats, we immediately understood the hold up. Small boats + big crowds = a long wait!
I have to admit that the boat dock was oddly magical looking. The view of the outrigger boats with their colorful flags setting sail somewhat alleviated our impatience.
Once we got on our transfer boat, we were full speed ahead! Actually, the boat moved quite slowly, but check out what a boss our captain was.
Our boat arrived with countless others at the entrance to the national park. Again, the gorgeous backdrop makes the crowds seem so much more appealing!
We obviously snagged a photo with the official Underground River sign.
After a brief walk through the jungle, we waited at the entrance to the Underground River. We finally could see the mouth of the cave!
When it was our turn, the ten of us boarded a small paddleboat with a guide at the back of the boat. Meadows was so excited when the guide placed us in the front row! Our new Colombian friend (sitting behind me) was not as thrilled when the guide moved him from his front row seat to the second row. Meanwhile, I was terrified!
As went entered the cave, our guide advised us to close our mouths, especially when looking up. Though I found this difficult (my mouth is always gaping when scared), I managed to keep it closed after I learned of the risk of bat droppings in my mouth!
This is one excursion that I’m confident will not translate well in the blog. It’s simply too difficult to explain the quiet darkness, the stalactite and stalagmite formations and countless bats overhead as we glided through the peaceful water. The guide paddled and shone his flashlight as we made our way deeper into the cave.
The Underground River is over 8 km long, but tourists can only visit 1.5 km of it. It’s one of the largest caves in the world, and the second largest underground river! It has been designated one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.
The craziest part of it all is the super realistic formations that occur completely naturally in the cave. For example, the guides call one area “the supermarket” because the rock formations look like foods. Below you can see the ears of corn and the garlic. We also saw a bell pepper, a mushroom and others!
A bit later in the tour, we entered the cave’s large atrium, which they call “the nativity scene.“ It’s absolutely fascinating how realistically the cave formations depict the scene. I didn’t get a great photo of the nativity, so this pic is borrowed from a fellow blogger (you can click to read his/her blog).
Like any good nativity, there were offerings of gifts…
…and an angel overhead!
As we reached the end of the cave and prepared to turn back, I was at full sensory overload! The sound of the bat wings, the water droplets and the crazy cave views were so awesome.
During our trip back through the cave, we encountered the wildest formation of all: the face of Jesus. WOW!
Our time on the Underground River involved countless more fun facts and formations – simply too many to recount! But as we exited the cave, Mother Nature welcomed us with a downpour of rain.
What a cool experience! This excursion was truly unlike anything we’ve ever done, and it was worth every second of waiting.
We boarded our boat and pushed off just as the rain stopped.
Note to self: not a bad gig to work on one of these tourist transport boats J
We chatted with our new friends the entire drive back, and then devoured another delicious meal at our hotel.
Weekend verdict: perfect way to bid the Philippines farewell!
These blog posts are an absolute thrill to read. Wow, this one is fantastic. Thanks, and keep them coming.
As I watched your blog, I kept singing that song,”Sit down,sit down, sit down, sit down sit down,you’re rocking the boat !” . That boat was like a canoe, very narrow and your passenger’s weight had it sunk to water’s level. ! You have had your Halloween experience, right? On to your next ADVENTURE. Grandmother
Every time I see a picture of you and Meadows I picture you asking random strangers or your guide to take a pic and becoming friends with them and telling them they are 100%. Love that about you!