When You Reach the Top of the Ladder, and Realize it is Against the Wrong Wall

Our Philippines segment started on Conde Nest's "Best Island in the World", Palawan. Located on the western side of the country the 650 km sliver of an island has been historically safe from the typhoons that have ravaged other parts of the Philippines, which usually hit the south-east islands first. We started at the north end of the island in the popular beach town of El Nido. It is also the gateway to the Bacuit Archipelago, home of 45 jagged limestone islands (reminiscent of Halong Bay in Vietnam), sandy beach coves and lagoons and crystal clear water with corals below. We booked a day trip from El Nido (Tour A of four available) where we swam into the Big Lagoon (narrow, shallow approach), snorkelled near Shimizu Island, had a seafood lunch on another island and finished up on 7 Commandos Beach. There were some 'invisible' tiny jellyfish in the waters emitting some minor stings but the bigger hit for my better half was the persistent itching that continued for the next few days (no impact on the tougher skinned author!).

A 6 hour A/C bus ride took us back to the provincial capital, Puerto Princesa, where we spent our final 2 days on the island. The highlight there was a day trip the Underground River, one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature. The world's longest navigable underground river at 8 km was fascinating to discover even though we were only allowed to go about 1 km in, and then back out. The part of the cave we experienced on paddle outriggers reached heights of 65 metres and the river was 9 metres deep at some points. It was full of stalactites, stalagmites and bats, with some colourful limestone formations on display. Back in Puerto Princesa wandering around the downtown area we came across Plaza Cuartel and learned about the merciless Japanese killing of 143 American POW's near the end of WWII.

From the island of Palawan we flew to Panay Island and the city of Kalibo, where we are stationed presently. My backpack however took a slightly different trip. After collecting my checked bag in Cebu, where we had a 6 hour stopover....a longer wait than planned due to a cancelled flight......the check-in desk in Cebu advised me that it would be much cheaper for me to send my backpack via Cargo rather than paying $50 to have it checked, since it would still travel on the same plane. Having extra time, I quickly decided I might as well follow the advice that was given, and walked over to the Cargo terminal to pass it along to them. I forgot to rationalize that my backpack would not roll off the baggage carousel in Kalibo and that I would once again have to walk over to the Kalibo Cargo terminal to retrieve it......which cost us an extra 15 minutes upon arrival (and could have been worse if it wasn't in the direction we were already heading). Note to self......don't do this again.

While most tourists arriving in Kalibo head directly to the north end of the island to take a short ferry over to the resort island of Boracay, we arrived as the famous Ati-Atihan Festival ("The Mother of All Philippine Festivals") was starting and the schedule indicated there were fun festival activities to amuse us every day of our 5 night stay. The initial festival intent was to celebrate the various indigenous tribes on the island but the Spanish changed the focus to Santo Nino (baby Jesus) when they took control of the region, spreading their religious beliefs among the locals. The colourful, festive event today is a mixture of both, featuring dance groups in aboriginal costumes demonstrating their skills at street parties throughout the city. Unfortunately for us, it took us two days to realize the on-line schedule (3 different web sites listing the same scheduling of events) did not reflect reality......so we showed up several times to city parks where nothing particularly exciting was happening, other than near the Cathedral being blessed by an older lady, touching our upper body parts with a small baby Jesus statue......we must have appeared in need of a blessing. Action seemed to ramp up in the evenings with drum bands parading around the streets but the colourful costumes and dance events have so far evaded us for the most part. With the Grand Parade date still a mystery (was supposed to be yesterday), we settled for a School Parade today. It was fun to see the younger students, dressed head to toe in colourful outfits, doing a simple, rhythmic dance to music played by the school's band. Overall so far, Ati-Atihan for us has not achieved the same level of amazement that the audience engagement festivals of Songkran (Thailand) and Holi (India) delivered but perhaps it peaks during the upcoming final week-end, which we will miss in order to catch the finale of the Sinulog Festival in Cebu where we are headed next. We can only imagine what our time in Boracay might have been like.

The El Nido beach at the north end of the Palawan Island. The beach was the launch point for the Island Hopping tours so it was not swimmable but there were other nice beaches nearby.

We had to climb through a small hole in the rocks to access the Secret Lagoon but once we were there we realized it wasn't so secret anymore as other boats had arrived before we did.

The beach near the Secret Lagoon. The steep karst landscape caused by erosion was evident throughout the Bacuit Archipelago making for a scenic boat ride.

One of the snorkel pictures we took using our underwater camera. The coral wasn't as colourful as we have seen in other reefs but it was plentiful and there were schools of tropical fish swimming around us.

The seafood buffet lunch for those on our outrigger boat, after stopping on another small island.

On our way across the sea to the Underground River following another outrigger boat. These specific type boats seemed very popular in the Philippines where most departures and landings were along the shore line rather than at a pier or dock.

Posing for a shot before entering the Underground River so that all the young people on our boat would have hope that they might still be able to do this when they are 40 years older.

After a 5 minute walk through the jungle we arrived at the launch point for the Underground River. Audioguides were provided in order to keep it very quiet within the cave.

We observed bats throughout the one kilometre river path our guide paddled us through, before turning around and heading back out the same way. The river continues further into the cave but those areas are still being explored so for now it is off limits for tourists.

Inside the entrance to the Museo It Akean in Kalibo. The small museum focused on the history and culture of the Palawan Island, so we gained some knowledge of the indigenous groups who were being celebrated as part of the Ati-Atikan Festival.

The Student Parade today where we finally had a chance to observe the colourful outfits we expected to see more of during our 5 day visit. The private schools will be featured in another parade tomorrow that we will take in, our final full day in Kalibo.

Another school with their tribal garb in the parade. This group, like several others, covered their bare skin with soot reflecting some of their Borneo ancestry. Almost all the groups also carried a baby Jesus statue at the front of their school group but that would have been foreign to the indigenous groups before the Spanish arrived.