El Nido Tour C Showcases Pristine Sights

I opted to fly from Manila to El Nido rather than take a cheaper flight to Puerto Princesa and then a 5 hour bus ride; that was a good call

In Disney/Pixar's 2003 film Finding Nemo and its 2016 sequel Finding Dory, main characters Marlin and Nemo are clownfish; this sparked popularity of the species and greatly increased the amount of captured specimens

Colorful sea stars were abundant; the all-day island tours off El Nido cost about $25 each which included lunch (I wasn't sure what was being served beyond whole fish)

Palawan is a 650 km long island that stretches all the way down to Borneo; the region is the most sparsely populated in the Philippines with many uninhabited islands

The waters around El Nido were often full of these jellyfish but they weren't stinging; it was still creepy touching them that I couldn't help but recoil

The town of El Nido is a haven for backpackers and those not looking for lots of amenities; visitors realize the biggest attractions lie not in town but in the offshore archipelago

Huge green plate coral; the currency here is the Philippine peso with roughly 50 pesos for one US dollar

The novel is set in the French Pyrenees and, despite a slow start, this book became engrossing with a sinister plot; it was the best of the first few books I read on the trip

The world's biggest pearl was found by a Filipino diver in the waters off Palawan in 1934; it weighed more than 13 pounds and was valued at $42 million

Latticed butterflyfish; wifi is practically non-existent here with even cell phone coverage spotty at best

Chinese traders had been regularly visiting the area of El Nido (Spanish for the nest) for its edible birds' nests during the Song Dynasty (960-1279)

Marimegmeg Beach is the closest nice beach to El Nido (6 kms away); there is a huge development under construction here and the water visibility was poor

I had hoped to do all 4 island excursions but pain and stomach issues kept me in bed for 2 days; I did the 2 most popular tours - A and C

Thin Bird's Nest coral; I wonder if I showed Alexa a photo if she could identify what was in it (species of coral or fish, etc)

Hidden Beach; the coolest temperatures are felt in January but, even in February, the weather was ideal although some thought the water was a tad cool

All of the tours are run on bangkas which are traditional Filipino boats made largely of bamboo; because of their width, parking can often be a problem when lots of bangkas are present

Venomous banded sea krait; only 10% of the El Nido population is connected to the water supply with few having electricity as well

It would be cool to see a time lapse video of how these offshore islands evolved; those remaining have been undercut by seawater so that I expect they won't be around forever

Sea lily; the main/only road in El Nido was just non-stop construction projects; the workers lived like most of the locals, in tiny metal shanties with no electricity or running water

Clownfish have a symbiotic relationship with anemones and are even sometimes called anemonefish; clownfish are immune to the venom of anemones because they have a thick layer of mucus on the surface of their bodies

All tour guests had to pay a $4 marine park fee which was good for 10 days; the tour guides did a fairly good job of instructing guests on how to protect the area if you could understand their English

Lobed brain coral; this variety which grows in shallow, tropical waters is popular in the salt water aquarium trade

Colorful nudibranch aka sea slug; these critters are very toxic to cancer cells with research continuing to determine application in humans

This strange swarm of small black fish moved together in mass as they were feeding; presumably that's a defense mechanism so they appear larger and less vulnerable

The Bacuit Archipelago is comprised of 45 uninhabited, limestone islands full of karst cliffs and secluded beaches; diving is supposed to be good but I decided to wait until Coron

Blue Angelfish; I, incorrectly, expected that most Filipinos would speak English but my experience has been that even those employed in tourism speak limited English

Long sea cucumber; in the 18th century, the Philippines was the world's largest producer of high-value sea cucumbers but the waters have been greatly depleted due to habitat destruction and overfishing

Sea lily; in El Nido, the town now has 24 hour electricity with just occasional brownouts but you can't use the water, even just for brushing your teeth (as I will attest!)

Clownfish are very territorial and photogenic; they just don't stay still very long which can be difficult to capture

Interestingly, El Nido has no telephone lines since it developed recently; it has one permanent cell tower but it's reach is extremely limited and often overloaded

The Matinloc Shrine was built in 1982 but it and the neighboring buildings have been abandoned; there were several monuments to Ferdinand Marcos to date the site even further