PHILIPHINES

Visiting the Philippines was the second time in more continental Asia, the truth is that at the time I did not have time to prepare it and in principle I became a patron with the idea of being able to change it at any time, almost 7,000 islands make it impossible to visit too much in my 23 days of travel. So the idea was to start in Manila to be able to finish in a beach área.

 

 

 

The capital Manila did not surprise me, the truth is that I expected much more from this old Spanish colony of which there is almost nothing left, the Intramuros area, a small walled area converted into a golf course for the more affluent, the church of San Agustin, and visit the area of China Town or the Divisoria market where you can find everything, that if you do not have to hurry to get out of there because walking through its streets is really complicated by the number of positions there.

 

 

The departure from Manila was to take a plane south to the island of Cebu, ferry transfers are not practical in the Philippines because they are very long and then the road communications are quite bad, also used to other countries where transports tend to link I have to say that in the Philippines it is quite complicated and it is quite possible to get to a city and have to do night to have lost the link. This happened to us in its capital Cebu, we arrived in the middle of the afternoon and we had to sleep in a rather dull area until we were able to pick up a mini van the next day in the university area in the direction of Moalbal.

 

Arrived at Moalbal, the truth is that the trip in van was quite interesting, it makes you able to make a small brushstroke of how the country works, very rural economy, metal houses next to the road and infinity of Catholic churches, a contrast with the Buddhist Asia that I was used to seeing. When visiting the city of Moalbal observe a relatively quiet city, that if the motorbike taxi waiting always ready to take you wherever you want, haggling because they still see the business in front of each backpack, ours took us to the best place, the area of the small beach where is the diving club QUO VADIS, we really hit it because there we could see the famous bank of sardines that is in front of its beach and only 50 meters away, really spectacular, (I recognize that this is the only picture that there is in my blog not made by me but, I did not have an underwater camera).

 

Moalboal permite hacer snorkel y de noche dispone de buena vida nocturna, el club Chilli es un buen lugar para tomar una cerveza con mucha mas gente que podrás encontrar de cualquier sitio del mundo, en este caso sorprendido de la cantidad de españoles y uruguayos que había.

As always my stages are usually two days in each place and seen the town of Moalbal I decided to continue on my way, change the island west to end my route on the island of Palawan and this meant that I had to return to the city of Cebu to take another flight in the direction of the island of Boracay, this island is the cradle of Philippine tourism, white sand beaches, transparent waters and plenty of sun, make it the favorite place for the leisure of Filipinos and other tourists, especially the weekend so if you have to go better during the week, you will find better price and less mass.

 

Really the island if it is overcrowded and is made for mass tourism, but there are always special places where you can take a beer and talk while you enjoy the great luck of being able to travel. Again after spending a few days in Boracay the plan was to continue west looking for the island of Palawan, the flight from Boracay was impossible, only a daily flight in propellers with 40 seats left us with no alternative but to take a bus to the city of iloilo, a long journey to reach a city with a taste of nothing. There if the next day we could take the flight to the city of Puerto Princesa where fortunately we link mini van to the city of El Nido.

El Nido es un  pueblo  en una zona de pequeños islotes y montañas calcáreas a la idea de la bahía de Halong, pero en pequeño. es un pueblo realmente tranquilo con una playa pequeña donde la principal actividad es el buceo.  te sientes bien allí pues realmente la vida tiene mucha mas calma que en la agitada Boracay, aquí realizar un trekking por los alrededores o coger un mapa para buscar peerdidas playas es una buena manera de pasar el tiempo, yo no tuve otra opción, pues quería hacer un tour por las islas que la zona y hacer snorkel pero un tifón prohibió cualquier tipo de actividad en el mar y toda la gente tuvo que buscar actividades alternativas.

 

Walking around El Nido made me discover perhaps the best beaches I've seen in the Philippines. Quilometros of virgin beach that are already being threatened by the hotel chains without a doubt this from here not many years will not be the same so I decided to enjoy the wild places that are still in the most tourist areas of the country.

 

Here you can see what is really El Nido beach, small crowded, is where the dozens of boats that take tourists to visit the islets and snorkel, but in spite of that relax in the afternoon having a beer is a great pleasure, traveling in this way is what fills me, always close to people always close to the essence of the country, I do not know if it will be the best way but it is the one that I like.

Nothing the typhoon did not give respite and finally we had to leave El Nido towards Port Barton, a small town of which many people do not know its location and that by references we decided to visit.

 

For me without a doubt the best place of the trip, I loved it despite the typhoon that left all its streets flooded. The town almost only has a line of houses next to the coast, but it has a very quiet atmosphere, really in Port Burton I was able to find everything I was looking for in the Philippines

 

 

Virgin beaches, where you can walk without meeting anyone, tranquility at all times and interesting people from many places to talk at sunset on any terrace in the sand. Since we could not do the snorkel in El Nido, we took advantage of it to do it here. Better price, less people and really nice experience to be able to swim and see big turtles swimming only 50 centimeters away from you, which is a good idea to explain what comes close to impressing you .

The trip was already in its last chapters, we left Port Barton and we returned to Puerto Princesa, this city does not have much either, the Philippines that can be visited for me is always outside the big cities, all of them with a chaotic rhythm, nothing to do with the people coastal that if they are worth much, in the two days that I stayed in Puerto Princesa take the opportunity to visit the underground river, this place is recognized by UNESCO and consists of a subterranean river of about 14 kilometers that goes into areas of calcareous rock where the most absolute darkness makes it a place where insects, snakes and other animals live who barely see the light of day.

The truth is that visiting this place is a very personal option, if you are going to be in Puerto Princesa and you do not have anything to do it is an option, even though it did not convince me, I saw it as a way to get money for visiting a cave that counting the beating of the bus trip did not convince me.

Finally already back to Manila, it is pure procedure because always arrive with days in advance makes you go more calm before any problem you may have and ensure the return flight, we take advantage of these days to visit Chinatown and enjoy the Chinese gastronomy, if Manila is a chaos Chinatown is even more so, but maybe that is the grace of all the Chinatown that there is in the whole world.

Finally it has been an interesting trip, where we had the bad luck of coinciding with a typhoon, that did not let us enjoy some days on the beach, problems with the plane because there was a volcano that was releasing ash I made it difficult to fly, but the truth is that I liked the country and I'm going away with the idea that the Philippines is still to be discovered in all its part of islands, the major cities better to avoid them.