Island Hopping Thru A Storm in El Nido!

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Continuing from our Day 2 transfer from the city of Puerto Princesa which was a 6-hour road trip, we just had a quick dinner at a stop over before than arriving at midnight in the town of El Nido. This was more of a touristic coastal town so accommodations were buildings like such:

Placed on the 2nd floor


We had our own drying balcony so it was all good! 👍

After having breakfast included with our accommodation, we started our day at around 9AM, the guide hailed a tricycle to take us to the town’s port and here we wait to board our tour ferry:

See it gonna be a cloudy day...

With the weather being as it was, our tour decided to mix some closer destinations up from what was Tour D (we signed up for C), so our first itinerary was kayaking around Cadlao Lagoon!

I’d also love to mention how I hired El Nido Drone Rental and Services who provided us with these amazing photos and inclusive of video! It honestly gives a better perspective of islands like this Helicopter one our guide called:

My pic

Drone pic

We only stopped by here for some phototaking

Our third stop was Hidden Beach, it’s called so cuz the stretch of beach is hidden between these rock formations and tour boats aren’t allowed to dock by the shore as the waters below are full of corals. It’s a perfect spot for snorkeling once you dive down from the ferry!

The island even had this alcove corner that led out to another part of the ocean, great for a pictorial spot 😁.

We had our lunch on the boat before leaving Hidden Beach and now this is the part where we were supposed to have a little hike on another island to reach Matinloc Shrine buuut they the weather turned for just the slightest bit worse, it was like we were going towards the eye of the storm! We couldn’t really dock near the shore as the winds were making waves, we docked in-between some rock formations to ride it out as the air turned colder with the water warmer, though most of us didn’t dare dive in. Our tour guide though was an expert enough to spot a sea turtle below and had this shot from my action camera:

When we were supposed to go back as the weather wasn’t looking to let up, our tour guide noticed that the rain clouds headed towards a different direction anyway so had us stop by an island nearby on the way to port just to have a good end for the day, this was called Serenity Beach:

Definitely a good recap

We got back around 4PM from the tour, quickly freshening up as I was hoping to catch the sunset from this rooftop restaurant I saw on IG located just here in El Nido:

We took a tricycle to this fancy hotel called Cuna where the staff was really welcoming when I inquired about their rooftop bar, unfortunately as it was a rainy day, the sunset was all but hidden behind the clouds:

The food was plentiful – mom had the nasi goreng dish while I had some local boneless milkfish😋 – the drinks while colorful were just alright, they were both the hotel’s specials and good thing I had the the sweeter (more colorful version of the two), cuz honestly the other tasted like cough medicine 😷. The winner was their creamy red velvet cake that we had for dessert though, which made for a good nightcap. We still have another island hopping activity tomorrow and hoping for fairer weather as I’ll be diving into a lagoon!