Day 8: El Nido

A gigantic thanks goes out to Aaron for uploading all of my pictures last night and putting them all in order for me!  The internet here has a horrible connection! I'm a lucky girl to have him around! Thank you A! :)

  

Yesterday morning, I woke up and flipped the switch to turn on the light and was reminded that there is no electricity here until 2:00pm!  It was a bit comical, as I sifted, blindly, through my backpack to find clothes for the day!  After I got ready, I headed over to the El Nido Art Boutique and Cafe for breakfast and plopped down at a table with a dog laying nearby!

As you can see, it's slow season around here! 

After breakfast, I had nice long skype conversations with my mom and Aaron, which made my day, and then headed out into town to explore!  El Nido is a very small beach town, which has just recently became a backpacking destination.  The people here are incredibly poor... 

Here are some random pictures that I took throughout the day.  A momma and baby goat outside a woman's tiny home/ shop.

This woman was washing her family's clothing on a piece of scrap wood. 

The local El Nido public bus...

A very creative way to grow a garden!

This family was laughing together when I spotted them in an alleyway on my walk through town!  

The local convenience store... 

In the Philippines, they make pink eggs!  The pink signifies that they have been hard boiled in extremely salty water, and they taste like salt with a side of egg, if you know what I mean!  Gala actually told me about them. She had bought them a while back, thinking they were cute, because they were pink!

The children here are creative with the games they play and the things they do to occupy their time!

Here's the beach front and my hotel, Cashew Mangas, is on the left with the yellow trim. 

I sat on the deck of my hotel for a while this afternoon, just taking in the sights of the area!  The limestone cliffs are stunning!

Here's my humble abode!  --1,100 pesos a night (about $24.00)

The local ice cream man!  As much as I wanted to buy some, I refrained!  I was a very good girl today!

This little girl was doing her homework on this bench outside her home, while her brother and his friends played with marbles nearby.

I ate lunch at the Art Cafe!  I love that place!  Their vegetable stir fry was delicious!  As I was eating, Pinky, the manager came over and said, "Jill, did you know your eating a luffa!"  I asked, "What?!!!"  She explained to me that there is a gorge (sp?) that grows here that they put in their vegetable stir fry, where, if it grows to maturity becomes very rough, and is used in making luffas (YES, the things you use in the shower!)  So, I ate a luffa today!  I'm not sick yet! :)

The Art Cafe!

Could these boys be any cuter!  I asked if I could take their picture and they got right into this pose!  i love the hand on the chin thing!  So Rico Suave!

I took a long walk tonight, and on my way back, snapped this picture of the beach front during low tide.

There are hundreds of stray dogs everywhere!  Bob Barker would be very disapointed that their dogs are not being spayed and neutered!  As you can see, they are fond of each other!

These 2 were so fond of each other that they were stuck together for about 5 minutes... You know what that means! hahaha 

I decided it was about time for dinner, so I walked down the beach towards a darling little restaurant that had been set up on the sand and was surrounded by tiki torches and bamboo flags!   

I asked a couple who had just ordered if they had eaten there before.  They said no, but hoped that it was good.  I decided to plop down at the table next to them and within about 5 minutes they asked if I'd like to join them!  Which was a pleasant surprise.  :)  I didn't have to have a romantic candlelit dinner, on the beach, all alone!

Thank you Greg and Maria!

We all chatted over delicious food about their stay in Boracay and they talked about how they watched this Korean show on the hotel TV about this couple!  They said, "The TV show host said that the couple was from the US, but they definitely weren't.  They were French Canadian!"  I asked, "Really?  What did they look like?"  Her response, "He was dark and she was blonde!"  hahahhahah!  As it turns out, they saw the show with Jess and Carlos!  So, a couple from Ireland saw the show about Jess and Carlos on a TV in Boracay, Philippines!  And now they were eating dinner with me, one of their best friends, on a beach in another place!!  Small world huh?!  They were really great and we laughed and chatted about life!  It was the perfect way to end my 1st official day in El Nido! 

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Day 7: Goodbye Paradise!

Yesterday was my last day in Boracay, so I planned to meet Lindsay at 8am to golf a couple holes of the fairways resort golf course!  Unfortunately my alarm on my iPod didn't go off, but luckily I woke up at 8:04 and since I'm what I like to call low maintenance, I jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes, brushed my teeth and off I went!

Lindsay was waiting for me at "the bag drop" with a golf shirt, socks, gloves and some golf shoes for me to borrow! Luckily the shoes fit like a glove! We jumped on her own personal darling red golf cart with her own personal caddie, and headed to the 18th hole!

This is Marisa and Lindsay.  Marisa is 35 years old and has 8 kids! I was speechless!

Dad, be ready to be proud!  I had a double boggie on a par 4!   This is especially impressive, in my opinion, because I've only ever played on a real course once!

I then headed over to my room to pack up and say goodbye to my fabulous accomodataions! :(

I had my daily skype session with Aaron before I left and rhen headed over to the airport with Romel, who accompanied me the whole way!

I've been to small airport a time or two in my life, but nothing like this!

Their xray machine didn't even work! Hahhaha

I'm not sure why I'm getting so lucky with my flights these days, but I got he exit row And the seats in front of me where facing my direction And unoccupied! The stewardess said , "It's okay to put your feet up!" I never had to fulfill my duty with the emergency exit door, so needless to say, it was a very nice flight!!

... and you can't beat a view like this! Boracay is below, Caticlan above, and the 2 islands in between are the 2 I visisted...

When I arrived in Manilla, I ran to my connecting flight and asked a nice girl from Spain if I could cut in front of her in line for check in, because I was cutting it really close and she said "of course!" We chatted for a little while and then she asked if I would like to ride with her and her friends to El Nido in a hired van when we landed in Puerto Princesa! Unfortunately I missed my flight and had to rebook it, but for $20 it wasn't exactly a budget breaker! The nice thing was Gala (the girl I met) and I were on the same plane!

When we landed we met with her 3 friends! The 4 of them are incredibly nice and funny and brought me into their group right away! The van drivers name was Godjill! How funny is that?! So I was Jill 1 and he was Jill 2!

We stopped off here for dinner...

... and I accidently left without getting my change (approximately $20) so they insisted we turn around and we ended up driving back, but when we got there, the man told us he didn't have it and told us we didn't give him extra money, which we definitely did... Very frustrating experience! It's only $20, but it's the principle of it, you know?!  I really don't like being lied to!

Within another 3 hours or so, and lot of bumpy dirt roads, which Jill 2 called "massage time", we had arrived in El Nido, which was lit only by the moon, since it was shortly after midnight! The group checked into their hotel, but unfortunately their place was booked, so Jill 2 helped me find a place! I checked into a small room on the beach around 1am, and headed right to bed for some sweet dreams of paradise!!!

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