Our stay in El Nido was quite frustrating. We had very high hopes for this place, and if you google images of it you’ll understand why. For 4 days, we tried to explore the lagoons, coves, coral reefs and caves of the Bacuit Bay islands, and we couldn’t. The coast guard wouldn’t allow any boats to sail due to a small typhoon that was crossing the area generating strong waves.
Getting from Coron, where we came for wreck diving, to El Nido, the travelers’ hub of Palawan, is not as easy as one would expect. There are no flight connections, so most people are forced to pick one of the two, or try their luck in rather unreliable bangkas (7-10 hours and several mishaps). Because we didn’t want to waste a precious day and wanted to do something special for Elena’s birthday, we contracted a private 3d/2n trip with Abandon Paradise Expedition. I cannot recommend them enough; Don and Fred are very professional and fun, and they offer a memorable experience.
The waters around Coron, in the Palawan archipielago, are a world-class destination for wreck diving. There are 24 Japanese ships sunk during an American strike in 1944. The story of this fleet is one more chapter in the fascinating Philippine history, which includes key roles in the Spanish-American war and WWII, mandatory reading for anyone visiting the country.
We arrived in Banaue by Ohayami bus at 5am, when it was still dark and rather cold. A kid offered to take us to a guesthouse and we followed him… got a double room at the People’s Lodge, in the center of the town, for 800 PHP ($17), and quickly passed out.
At 7am we woke up and enjoyed the Banaue views for the first time: a mesmerizing green valley covered by rice terraces, carved by the Ifugao people 2,000 years ago. After a quick breakfast, we walked to the main square and hired a tricycle (which apparently works on coke ;P) to take us to the top of the mountain, the so-called Banaue viewpoint. Most people drive the tricycle up and down, but we wanted to be dropped off and hike down on our own. As we got higher, the fog wrapped us to the point that we weren’t able to see much of the rice terraces. But as we were trying to figure out the trailhead, the fog started to dissipate and we were able to see not only the paddies, but even a section of the ‘trail’ we intended to follow.
Continue reading “Hiking through rice terraces in Banaue & Batad”
On Christmas day 2014, Elena and I landed in Manila. We were planning on travelling across the Philippines for 10 days, covering the capital, the rice terraces in north Luzon, and the water wonders of Palawan. Since our plane had arrived at 4am and we were planning on taking a 9pm bus to Banaue, we were left with ample time to tramp around the city. I have to admit I was positively surprised, as I hadn’t heard the best things about Manila, and I found a neat, interesting town with friendly people. Yes, there is poverty, but somehow it feels more organic, integrated than in other places. And the mix of Asian, Spanish/Latin and Northamerican heritage creates a unique character.
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After an exhausting safari and a day walking the streets of Stone Town, we were completely ready to relax in our final destination: Kendwa. We chose Kendwa because it has the best swimming beach in the island, even if not as cheap as Nungwi or as scenic as Paje.
From Arusha, where our Kenya-Tanzania safari ended, we caught a flight to Zanzibar. We had booked with Coastal Aviation and didn’t realize the tiny plane would stop 5 times before getting to the island… it was like being on a public bus hehe. Stone Town, the old downtown of the capital Zanzibar, was a nice surprise. Our expectations of African towns were low after Nairobi and Arusha (later also confirmed by Dar es Salaam), but Stone Town proved to be a charming, lively city, with an exciting history. As the center of the Zanzibar Sultanate during the 19th century, it flourished driven by trade of spices and slaves, before suffering a revolution.
The Ngorongoro Crater is a volcanic caldera of ~20km of diameter and ~600m of depth. It is not only beautiful but also a unique redoubt of wildlife, with ~25,000 mammals. The name is believed to refer to the sound of bells of the cows that Maasais used to shepherd in the area before being “relocated to protect the ecosystem”. Our game drive in Ngorongoro was too short, as we had to deal with the issues derived from our guide loosing his entrance card (narrated in the post Arriving at Serengeti), but still intense.
During our first night at Seronera Camp, I had to go to the bathroom and heard some animal noises… seeing a buffalo a few meters away from our tent in the morning made me feel good, like I was not a scared urbanite.
Continue reading “Lions and more in Serengeti National Park”
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