Palawan Island Hopping

Palawan. Yes, Baby

11° 20′ 55” N

119° 27′ 31” E

First of all, sorry for the long break – the Internet here really is the worst 🙈. After a long flight from Zurich to Hong-Kong, and then from Hong Kong to Manilla, we finally arrived in the capital. But since we decided to go straight island-hopping, we took another flight to Puerto Princesa, Palawan. Currently we are based in El Nido, in the southern part of Palawan island. With its more than 7100 islands, it takes you more than 20 years if you spend a day on each island 🌴 -> what a delight for all beach bums out there ☀ The picture was taken at a jungle-backed stretch of white sand called “Duli Beach”, which is only a 45 minutes motorbike ride north of El Nido. As you know, we really love empty beaches, and Duli is exactly such a place ❤

Besides plain rice, fish is probably one of the most consumed goods. In order to make sure, locals and tourists never run out of fish, these bronzed fishermen get up at 4am every day and paddle out their bangkas to the deep sea and bring back their daily catch at dawn to be grilled 🐟. Sadly, destructive fishing methods such as cyanide and dynamite fishing are still widely practised in some parts of the Philippines – which also has a negative impact on corals.

There’s nothing like a beautiful sunset with the people you love! #LasCabanasBeach

Welcome to Paradise Beach 🌴 The best thing you can do in El Nido (which is the gateway to the fabulous #BacuitArchipelago) is an island hopping tour that brings you to some of the most beautiful beaches and lagoons in the Philippines ☀️️ In order to avoid the mass tourist routes, we chartered a private boat ⛵ with a few other people and combined several tours together. It’s a fantastic opportunity if you need some time to relax on the white sandy beaches, to snorkel around and admiring the colorful aquatic fauna or to simply enjoy the beauty of nature.

We diiiiid it! 😁 First time ziplining! Flying above the paradise and enjoying breathtaking views of the land and the sea from above☀️️ Sounds too good, doesn’t it? The zipline is around 750 meters long and the end point is located on another island. The waiting time was around 2 hours+, because the company only had security gear for 6 people – which they had to pick up on the other island every single time 😂 Fun fact: According to Lonely Planet, the Philippines is unofficially the zipline capital of the world. Have u ever tried ziplining?

Palawan truly is one of earth’s paradise! 🌴 It not only has some of the most beautiful beaches, but it also offers some great snorkeling and diving – from wrecks to outstanding coral reefs 🐢🐳🐋🐬🐟🐠🐙 We choose Coron in the northern part of Palawan as the most suitable destination. Diving in Coron is marvelous and offers some of the best diving in the Philippines. It’s mostly famous for its two dozen Japanese WWII shipwrecks found around the bay ⚓ As SSI advanced divers, we were able to visit and enter the 3 sunken Japanese WWII ships Luson Gunboat, East Tangat and Olympia Maru. But honestly, it was a little scary in the dark, only equipped with a flashlight. And it was all too easy to imagine the chaotic scenes of these sinking boats as we finned our ways through their abandoned corridors.

Okay, okay…enough of those postcard-worthy long white beaches! But here’s the last one 😝 Napcan Beach, just another slice of paradise 🌴

Jeepneys are traditional mode of transport and they are the cheapest way to travel around Palawan (mostly used by locals) 🚌 Since Jeepneys charge cheap, that low price may come with a price as well: open air, dust 💨 and crowded seating. For the adventurous types, you can sit on the roof if you don’t want to be squashed in like a sardine. But it’s actually a good way for mixing in with the locals 👲 and discovering their way of life.