Scootin' Round El Nido Town

-
My first week back I just had to be a tourist and rent a motorbike for a jaunt across the island!

Ghay drove (clearly, I would kill us on these gravel roads here) and first we stopped at "The Slaughter." Sounds creepy, yes, but it's just the residence outside El Nido town where Ghay's grandmother lives and various family members visit. They keep pigs and roosters there; hence, the slaughter. Whatever happened to "Grandma's house?" Shoo. The visit was short and sweet, and then we were back on the road.

The island of Palawan is so beautiful, every time we motorbike I wish I could take a hundred pictures. Of course, I'm usually just holding on tight to prevent an accident! However, we had to stop a few times to go around giant water puddles - it's still rainy season and the roads show it. Each time we stopped I made sure to put more sunscreen on, but I still managed to get burned. I'd forgotten how STRONG the sun is here! Being that much closer to the equator will do it to ya.

We arrived at Nac Pan beach, one of my favorites. It's about a mile long and has beautiful sand and clear water and most important...nobody else. We had the whole thing to ourselves! Ok, I lied. About an hour in, 5 or 6 local kids showed up on the far end of the beach, but it was still like a private paradise. The waves were a few feet high so we did some body surfing and generally just got water in my eyes a dozen times. So nice.

Eventually we tired and drove back towards Ghay's family's house. We had a short visit with his father, but everyone else was resting or not there. Then we went to the waterfalls, something I had always wanted to do but never made it. Ghay grumbled about how it was a long way, that we had to cross SEVEN rivers! Okay, I thought, a bit of a drive, but it'll be fun.

About 3 minutes later, he says we're there and it's time to start hiking. What?? I thought we had to drive over 7 rivers?! No...he meant HIKE over 7 rivers. Yikes. I wasn't quite mentally prepared for our voyage but I figured we should do it anyways. Ghay said "I better not hear any words come out of your mouth!" Haha. I shut up and started walking. It took perhaps 45 minutes of walking. The "rivers" were, thank God, actually just streams, and provided a nice refreshment every few minutes. A steep incline later, we arrived. The waterfalls were about 30 feet high and really lovely, with a nice pool at the bottom to swim in. I tell you, nothing felt so good as treading in that freezing, fresh water pool! Again, we were the only ones there, so we had a nice relaxing time doing as we pleased! Guess there are some perks to slow season.

It started to get dark so we returned to El Nido, whereupon I discovered my tomato-like face - ouch. Worth it? Oh yes. I nice return excursion in my favorite town!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Afternoon in La Calera

-
Image
One weekend, my friend Corrie asked if I wanted to wander outside of Bogotá for an afternoon. The answer was a resounding YES and we found a bus headed to La Calera for about $1.50. It only took 45 minutes and the drive took us up and above Bogotá, so we had some really picturesque views. The fun, winding roads reminded me of moped-ing in Bali...guess I need a moped now :) Once we arrived in La Calera, a very small town, we wandered through the streets to the main plaza. Since it was a lazy Sunday, there were also many lazy locals taking advantage of the calm. We all lounged in park benches in the plaza and watched the kids play with a ball in the middle. It fairly oozed small town vibe. Corrie, smart gal that she is, picked La Calera for one main reason: the food. We found our way to some food stalls and ordered some picada (I wrote about this dish before from Montserrate ). Even though the idea was the same, it was a slightly different variety. For example, less intestines and m...
Read more

A New Life in Bogota

-
Image
Here we are: my first week in Bogota! It all began with the flight, an easy, 5-hour direct flight from Atlanta. I even had a special guest to keep me company, a bobble head Rosie the Riveter! It was a going-away gift from my friend Sara, who told me it will remind me that YES, I can do it! I love it! I wonder where we will go together.... Now this is where it gets (more) interesting: At Georgia Tech, I had a student from Bogota (Natalia) who initially wanted me to stay with her family when I arrived. I thought that would be a bit much, so I turned it down. However, I did accept a ride from the airport because the plane would be arriving at 10:30pm. It was pretty funny to have Natalia’s mother, father, and older brother waiting for me with a sign that said “Kathleen!” I immediately realized how kind and generous they were, so I was not actually surprised when they just took me home with them. They were pretty much like “No, we’re your family now so you’re staying wi...
Read more

Museums of Shanghai

-
Image
I needed out at some of the museums of Shanghai, so let me give you a little taste of what I learned! The Shanghai Museum was my first stop, and it was phenomenal. First, it was free! Good job, China! Second, it had artifacts from thousands of years of Chinese history. As an American, that's hard to fathom. Imagine walking through galleries full of bronze, sculpture, ancient coins, and calligraphy scrolls. Some of my favorite things included traditional Chinese paintings, which were often scenic views of famous places in China, exquisite jade molded in shapes that ranged from name prints to elaborate dragons, and the ceramics, which included beautiful vases and tea and China sets (go figure). Another cool room was filled with ethnic minority costumes from the past. I thought it was really great that China chose to honor all of the minority groups in this way, especially since China is not well known for treating them equally (ahem, Tibet). I spent about 2 hours here, and I could ...
Read more