Philippines : Mile Post #2

Waking up early, we headed downtown to find breakfast. As it turns out, traditional Filipino food offers no vegetarian option but we were able to purchase pastries / sweet bread from a local shop and some bananas from another. The pastries were awesome and were comparable to what is available in the the states, although slightly different. It was the best bread I'd eaten in three months. Writing about these pastries makes me wish I'd purchased hundreds of them and consumed every last bite.

(Post-publication Addition)
Everybody calls me "Sir" here. My god! I wanted to say, "My name is Dylan. My father is Sir or Mr. X, etc." but refrained. Somehow the "Sir" sounded like "Boss", from Cool-hand Luke, and I tried to ignore, for the entire trip, being referred as such.  

We decided to rent a motorbike from our cottage hotel and explore the northern part of the island, as well as hike to the popular waterfall, to the hot-spring, and check out the other baranguays (villages). The Cliffside was fully booked that for the next few weeks (it turns our we were lucky to get a room the previous evening) and the daughter of the owner mentioned she had a place we could stay. On her property, in the non-tourested part of town, she was in the middle of building a small pension house but her traditional filipino house was empty and we could stay there if we wished. I will dedicate a small, solo, post to this house because it was so awesome that it deserves special recognition.  The house definitely made for a rustic and positive experience. Long story short, after she took us over to check out the place, we packed up our stuff, stored it in the managers apartment, and left for a day of exploration.

The bottom left hand corner is El Nido, our plan was to travel to San Fernando

At this time I should mention the quality of the roads. Outside of Puerto Princesa by two hours, the roads changed from rough, broken, pavement into dirt roads; not gravel but dirt. A mile surrounding El Nido, (both in to town and out of) was paved but soon turned into dirt roads. So, as you can see from the map, the hot-springs and waterfall are north of town, and we decided to try to make it up to San Fernando, of which we did all of these. Hindsight, it would have been cool to check out the rest of the road but after twelve hours on the back of a motorbike on shitty dirt roads, perhaps it was better decision to return the way we did because we ran out of time and my ass was killing me.

Although the following pictures will describe the adventure, our schedule is as follows:

Waterfalls
Hot-spring
Baranguay San Fernando
Baranguay Teneguiban
Baranguay Bucano
Return to El Nido proper
Back out to Waterfalls at night
Nacpan Beach (featured between Buri Is. and Bucano on the map)

Our motorbike

This motorcycle was like nothing I've seen before, having no clutch to switch between the gears. Instead, one simple hard shifts the bike using a left side shifter (like any motorcycle). The right, front, break and back, foot, break functioned the same. It is like the manual "sport" shifting offered in some newer cars. Weird! Anyway, a scooter would have been impossible on these roads and, although, the engine on our motorcycle was only 150cc it handled the roads, our bags and bodies, quite well. So we rumbled along, passing cars and people that stood in our way.

Country-side with a fairly standard building 

There were a lot of pictures taken during the ride and I hope this gives a good example of the landscape. There are a lot of fields, which are used to grow rice, and "mountains" that are around a eight-hundred to a thousand feet above sea level outside these luscious valleys.

Path to Nagkalit-kalit Waterfall

We parked our motorcycle at one of the trail-heads (it turns our there are many which run through people's yard) and a women came out to greet us. She asked us about if we wanted a guide and we declined. "Point us the way," was our request and she did. As you've read, we hike often and we don't need someone to walk with us along an easy path. So we started off. It turns out that this isn't a "trail" but rather a meandering path that also sports livestock, farms, and hundreds of diverging paths left this main road. We continued and our way was indeed difficult to decipher, perhaps a guide was needed simply to avoid ending up in farmer fields, turning around, and trying again. As it turns out, we passed the unmarked path to the waterfall and continued hiking for a while. Far past anything that resembled normal travel we decided to turn around. After some time, we came across some lost french travelers and informed them they also missed the waterfall. Joining up with us, we set off, back down the trail, and soon saw a guided group split down a side trail, and followed after them.

Nagkalit-kalit Waterfall

Coming up on the waterfall was rather disappointing. Taiwan, as has been only minimally documented on my part, sports more waterfalls that one could ever wish to see and most are very large. This trickle of Nagkalit-kalit was worth going to explore, but was definitely not impressive. We ended up talking with Arnil, a local guide, about returning that evening for a night hike. We were unsure whether we could get the motorbike over night and thus, our poor planning cost us (as will be told later on).

A Bovine on the path

A local transporting goods via bovine. 

Transporting goods via bovine is common, which is nut coming from the U.S. or Taiwan. Besides the "traditional" rustic house we were to be living in for the remainder of our stay in El Nido, the rustic and "third worldness" of the Philippines is truly different. Brown outs (unavailable power for the majority of the day), shacks (which the majority of the population lived in), dirt roads, and arduous work hours definitely make a visitor feel humbled by even the most modest living the West.

A lazy laborer taking a break to cool off

We headed back, returned to the motorcycle, and drove towards the hot-spring. Since we did not have a map, the photo featured above was our only reference to our destinations. During one stop, to verify our heading, a couple from Isreal stopped to ask us if they'd missed Nacpan Beach. They most definitely did, and after a couple minutes of chatting, we went our separate ways.

Rice fields being plowed by techniques at least 10000 years old

Do you remember my last post about visiting the rice fields of southern Taiwan; where they used an mechanical plows of sorts to turn the muck, which is back breaking work? That insane amount of work now seems like nothing as compared to the major effort seen in the fields of Palawan.

Heading to the hot-springs

We paid a man twenty piso's to be allowed to park and head towards the hot-spring. He, like the lady, insisted he guide us, but we, once again, just asked to be pointed the way. I recognize that this is how people make a living but a guide would emasculate the endeavor. So we headed off.

Unfortunately, over-saturation caused this photo to lose a significant amount of mystique of the view 

The house you see on the left is used by coconut farmers to dry the coconut's white flesh to be used to make coconut oil. The men working inside directed us to another path and we continued on.

Dacota walking across a log

Arnil had warned us of the dangers regarding the hot-spring. The area is known for over-saturated wet ground, with the ground appearing solid but actually being a deep pool of suspended particles, aka quicksand. With this in mind, we were very careful, and rightfully so, because there was indeed quicksand. The first time I've encountered it outside of lakes with suspend heavy particulates boots giving the illusion of a something solid which is not. So after some cautious hiking (walking. This is all flat so the term hiking is rather misleading), we made it to the hot-spring.

Makinit Hot-Spring on Palawan

This is truly a hot-spring for no cold water inlet exists and instead, a boiling pool of water is found. It is literally boiling. The edges of the pool are suspended particles and, even if one could possible hand the temperature, there is no way the human body could go to the main pool. Furthermore, long sticks dipped in from the side (testing the solidity of the edge) didn't come close to touching a bottom. We put our feet in the run off steam and talked for a bit. This is officially the first hot-spring I've been to and been unable to physically enjoy, although it was still a worthwhile destination.

Petting a goat

We headed back and this goat needed a friend. Dacota first petted this little guy, who seemed to love the attention, and so we both began pet this cute little thing for a while. He was really nice!

Passing by the shack that was drying coconut flesh, we thanked the gentlemen and started heading back. A moment of insight caused me to turn around and ask the gentlemen about the price of a coconut. Twenty piso's ($.5) for one and we ordered two.

One of the men collecting our coconuts

I anticipated a backlog of coconuts existed and we would be handed one from the shed. But no, they set out searching the coconut field trying to find a suitably ripe specimen. Before we knew it, before I could protest, one of the men began climbing the tree using small notches cut into the trunk as the ladder, looking as spry as a monkey and equally as strong. Up the thirty feet he went, pulled one off and dropped it down. His friend, cut open the coconut for us to inspect. I've never eaten fresh coconut like this and we took their word this would be good. After seeing the effort, we requested three be dropped. One, two, three, and he descended the tree. This man was so strong and cut it sets a new bar of fitness in my book. The man on the ground began cutting our coconut, allowing us to drink the liquid inside (which is what we really wanted) and cut open the rest of it after the liquid was drank. He manufactured a spoon out of the husk and left us gorge ourselves. These two guys were really cool and we talked for a bit before letting them return to whatever they were doing before we bothered them. Only two of the coconuts were open -- thank god -- because eating an entire coconut in one sitting is beyond filling.

The delicious coconut

It was entirely too much food and, fortunately, a few hungry dogs came over and happily ate what we could not. Two travelers from Korea, a South African teacher and her colleague, passed us and we warned them of the lurking danger. They returned after some time, we were still eating the coconuts, and thanked us for our insight, ate a small amount, chatted with us for a bit, and were off again. We cleaned up our mess and headed off with a wave to the men.

One of many photo opportunities on our trip to San Fernando

Bumping along the road to San Fernando was actually quite fun and after an hour or so we finally arrived. Three beautiful women waved at us on our way and I regret not questioning them about where to buy produce, a question we later tried to ask a few locals in town to no success, inability to communication and the like.

San Fernando Beach

What more could one want? A beautiful empty beach with warm clear water to swim in. We swam around for a bit, playing water boxing in the ocean, and headed off to check out the other towns. Two local kids came up and watched us and their expressions were of bewilderment. This is the first time I've ever been in a tropical ocean and, my god, is it different and wonderful.

Baranguay Teneguiban

The sparsely traveled road to Teneguiban was not only in poor shape but much longer than anticipated. Because of this, the town seemed to detour tourists because we received more attention that in previous towns.  As we rolled in to town, we stopped in front of a church because a hundred or so locals were storming the road before us. In fact, the majority of the town was standing around watching a basketball game and we joined in for a few minutes before heading to the beach. Filipinos on a whole love basketball and it was easy to tell them where in America we were from; simply stating The Trail Blazers circumvented the arduous task of explaining its geographic location.

Baranguay Bucano

The sun was beginning its slow decline when we arrived in Bucano. We didn't take the time to go to the beach, instead we sat on a retaining wall near the harbor and ate a snack. As we left town, the school let out and hundreds of school children lined the sides of the street we drove along. They put out their hands for "High Fives" of which I extended arms on either side and gave more High Fives then I've probably given in my life. It made me feel like a movie star.

Its a hard life

People using animals as laborers is something not commonly seen in the states or in Taiwan. Somehow these farmers always have a ready smile and a wave in queue to respond to our presence. That these folks, living a very hard life, keep positive is pretty inspiring. In fact, most every Filipino we met was extremely nice, humble, joyful, and ever willing to converse. That the majority of people are devote Christians is contradictory to my experiences with Christians in the states and was extremely refreshing. Perhaps this positive example of actions and energy that these religious followers showed will allow for my greater patience with them when I return. Edit: Having just watched the Bill Nye and Ken Ham debate, this moment of tolerance has been swooped aside and I am aghast, once again, at the "Christians" back in the states. At least, for one moment of my life, the absurd claims that this particular faith expounds was set aside. Now ... I guess, back to the real world.

Late night herping

We headed back to El Nido to eat dinner and try to extend our motorbike rental. A delicious dinner at a restaurant called "The Alternative" consisted of banana heart curry, a dish I spent hours attempting to prepare in Portland which turned out like shit, and a papaya dish of sorts. Both were extremely well prepared. While there, we also set reservations to take an island hopping tour with their company the following day. (Obviously another post will describe that adventure). We rented the bike for the evening and headed out to meet Arnil and do some herping. Arriving at the location he mentioned yielded a shack with blast T.V. inside and loud voices of conversation. After calling out and honking the motorcycle horn, we eventually knocked on the door. Much to our surprise an unknown gentleman opened the door and it took a while to explain why we were blowing up their residence so late at night. Slightly intoxicated and obviously in the middle of spending time with a friend and his wife, he volunteered to take us to Arnil's home. So we followed pursuit for a few miles. The gentleman left his bike running in front of a house and walked into the dark while we turned off our bike and waited around. It turns out more than one dwelling existed on this property and people came out looking at us like assholes for waking them up. This isn't like leaving a car running outside of a house in the states, this is a hut built out of bamboo and palm leaves and it was obvious that the exhaust, noise, and late hour was not appreciated. Obviously we were the faces they glared at (but in a confused way and not of dire hatred which is what my face would have reflected if the situations were reversed) and we felt awful. After almost ten minutes, the gentleman who brought us here informed us that Arnil was in another town that evening and we were on our own. We thanked him and left to check out Nacpan Beach at night. Ever vigilant, waiting for a snake sighting, we drove through the dark hoping to glimpse a slithering friend. But with no such luck, we arrived at the the beach, hung out for an hour, and headed back to El Nido. In hindsight, we probably should have tried the waterfall by ourselves, but without a compass and with hundreds of splitting trails, the likelihood of becoming lost seemed high. On our way back, we took the road towards Baranguay New Ibajay and stopped four times looking for herps. We found some frogs and geckos but no snakes. In one field, we watched this cool spider (featured above) build a web before our eyes and, after that fascinating entertainment, decided to return to our new accommodations and get some sleep. It was a little after two a.m. when we went to bed.