Snorkeling, Christmas Eve and Lady Gaga.

Yes my butt was sore, and to tell you the truth I think it still is but it did not stop us from doing another snorkeling tour. We chose Tour B....there are only four tours, A,B, C,D....I can't remember if that was previously explained. The whole town of El Nido have all the same tours. We had done tour A and now thought, well I thought, tour B would be good because it showed caves. So at nine in the morning Doug and I climbed into the boat and took off...hit some coral and ruined the propellor. Yup five minutes in and we had to switch boats so that took forever.

Then we head off to the area where we were going to our first snorkel. And found out one of the masks leaks and a snorkel doesn't work! This was after we traded it in once. So five minutes of being there...which took an 45minutes to get too we head back to the hotel and get two new masks.

After that we head to Snake Island, to have lunch no doubt. I decide I am going to snorkel, yup neither of the masks work and the other snorkel some how sucks.

Doug and I just look at each other...it seems typical.

Okay don't get me wrong, these are just moments when Doug and I look at each other and say we can do this, we can enjoy what we want to enjoy and just swim and laugh and take our time. So that is what we did.

We headed to a couple of caves and walked around, and were amazed at water can do. We laughed at the dogs living on the islands, enjoyed out time on the secluded beaches and were just thrilled that we have each other.

And on top of that it was Christmas Eve so there had to be something to look forward too...oh yes we got roped into doing a gift exchange at our hotel and having dinner with them....

So this is how it went, we get back to the hotel and decide yes we will stay for the dinner....who knows it could be fun and there was a gift exchange that we said we would part take in, we had bought gifts for people who we had no clue who they were. (secret santa)

To start we showered. The shower well I had hot water and then Doug didn't so we used an empty hotel room. Then dressed to go to the room next door which was where the construction had been happening all this week. And there was a gigantic roasted pig called lechon, we had it before, then the intestines that were boiled in the pigs blood. So we ate. Then around 9 or so we said we will go to our room and watch Christmas movies that we had downloaded and then come back for the gifts.

Now comes Lady Gaga, did you know she made a Christmas CD? Nope we didn't either...she tries not to be a sell out but anyone who makes a Christmas CD is a sell out. Sorry Lady Gaga. Another thing I do not think people realize is that turning the bass up real loud does nto make the music better. Another realization is that when the Filipinos find something they like they play it over and over again and again. As it played it did not get any better, trust me. That played until 1 in the morning. Presents you ask? Well they didn't "find" ours until we checked out. All I can say it was a Palmer adventure.

Not good, not bad, just extremely different. Doug and I know we can make it through anything and appreciate each other a little more when we do!

Anything worth having is worth hurting...

This morning we woke up and decided to pass on the hotel breakfast, spread the love, and eat some place new. We found the Art Cafe in the downtown area. It was a very modern compilation of conveniences and el nido charm. The food was fair, not good not great, and the coffee was the same. The nice part was the view and clean space within.

We took our time and enjoyed a couple of cups of coffee. Then decided to hit the town and see what trouble we could find. We found it. There was a spot that rented motorbikes. There was a french guy who had, as Kirst put it, suffered one too many motorbike accidents; but he was friendly enough.

He gave us a 250 CC dirt bike that was only lacking a rear seat for the bride...apparently that was not in the rental agreement? We had a large backpack, ready for anything. We went back to the hotel quickly and dumped a lot of extra weight. Strapped on the chin straps of helmets, and boogied our way to the north.




We had a map of where we planned to go. He said it could take around four hours to go around a 100 Km loop back to town. What we soon discovered was that 90 of the 100 km, was bumpy cratered dirt roads. On the one hand, we were happy he gave us the bigger bike. On the other, this one had not back seat for Kirst, ouch. I tried to smooth the road with tender driving skills eluding every bad bump, but it was impossible. Kirst may never fully recover from the bolts and plastic that were under her that day!

We were driving nearly 2 hours before we got a quarter of the way around the loop. We arrived at a beach that he said was worth stopping if we had the time and wanted to see "another" beach. We did. With some help from some local kids,



we found the right path off the road. We arrived at just another beach.

Upon arrival, we noticed that there were a few locals in hammocks that were at the forrest's edge. There were two other motorbikes there that were commuting two other couples that probably got the same memo we had. Luckily, they were on their way out. The beach was easily 1.5 miles end to end of a crescent shape that had various angles of waves making their way to wet sand.






The sand itself was like stepping on 500 count sheets, we laid in it just to make sure! Then the waves were calling, "Hey, if you don't come body surf, we're outta here!"

We couldn't just watch them leave, we embraced and rode the swells that inevitably led to chaffage on me that i would rather not discuss....hey my parents may be reading this! PG.

Nevertheless, the waves were absolutely fun, nothing less. We surfed for at least an hour despite some passing showers and the natives watching us like we were five cans short of a six pack.




It truly was a blast.

Reality set in when we saw what time it was, 3 pm and we knew it took two hours to get there, and it gets dark between 5 and 6, depending on the day, as the locals would say. "Dark" apparently means "when do you start drinking?" in el nido. Kirst was again a trooper and just told me to forget avoiding the bumps, go fast and cease the long torture. We made it out in an hour. She walked for about a half a mile on the pavement just to start realigning her vertebrae. I thought she ought to carry the backpack to help with recompression but she didn't think so?

We made it back to our hotel, showered, rode back to the rental place and paid. I had dropped her off at the restaurant to get us seats and order two cold ones; one for treating her back from the outside, and one to treat her back from the inside! That seemed to work pretty well.

All in all, another great adventure that left some lasting impressions on us!

Palawan, El Nido

Okay so we will put pictures up but this is where we are at this winter vacation.
Doug and I have traveled from Subic Bay to Manila by our car...that we call Lady Liberty (representing our freedom) to Manila on the 19th. We then took a flight from Manila to an Island off the west coast of the "mainland" called Palawan. Here are a few things you need to know about this island. There are not huge resorts here and if you look this place up and see there is a huge resort, that my friend is a lie. The resort would be a huts. Kind of...with rooms with fans, rooms with aircon. We opted to pay more and stay in a room with aircon. (side note we are not staying in anythign that is close to resort, like we would pay those prices. HA) Now another thing you need to know is that there is only electricity from 2 in the afternoon until 6 a.m. the next morning. So aircon only at that time, and charging stuff and what not only at that time. Enough said? Just giving you an idea. There are not many cars but something called a trike....which you get around on.

Alright so we get in like at 7 on the 19th to Puerto Princesa and we stay at this place called the Deep Garden Forest Hotel. It is funny, seriously with large statues and weird looking stuff all over. The ride there well let's just say all I could think about was where the hell is this guy taking us. Down this dark dirt road with no lights and huge pot holes. Well we made it. And checked in and then headed to this restaurant called Kinabachu (or something like that) where we had blue marlin, dark negra beer, garlic prawns, green papaya salad. It was amazing. Very cheap too. Then we went back to the hotel and crashed. Seriously crashed. The next morning we had to get up early to catch a van that would take us about 6 hours to get to El Nido far up north......little did we know.

We wake up the next morning and get ready to go. And here comes the rains. Deluge. Couldn't even see outside. And all we could think was well at least it is cooler than it has been. Our van was suppose to be there by 7ish. Let's just say it wasn't. And that it the next story we will be telling. The van ride, the snifflier, the snorer, the tiny toilets, and the road that took us to El Nido.