El Nido by motorcycle
As always we wake up early, before 7. We head downstairs and quickly the manager asks us if we have some plans for the day. I confess I was a bit puzzled on what to do, walking around is not really an option and the beach is not that appealing. There's a small motorbike rental place just in front of the hostel and... somehow they convince to go on a bike tour. We could go and visit the nearby waterfalls and hot springs, or simply roam around and check the surrounding villages. They claim to have some beaches along the path and, given the price (700P - around 13 eur/day) and ease of driving this 125cc bike, we decide to go for it. We pack some things, buy some pastry, and off we go around the island. Not before trying out the bike of course... be noted that this is the first time that I actually ever drove a motorcycle! But, how hard can it be? :)
We started heading north, pass the airport, and head to the waterfalls... the road is easy and smooth at first, concrete road makes the ride easy and painless. However, soon enough, the concrete ends and we are left with nothing but a dirt road, alternating with small and big rocks. Around 1 hour later, we arrive at the Makalit-Kalit waterfalls. We are surprised to see that they are not reachable with the bike, a foot hike of 45 minutes is needed (probably it will take more), along with a guide. The idea no longer sounds so appealing and we decide to continue on and visit the 'virgin', untouched beaches. The road gets tougher and tougher and rain starts pouring down. And imagine what happens on a dirt 'road' with heavy rain... everything gets muddy and slippery! At some point, the bike simply gives up and gets stuck on deep mud: we are up to our knees with mud and think that driving another kilometer in these conditions is probably not such a good idea... some locals come and help me dig out the bike and tells us the obvious: don't go to the beach :) All in all, we spent about 1 hour in this dirt road... at least I got some good learning experience!
The rain is not making our life any easier but we continue heading northeast and drive through other villages until we reach at the beach in San Fernando. We make a quick stop there but don't stay for long as the beach is not really inviting...it is not the white-sand beach you see on postcards but we do use this little break to get something to eat and refresh ourselves. We are only halfway done with the driving and it's already 2pm... and the tank is over 1/2 way gone. It's important to note that we cannot get any fuel during the whole trip so I decide to be a bit more gentle on the RPM from that point on...
The rain keeps pouring down and the bike gets harder and harder to manage... after a few hours and a nearly empty tank, we are back in town! Surprise, surprise: there is no fuel in El Nido so we need to drive another 10 minutes south to Corong corong to get some... we drive through the town a few times and fail to find any fuel. Tried asking a few of the locals but we are somehow unable to explain ourselves: after driving back and forth, one young guy on a bike helps us out by driving with us together to the place... it was a simple store where fuel was kept in old coca-cola bottles :) Fueling up the tank was rather cheap (160P, about 4 EUR) and afterwards we make our way back to town.
Our bodies are sore and tired and we wish for nothing but a relaxed evening and good food. We also decide that El Nido is not really what we hoped for and decide to book the trip to Coron a little earlier, leaving 2 days from then on a boat that goes in the morning and costs 2200P (40 EUR!) for an 8-hour ride. We also decide to ruin our budget a little bit and take one of the island hopping tours the day after... hopefully it will be worthwhile!
This is one problem of El Nido and Coron (that I will tell about further ahead): the towns lack beaches and things to do in general, and everything else is available for a fee which is definitely not cheap by Filipino standards. The boat ride in El Nido costs about 15 EUR per person which is roughly our daily budget for this trip. But we are already here so we decide to go for it :)
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