Five months of rain, typhoons, bugs and misery

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The delux tent purposefully flattened to protect it from getting ruined,
behind a temporary wall of 
coconut leaves.

Letter to mom about Ben, June 10

That’s the owner of the property I’m supposed to be developing. He dropped by the other day, bringing in more bamboo so that I can continue with construction (mostly tables and little things, since I do not have permission for the property I’m actually on to build anything, let alone even be here), came to check out my progress, asked to confirm that I had indeed been here for over a year, and then burst out a little laughter, finding it funny that I can live in this “state”, meaning in a tent and out in the open.

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New coconut leaf outhouse

He has already built two big huts and coconut leaf outhouses for us (one on each of the properties I have developed) and obviously wants us to be comfortable. I send his hotel a fair amount of business and he sees the potential here that I do, so it reminded me of you and your “I cannot believe my 51 year old son is sleeping on the ground”… Makes me giggle. On the other hand, I live in paradise right on the beach. I honestly find very little value in owning a car (unless I live in it and it gives me freedom, or I really need it for some reason) and a house and tiled floors and all these creature comforts which to me seem to have more value to people who use them as status symbols in their competition against other people in society. I really find no value in any of that and love my little workstation in the shade with its lovely paradise view, and the constant temperature all year long, and the ability to walk a few steps to cool down in the ocean any time I want, have interesting people from all over the world passing through (and that I carefully screen to be birds of my own feather), and then the opportunity to develop this project and work with my hands occasionally. In fact, yesterday, after my one volunteer had left and I was left to myself, I was contemplating the possibility of eventually getting bored here and wanting to go somewhere else, but I really cannot think of a better place than where I am now and would like to get into the trenches for a 10-20 year operation while starting a family, just to add a legacy and interesting chapter in my life. Anyway, just thought I’d send you an update 🙂

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Finally got my tent up after half a year of virtually no rain,
with mosquito netting around my new, protected workstation.

Letter to mom update – rainy season and zillion bugs

Further to my previous, often-sounding positive email about my paradise living, think you might find this one funny and contrary. So it has started raining and everything is starting to rapidly bloom, the big fat jungle green leaves bursting from every dry stick protruding from the ground. boat-tours-el-nido-coron-20160813_075557I have started replanting bushes from the new veggie garden to other targeted areas, beautifying the place overall and rather enjoy the work. Love how everything is bursting green and it gives the place a lot more juicy and snugly character. I experimented with various leftover seeds (haven’t dared yet to experiment with all the packaged seeds volunteers have brought in from abroad over the past year) and so far the only one which has taken root is pumpkin, which seems to have exploded like a monster. Never really liked pumpkin, but the local variety tastes like sweet potato and is quite nice. The seeds can be dried in the sun and are quite tasty as a snack or can be thrown into salads etc. And learned from the internet that the leaves and female flowers can be eaten. I think even the shell, if I remember correctly. Hopefully I wont get sick of it, but will be nice once we actually start going organic. I planted one pumpkin’s worth of seeds and looks like I’ll have a massive garden. If picked when ripe enough and the shell is very hard, apparently it can also last months in the cool shade. Unfortunately, with rain comes tons of bugs. Zillions of flies relentlessly pitter pattering along my back and skin as I try to focus on my work, bugs of all dimensions which swarm the lights at night in their different seasons, horseflies, and yes, tons of mosquitos. It turns out that the recess of land at the back of the property is turning into a marsh – I always wondered what google maps meant by some “lake” there. Decided I will put a mosquito net around my workstation, so now my fantastic paradise view will become foggy and hazy.

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Giving some of the shoreline a bit of a haircut.

I’m sure guests won’t be so impressed during this season, although I have found some natural remedy comprising of cheap blue mouthwash, stale beer and epson salts which is supposed to work real good at keeping them away from a sprayed area for months, so am trying to order that in to give it a try. The mosquito net I draped over my tent so that I could keep the door open isn’t working very well, it can get hot at night in the tent even with the door open, the air is getting very still so I’m having to dip in the ocean many times a day, leaving a salty film on my skin. It seems even if I wash myself with the wellwater at the end of the day I feel a thick slimy film on my body by morning – the rainy season has raised the water table and the water in the well is very brown, I am assuming from an iron runoff from the rocky soil. So I dont sweat up my bed I’ll often take a dip in the very shallow night waters to cool myself down.

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Volunteer grinning and bearing it.

Then of course the typhoon season will come for about two weeks and hopefully not rip apart my tents, and apparently it can get very wavy during this time, so I may have to make the trek to the other side of the island when getting supplies sent in, since the boat wont be able to stop on my side. That could seriously threaten beer consumption. All in all, many would probably be complaining non-stop and I can just imagine how this would be impossibly uninteresting for any woman I aspire to start a family with. Fortunately I have the years of treeplanting behind me and have learned to tolerate the most extreme conditions. Certainly not something for everyone’s palate. If I could only find out who the owner is and hopefully get his permission, then I could build my dream hut and be much more comfortable. But still it is so beautiful here that it makes it all worthwhile for me, and I enjoy the development work. I had been complaining for ten years on the road that I sit too much in front of the computer and don’t have much else to work on, so this is perfect for me. If I could build it up and make money as a kitesurfing instructor, that would be absolutely perfect.

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Nice British couple working on a new spot about 50m from shore.
Good shelter from the wind, but too many mosquitos and eventually they moved closer to shore.

Other Annoyances

Like the bugs, sometimes I think there are little devils in my life that tinker with my electronics and snicker away while they pump up the irritation level to a massive degree. Or like somehow my paradise must be yin yang compensated with technical annoyances, to bring some balance to my universe. And I’m often grateful that I have such a broad range of technical knowledge, because I cannot imagine that most people would survive under these conditions. Same with the truck I lived in Europe for five years.

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I started slinking my way through the jungle like a ninja, seeking out new camping spots.
This one took a fair amount of work to poke a path connecting to the beach.

I’ll give yesterday as an example and what inspired me to write this letter. As I wrote elsewhere, I’ve been having a horrible time with smartphones. I need one to be able to respond quickly by text messages, for guests arriving or boatmen when arranging tours. It is also good to check email and work when I am away from the computer, and sometimes I can use it as a wifi hotspot if I am having problems with my regular router, so quite an important device. One I had purchased, another fake unbeknownst to me, irritated me so much in so many ways I was relieved to finally replace it. But in the nearest Filipino town all they had was some brand named Cherry, a local production. Their highest end product at more than a hundred bucks and with a whopping 3 day warrantee lasted all of two months.

So I finally decided to buy real quality from the internet, a Samsung S3 at about the same price. Started raining after six months of complete dry the day it arrived in the mail, I was unprepared, slept in a completely wet tent the whole night and the next day the device no longer worked, after I spent about 4 hours excitedly setting it up the previous day. Which has forced me to go back to the irritating one, that has a crack in the bottom right corner of the screen, making it frustratingly difficult to press such things as the spacebar, the OK button and so forth. It is also incredibly slow, doesn’t work as a hotspot, is 4G but because the local tower is 3G it falls down to 2G and offers incredibly slow internet, and I have to be very careful with it, otherwise it will easily turn off, or the menu items start acting up due to the crack, such that I am forced to restart it. But when I do that the battery often does not connect properly, so I’m forced to take the battery out, lick it and fiddle with it about five times before I get the blasted thing working.

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New big area past the entrance shown in picture above. Good for groups, big tree in the center, surrounded by smaller trees of the same type with big fat leaves and creating a nice canopy and shaded area.

Meanwhile, my debit card expired and a new one is on its way, but probably at the Coron post office, where I send all my ebay purchases. Since I can’t really leave here (3 hour boat ride one way), I wait until an arriving volunteer can pick it up or one of my boatmen makes the trip to the town. This means that I cannot transfer credit to my sim card online. Yesterday the credit ran out on my internet sim card so I had to climb up the tree, where the router and antenna are, so I could stick the second sim card into the shitty phone, struggle with it five times to get it working, to transfer funds from one sim to the other. I climb back up the tree to put in the other sim card, but once I climb back down it is not working. I find myself climbing back up at least another four times until I figure out it was a connection problem, meanwhile my cat decides this is a fun game and weaves between my legs high up in the tree, adding to the annoyance.

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Hammock high up in tree where I have my router and antenna background center near the top of the photo. Rather precarious work with cat weaving between my feet.

I decided recently that I will start stocking up on things, going into redundant mode. It seems that one of my 1gig external harddrives snapped recently, losing tons of films I have been picking up from people passing through. So I bought two more and hope to start making double backups of everything. A new, waterproof Samsung S5 is on its way, so I’ll still have this shitty one as a backup. Already have something like 5 inverters, which convert the 12V to 120 or 220 and without which I cannot charge my computer or do any work, and slowly thinking of a backup battery for the solar, since my first one is starting to get weak.

They are talking about upgrading the local tower to 4g, in which case I’ll upgrade my router as well and use the old one as a backup. Will have to ponder about some sort of backup for my computer, without which I would lose a LOT of money not being able to work until it is replaced and set up. So far the MAC Airbook is performing nicely, but sand has been sneaking under the keyboard and has been slowly acting up. It’s been three years now and these devices seem to be built with ticking time bombs, so better start planning.

Of course, we can add to that other annoyances such as the new rain and mosquitoes which forces me to close up the tent at night and in which it gets hot, so I lay there sweating. I’ll sneak out around 2am once the tide gets high enough so I can lay in the water and cool down. I put a mosquito net under a shelter and over a waterproof mat, but the wind tends to blow that off and lets in tons of mosquitoes, and yesterday I hung up a new tent/mosquito net hammock, so experimenting with different ways to make myself more comfortable. FINALLY have electricity in the tent, but with the new, cloudy weather, electricity is becoming a bit of a problem, in which case I’ll switch to gardening work for a few hours a day to compensate. There are a ton of other little things which would certainly drive the average person batty and convince them to quickly give up on the entire operation. Fortunately for me, my 7 summers experience treeplanting has taught me how to turn my mind off to discomforts. Turning it on again so that the positive points make up for the bad. What a dream it would be to have everything backed up and redundant, and enough income from my operations here not to have such a reliance on the computer and therefore fewer technical problems to exasperate me.

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View from up in the big tree looking down at the roof of my workstation.

I cannot imagine what could be so annoying about teaching others to kite or wind surf, but maybe we’ll see! That would also be a nice way to get back into shape, because without sports over the past ten years while traveling on the road, it has been hard to motivate myself. Just climbing the tree last night as many times as I did have left my thighs cramped and burning this morning!

Synopsis after five months of discomfort

The mosquito net around my workstation and over my tent works well enough keeping out the mosquitos and annoying flies, but there are these very small flies which you can barely see but which seem to inject their entire bodies’ worth of saliva to leave behind large, itchy pimples. Creeping into the tent at night, when the air is still and hot as I lie sweating on my thin mattress, scratching all over, there came a point when I seriously planned to abandon the project, at least during the rainy season. Typhoons occasionally pass through, flattening or ripping apart my tents, the horizontal rain pummels all attempts at weatherproofing my tent, leaving me inside wet and miserable.

Since it is low season and few guests and volunteers passing through anyway, I decide I could remedy the situation by spending half the year in something like El Nido, living in comfort with a hot shower, and practicing my viola with the many bands playing every night there. I send a text to Ben asking about leaving all my stuff securely in his hotel, or perhaps I could spearhead the operations he plans to build in Sibaltan, where he also owns some property.

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View from my favourite pub in Coron, one of the towns
I was considering escaping to during the rainy “winter”.

However, in his typical way, no response from him and I find success in utilising some mosquito coils some volunteers brought in on their own initiative. At around 1am, when I usually wake up in a pool of sweat, I get into a routine of strolling naked down to the end of the beach, where the water is the clearest, and soak for a while to cool down my body. Then I might work on the computer until around 5am, when the internet is fastest.

I have finally put up the expensive tarp I imported from the US as a roof over the kitchen, and from the marsh in the back of the property I have brought in buckets of clay to build a wind shelter for the kitchen fire. Some volunteers have even built a nipa roof over this second fireplace.

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New big green tarp up over the kitchen with a new table and some shelves made from coconut tree scraps laying in the jungle after some locals cut some down for construction wood.

I have also built a second table for the kitchen, more shelving, and about as many spots in the jungle for the 30 tents I have purchased from ebay over the last year. On my last shopping trip to Coron I bought another 20m of cheap tarp and more mattresses, successfully weatherproofing my own tent and leaving plenty extra to weatherproof the other tents.

When on my own I generally make a big salad for lunch and pay a local to bring me cooked fish and rice in the evenings. When guests or volunteers are here I help out in the kitchen but generally leave the exasperating challenge of starting a fire in the wind and rain up to them. They enjoy the challenge, but are usually happy to cut their visit short and leave me to myself again.

As with this time last year, it has become cloudier and rainier, more typhoons have been passing through, and it has become increasingly difficult to charge up my computer, cutting into my income potential. But the rainy season is almost over and I look forward to another half year of sunshine, clear skies, ample energy, and sleeping outside under the stars without a single bug to bother me.

All in all I’d say I actually enjoy the rainy season more, because I love to watch the jungle come alive with exploding green. How boring life would be without seasons, or if it were perfect all the time. Seasons give a person something to look forward to, and a welcome change. The good news is that I managed to convince a couple of volunteers to visit the town hall in Princesa in order to enquire about contact details to the property owners. They gave me a number to a local official I should call. I have procrastinated for two weeks, psychologically preparing myself for a very important conversation while weathering the tail end of another exasperating season. The leaves have already started falling in anticipation of the upcoming dry stretch, but I pick them up joyfully as I look forward to hosting another round of busy season and meditate on how I will sell my dreams to the property owners.

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Mud shelter against the wind in kitchen campfire, mud brought in by half bucket loads from marsh in back of property. Had to wade in swamp water knee deep and shovel quickly to keep the mosquitoes off me!

Back to Table of Contents Finally met property’s caretaker!
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Home » Palawan » Patoyo » Five months of rain, typhoons, bugs and misery

Chloe BlanchardChloe Blanchard
13:38 27 Mar 24
The most wonderful experience from booking to beach! Karel and Mel were so fast and responsive to my very last minute trip over the holidays. We booked a private boat for two and could not have been happier with our four day trip! We didn’t think about anything other than snorkeling the entire time. Linda, our captain, cooked wonderful meals and took us to totally empty beautiful beaches. We loved staying the night in Pical especially! Wonderful to experience the Philippines this way! Will come back again and would recommend to anyone!
hotel luci del farohotel luci del faro
08:13 31 Jan 24
We booked the 3 day 2 night expedition, from Coron to Sibaltan.First of all the booking part was really simple. I organized this trip to the Philippines last minute for my family (my parents and my uncles) but Karel answered all my questions very quickly and really made everything easier for me. It was an incredible experience. Albert, our tour leader, is a wonderful guy, always smiling and ready to help us. They assisted us in everything and really took care of making everything go smoothly. The accommodation on the islands is as spartan as you expect but the location of each hut alone is worth the trip. The wonder of nature was then added to the goodness of cuisine. It's really difficult to argue how you can cook all that goodness on a boat.If you are looking for an authentic experience, in contact with nature, off the beaten track, this company's private expedition is certainly for you.
Kate BrownKate Brown
00:22 27 Oct 23
What an unforgettable experience! We did a two night (3 day) island hopping tour from Sibaltan to Coron. Everything was so well organized and the boat crew were amazing and really made sure we had a great time. The accommodation was rustic, but added to the authentic experience of the Philippines. Karel always responded to any queries we had promptly. Our boatman, Albert, was the most amazing chef and we enjoyed every meal. The crew taught the kids how to fish with a line which was their highlight of the trip. They took us to the most unbelievable snorkelling spots along the way. Would highly recommend this trip.
Ian PascualIan Pascual
02:43 10 Aug 23
One of the most amazing, unforgettable things you can do in your life
Lou PrataliLou Pratali
11:04 25 Jul 23
This is a must to do!!Super ultimate tour is the best with Kayangan and barracuda lake, twin lagoons (my favorite), coral garden (blue fabulous coral) were the best. It’s really worth it to pay for private tour (3500 to 4000 PHP). You will also have to pay for entrance fees (150 to 200PHP by location) and eventually shopping at the market - must do (count 300 for 2 for fish, pork, fruits and vegetables, water).
Gérard BENOITGérard BENOIT
16:11 07 Feb 23
I was looking for a personalized excursion to the stunning Bacuit Gulf.Based on the comments, I contacted Mel.Very responsive, very efficient and perfect organization.The on-board staff were very friendly and very helpful.And I'm not even talking about the meal on board...a marvel.In all fairness, this excursion will remain an excellent memory and I cannot recommend Mel and his team highly enough.A big thank-you.
Alyse TarbottonAlyse Tarbotton
23:48 30 Aug 22
This tour went well above all our expectations! I couldn't recommend this enough! The boat crew, captain and tour guide were nothing but amazing, everyone was so kind, helpful and friendly. The crew knew the best spots to visit that weren't overcrowded with tourists, 3 times we were lucky enough to have whole islands to ourselves! It was my partner's birthday while away and everything went above and beyond, bonfire, cake, birthday card, singing and celebrating with us.If you love camping this is definitely a tout you should do, it has been the highlight of our trip!!
Danish KayaniDanish Kayani
10:24 31 Oct 19
Coron is the best place i have ever seen.. picturesque. Beautiful. Peaceful
We booked a 4 days/3 nights private boat trip from Coron to Sibaltan. The organization went very well from the beginning, the owner answered to all my questions, and we were able to choose which islands to visit and where to sleep. The first night we slept in a bungalow in Banana Island, the second we camped in Araw beach and the last we slept in a seafront bungalow builded on a tree in Pical on Iloc Island.The islands in that area are the most beautiful islands I have ever seen, with clear water, lots of coral reef and fishes to see, white sand and almost deserted. The crew was very friendly and polite and they organize every single meal and for camping they give you a tent which was just perfect! This was our highlight in our 2 weeks in the Philippines and I wish I had booked a longer trip. A private trip gives you the freedom to decide where and when to go.
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Gérard Benoit
Gérard Benoit
2023-02-08
recommends
I was looking for a personalized excursion to the beautiful bay of Bacuit. Seeing the comments, I contacted Mel. Very responsive, very efficient and perfect organization. The crew were very friendly and very helpful. And I'm not even talking about the meal on board...a marvel. In all fairness, this excursion will remain an excellent memory and I can recommend Mel and his team highly enough. A big thank-you.
André Mardoñal
André Mardoñal
2019-10-22
recommends
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The island world of Linapacan between Coron and El Nido with the clearest waters in the world is truly a dream for itself! Without a boat you won't be able to see it! But what this boat trips makes so amazing is the crew! Once you come on board they might be shy in the beginning but will make you feel welcome and home from the first moment. Not only that they are looking that you sit comfortable all the time, they will prepare fresh and delicious food what the buy from local markets. They know the best spots and most beautiful islands and will bring you to places where you get this "Robinson Cruisoe feeling". Every day you visit 3 to 5 spots for snorkeling, enjoying a beach or exploring a little island. The accommodation we had was good and simple. We slept in bungalows and tents right at the beach. Sheets and towels were always provided and sometimes towels. After a while you feel like a family on board. We loved living the boat life didn't wanna leave! If you doubt take a longer than shorter trip! For any questions please message me.
Sarah Uhan
Sarah Uhan
2019-01-31
recommends
All in all it was a really great experience. It's a once in a lifetime thing to do and you won't get more authentic and basic Philippino experiences anywhere else. We were not so lucky with the wind and waves so we couldn't do all the stops we wanted to unfortunately. So be aware that especially the months from January to May can be very rough on water. But we still saw some great places Benji took us. Benji and his family was very nice and they did everything they could. The food was amazing - always freshly made in authentic Philippino style and way too much for the 2 of us. Make sure to bring enough cash - many of the islands cost extra (entrance fee) and be aware that any kind of accommodation and food (200php per meal) is not included in the boat fee. Also the deposit and commission fee for the agency are a little over the top, especially since the crew does not get any of it. The costs all in all are rather high for phillipino circumstances especially given the basicness of it all. However if you think about that all 5 boat people (in our case) live off of the boat fee alone, you spent the money willingly. Be aware though that accommodation and sanataries are very basic if even existant. So you gotta have the right mindset. Bring tissue, sanatiszer and earplugs to get some better sleep. Another feedback I have concerning the size of the boat. I don't think it is sufficient for more than 4 people. If the weather is like it was these days, you always have to sit on top and it was already a little squeezy with us 2 and 5 boat people. So I guess 4 guests can be fine but more than that won't have the space. There is different boat sizes but make sure to talk about that with Karel in advance. Other than that it was really worth it and we got to see so many great beaches and reefs which we could have never been able to visit without the tour.
Eric Liu
Eric Liu
2018-03-15
recommends
It was scary to book a 5 day trip with no places to stay confirmed or a strong itinerary. And in the Philippines, communication is difficult. But that is part of changing mindsets to a rural island mindset. In the end, everything worked out. We had some tough moments with bugs. But we also had some amazingly beautiful secluded beaches, the best snorkeling in the world, relaxing on the beach, and freshly made food on the boat while docked at beautiful places (better than being on land). Note, we went with Benji. Recommendations: - you must get a local SIM when you arrive to make sure pickup and everything works out - some islands have bugs - use bug spray! Pros: - a fraction of the cost - away from the crowds - can customize what you want - just ask! - a truly local experience - saw a REAL rural town Cons: - locals aren't really polished tour guides - if you don't ask for it, you won't get it, need to be pretty proactive - pretty simple "activities" - no frills like bathrooms or kayaks etc.
Ángela Deand
Ángela Deand
2017-04-26
recommends
We can't be more grateful to have had the opportunity of experience the peace in Patoyo Kitesurfing Camping! Spending two weeks in Dimancal Island, gave us the chance to experiment the rural and traditional way of life, in touch with the nature and people. We have learnt how to cook with fire, how to open a coconut and how to survive in an environment where for a time we forget about unnecessary needs, just to focus on enjoy the small details and pleasures of life. Mentioning too the amazing snorkeling and beautiful islands around this place, which make it unique​ and special. It is a lovely option if you are running away from tourists and overcrowded places in the Philippines. You will find yourself in the middle of virgin beaches and nature, surrounding​ by charming people. We will definitely come back!
Caroline Danielle
Caroline Danielle
2017-02-13
recommends
We haven't done a Tao tour, but I would suspect that this is a cheaper version of the same thing. Our boat operator (Benji) and the entire crew were were fun, friendly and made an effort to ensure we had a good time. If you get a large group of people together it can be a really inexpensive alternative to other Coron-El Nino and vice versa island hopping tours. The food was good, but more expensive than as advertised by Karl. The price quote we got was 100 php a meal, but the boat charged us 200. Since the food was good we didn't mind the extra expense, but it is important to keep in mind if you're on a budget. Definitely plan for some incidental spending. Our boat did have some mechanical issues and as a result we ended up being stuck in the same place for longer than we wanted to be. That being said, little could have been done about it and the trip was fun nonetheless.
Hauk Are Fjeld
Hauk Are Fjeld
2017-01-01
recommends
If you believe that doing the touristic tours in El Nido and going to "The hidden beach" takes you off the beaten path, you are wrong. There are lots of beautiful places in Palawan, but few of these places are without any other tourists. If you want to spend some extra effort on getting away from the tourist places, and don't mind a little "primitive" living, Island Hopping in the Philippines is definitely something you should check out
Arnold Cabiguen
Arnold Cabiguen
2015-05-08
recommends
The snorkeling in this area is phenomenal. Clearest waters in the world. I guess it's because there is relatively such lower tourist traffic through here, and the locals really protect the reefs!
Karel Kosman
Karel Kosman
2015-05-08
recommends
Love it so much, just had to say it twice!

We are a family operation managing private custom boat tours in the beautiful Palawan area, and are happy to help travelers with their plans through the country, having traveled a lot of it ourselves and planning to visit it all.

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