Exploring Palawans Underground was great and chilling at Sabang Beach was also nice but now it was time to see the things we had came here for. Rumors of white beaches, turquoise blue waters, deserted lagoons and beaches had lead us to magical Palawan. We wanted to see for ourselves what is true about these stories and what is not and made our way all the way up to El Nido. The jeepney ride from Sabang took us four hours and was quiet rough.
Recommended by fellow travelers and locals alike, we expected a beautiful, lazy and laid back town by the coast. Our first impression was everything but that. Read more
Islands, Lagoons and Beaches – Palawan Dreaming in El Nido
Categories: The Philippines, Motorbike
Tags: Philippines, Snorkeling, El Nido, Palawan, Island Hopping, Nacpan Beach
9 Comments
Pic of the Week 11
Smoking Mt. Mayon on May 9th seen from Darag Church, Legazpi.
I post this picture in the light of recent events here in the Philippines. On May 7th 5 mountaineers, among those three from my country Germany, died on Mt. Mayon, the most active volcano of the Philippines. The eruption happened without warning and the mountaineers and their guide were killed by falling rocks due to an phreatic eruption . I was in Legazpi just 2 days after the event and went up Daraga Church to see how the volcano looks like. At that point the rescue team was still trying to transport the corpses down the volcano.
The incident shows that a volcano is not just a regular mountain, even if the last eruption was a long time ago. We are dealing with mother nature and unfortunately we tend to lose those encounters once it shows its real power. May the dead mountaineers rest in peace.
Categories: Pic of the Week, The Philippines
Tags: Eruption, Legaspi, Mountaineers, Mt. Mayon, Volcano
2 Comments
Going Underground in Puerto Princessa.
Finally Palawan. The last station me and the guys would travel together and we came with high expectations after hearing so many good things about this region. Our minds were filled with images of crystal clear lagoons, white beaches, secluded islands, rugged landscapes, coconut groves, the bluest waters and a sense of solitude. But first we were supposed to go underground – into the world famous Underground River of Puerto Princessa / Sabang, one of the seven new wonders of the world and an Unesco World Heritage Site. Read more
Categories: The Philippines
Tags: Philippines, Puerto Princessa, Sabang, Underground River
6 Comments
Pic of the Week 10
Island Hopping in El Nido, Palawan
My new Pic of the Week is late as usual. This category is my problem child I have to admit – don’t even worry about the numbers on them anymore. Sorry once again for not administering it regularly.
So this time I am posting a pic of myself, I think it is the first one in this category so far. My Facebook friends already know this one – it was taken during an island hopping tour around El Nido, Palawan. We stopped at 5 different islands where we snorkeled, swam and just relaxed. We took a cooler of cold ones and had a great time with the other people on the boat. This here was taken at a place called Small Lagoon. The entry to this lagoon is way back in the background. Maybe you can tell. Chris’ fish eye lens works perfect on shots like that – thanks again to him for this one.
Categories: Pic of the Week, The Philippines
Tags: El Nido, Island Hopping, Palawan, Philippines, Pic of the Week
8 Comments
From white beaches to jungle clad volcanoes – Camiguin has it all.
Coming back from beautiful Siquijor, our plan was to head straight to the island of Camiguin. It is part of the region of Mindanao and supposedly the island with the most volcanoes per square kilometer. Camiguin would be our last stop before going to Palawan which would also be our last leg of our shared journey through the Philippines. We hence planned to spend a few quality days with a mix of relaxation and adventure.
Once again we traveled by ferry including yet another stopover in Bohol. The ride on an old and rusty ship but over-friendly crew took about 4 hours. The weather was fine which made the ride enjoyable and diverting. We were even able to spot some dolphins and lots of flying fish accompanying our boat for a bit. Read more
Categories: Diving, Motorbike, The Philippines
Tags: Camiguin, Mantigue, Philippines, Snorkeling
13 Comments
No witches on the witches island Siquijor
After our little island hopping trip around Biliran we had to decide where to go to next. We had a few different options and actually had a difficult time finding a compromise that everybody would be happy with. We finally decided to go to the small island of Siquijor –according to a lot of rumors a place of witchcraft and sorcery. We actually heard about that on a few occasions which made us even more curious to explore the place.
Categories: Motorbike, The Philippines
Tags: Motorbike Tours, Philippines, Siquijor, Snorkeling
23 Comments
Islandhopping around Biliran and Diving Malapascua
After our full dose of tropical relaxation on Biri Island, we wanted to keep going and explore some more of the Philippines’ island life. Crossing Samar into Leyte, our plan was to make it over to Biliran Island. Recommended by friends again, the island is supposed to be non-touristy, very beautiful and more importantly, a good jump-off point to some of the smaller islands around.
Biliran Island – Our scenic base for island hopping
After a long journey we arrived on Biliran and went straight to the coastal town of Naval. We decided to live it up a little and got ourselves a nice room with aircon, tv and sea view. Every once in a while you just have to treat yourself. Being pretty exhausted from the long journey and having plans for the following day, we passed the remainder of the relaxing and walking around town for a bit.
Categories: Diving, The Philippines
Tags: Biliran, Diving, Malapscua, Maripipi, Philippines, Sambawan
25 Comments
Lazy days at the Tropical Getaway Biri Island
After my devastating injury during the descent of Mt. Bulusan, I had to rest for a few days and also go see an orthopaedic specialist twice. The transportation to that doctor took long and I spent almost a day going and coming back. I was getting annoyed and frustrated having to spend so much time in hot, overcrowded jeepneys and minivans. Despite knowing that some more rest probably would be best for me, I just wanted to get moving again. Our plan was to head for an rather unknown tropical getaway named Biri Island. Glenda, who had been our host for the last few days, decided to join us, adding a female component to our group for the first time. An interesting start for an eventful trip.
Pic of the Week 9
I am way behind with the Pic of the Week. Having a great time over here in the Philippines, a stupid injury and the frequent lack of internet have kept me from updating this category. Sorry for that and I hope you can understand. I want to revive the Pic of the Week and keep it going with the picture below.
This was taken during our recent stay on Biri Island. It was actually taken by Chris, so all the credit goes to him for this one. We were enjoying the sunset of our last day on the island with Peter from Australia and Ralph from the US living on the island. The atmosphere that night was tropical perfect and seeing this picture with the silhouettes just describes it best. More info on where exactly we stayed and what happened there will follow soon in the upcoming article on Biri Island. Stay tuned.
Categories: Pic of the Week, The Philippines
Tags: Biri Island, Philippines, photography, Pic of the Week
13 Comments
Climbing Bulusan Volcano and facing my All-Time Low
For Easter Saturday me and the guys got invited to join Emm, a fellow travel blogger from the Philippines (http://emmthepinaytrekker.wordpress.com), and her friends to climb Mt. Bulusan. 1565 meters high, it is the southernmost volcano in Luzon and one of the big landmarks of the Bicol Region, seen from almost anywhere. The volcano is one of the active ones in the Philippines with its last big eruption in February 2011.
With a climb promised to be more challenging than our assault on Mt. Pinatubo and some overnight camping, the trip sounded like another great adventure and we were glad to join.
About me
Hi, I'm Phil from Germany and I left my job in market communications to travel South East Asia. My outbound flight booked, the plan is to explore thoroughly and slowly. I love surfing, diving, trekking and photography. More here.
Subscribe to ESC
The ESCaplogists
ESC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
