El Nido - Where have you been all my life?

Dec 15

EL NIDO, PALAWAN - PHILIPPINES - PART 1

DAY 59 – DEC 13 – EL NIDO, PALAWAN – PHILIPPINES

We drove down the windiest road you can imagine for 1 ½ hours to get to El Nido. We were jam packed in a shuttle van. By the time we arrived, Tina was green with nausea and I was not great myself.

We dropped our bags and I had an emergency to tend to. One of my back molars cracked over a year ago and I have had no time to deal with it. so I have been eating on my other side. Well… the other side now that back molar chipped as I was eating. And that tooth now turned into an infection. I can taste it every minute of the day, and I cannot eat on that side… it’s awful.

I googled dentists in El Nido. I found one that practiced in China 13 years and moved to El Nido as an implant specialist. As soon as we checked in to our hotel, I googled the location of his office. To my huge surprise, his dental office was about a 1 minute walk from our hotel on the waterfront. When I arrived, the lady was saying goodbye to a patient, and said to me.. ‘lucky we finished early with her, we are fully booked today’.

She ushered me straight into the dentist chair. I was so used to seeing idols and gods and temples, it was a shock to see a Bible verse on the tv screen in front of me. To make a long story short, he tole me my tooth is an emergency. He suggested if I could find a dentist in Shenzhen to do a root canal on one of my molars, and a crown on the other one – to do that in one day there.

We ended up talking personally about families and business and faith. It was amazing. The dentist was married to his receptionist, they have 2 children – one is married with a child. They were the most wonderful people. They asked if we could pray,.. we all held hands and they prayed, just WOW. Basically prayed a blessing over my life.

We walked all around El Nido. Watched a school ground handing out awards, a community young ladies tae kwon doe match, and many other entertaining things.

We went for dinner at a restaurant beside our hotel, live music and a view of the bright blue ocean. We shared a seafood platter, wasn’t great.. it all tasted kind of like greasy oil. A younger group came in to sing Christmas carols, it was the best treat ever! Felt like real Christmas!

We ended up going home.. Tina can fall asleep anywhere, I don’t sleep as much (yes I’m jealous!). Also, she is always hot, I am always cold. So the room temps were interesting in this room. It was getting really cold so I turned it warmer a notch. She woke up and said, I can’t sleep in here and turned it a few notches colder. Which somehow caused our AC to be stuck at that number and we became an ice box all night. I was wearing my fleece hoodie, 2 blaankets, a dress, another skirt and another jacket all on me and still shivering all night. Worst night ever… tho somehow I did still get some sleep.

DAY 60 – DEC 14 – EL NIDO, PALAWAN, PHILIPPINES

It was an early morning, today was a tour day. We had free breakfast at our hotel, then we were at the boat pick up place down our street by 8:30am. They told us we have until 9:20am. I was feeling queasy so I went to our hotel to close my eyes for 30 minutes. I got up and felt much better. By the time I came back, tina was feeling green with nausea. She decided to opt out and stay home since the whole day was going to be on a boat. 9:30am-6pm.

I had an absolutely fantastic day, but long and exhausting. Jorg did this same tour 6 months ago, Tour A. totally incredible, so beautiful.

I met some great people. Partnered up with an engineer from Toronto named Bolu. We had the best day. Minus the windy weather and the fact our boat broke down I think 5 times. As well, other boats around us broke down. Our guys were swimming boat parts to them, they were swimming boat parts to us, we were towing boats on and off all day. Everybody in the Philippines is a mechanic. As I sit here at eht Art Café, eating my pizza with an aeporal sprtiz, I hear hammering – look over and see the locals in the water hammering and fixing yet another boat. Lol… I hear laughter everywhere - these Filipino people are resourceful and joyful!!

We had about 7 guys as our guides.. the lead guide and one of the others were brothers. They did not stop hysterically laughing all day. I couldn’t understand their words, but watching brothers talking and laughing so hard all day – I couldn’t help but smile and laugh along.

We visited Big Lagoon (WOW), Secret Lagoon, Shimizu Island, 7 Commando Beach, and Small Lagoon.. I swam, kayaked, and snorkeled all day long. Tina stayed back because she was already feeling nauseous before we left the shore. I was feeling nauseous too but I went to lie down for 30 minutes before we left and took 1 gravol, got up and felt completely ready to go. Pretty amazing to do the exact same tour Jorg did just 6 months ago.

Amazing day! Fell asleep fairly early from all the water activities, I was pooped! And Tina is an early to bed person every night so she is always out long before I am – but this night, I was out by 11 or so.

DAY 61 – DEC 15 – EL NIDO, PALAWAN – PHILIPPINES

We got up later, had a leisurely breakfast. Tina said, ‘hey it’s Sunday today, you wanna find a church to go to?’ Yes I do!!

We found a tiny Baptist church close to our hotel, they had a Christmas service. It was fantastic! They were also serving a Christmas buffet lunch with a games day.

Tina stayed at the church for the day. I left after the service, grabbed my laptop and sat at the Art Café for 2 ½ hours, ordered an apeorol spritz, followed by an espresso martini with a fire oven pizza. Excellent afternoon of working oceanside.

By the time we met up at 6, Tina was wiped from her day in the heat at that church. I felt rejuvenated from a day with my laptop. So, I went out grabbed some food, did some shopping, had a meeting with someone, came back and chatted with Tina.

She was out early, I did some more work .. I liked this day. It was slower paced and I felt a lot of energy.

PICS BELOW:

1 Bolu & I in the Big Lagoon = Heaven

2 Dentist and his wife, what an experience !!

3 Green lunch across from our hotel at El Nido

4 Tina got a chocolate covered banana

5 the views here! fishing boat..

6 tae kwon doe match we stumbled upon, huge community watching

7 these pigs live here on the beach, no leash no cage

8 interesting!

9 bakeries with fancy baking everywhere!

10 this gate had dogs and cats coming and going - who’s the owner??