Going Bangkas in the Bacuit
The island landscape is truly awesome and the best way to enjoy it is by bangka (the local style of boat with a narrow hull and two arms either side to balance it and bounce off the waves). Craggy islets dot the azure blue sea, their rocky profiles dangerously sharp in places. Most are uninhabited but for the occasional fishing hut and many swallow birds whose nests are those favoured in Birds’ Nest soup, and who are therefore constantly under threat from poachers. Undeterred by the treacherous cliff faces, these guys risk life, limb and severe scarification clambering up into hidden caves to find their treasure. Full of secret coves, white sandy beaches and hidden lagoons, you could spend weeks exploring here and never go to the same beach twice.
We only had a couple of days however so day number one, we signed up for a group tour and and spent the day snorkelling, swimming and sunning ourselves with Superguide Eddie who made us hats from palm leaves as well as a kick-ass bbq lunch, and an American guy who insisted he didn't need any help putting sunscreen on his back and ended up with a pattern of well defined finger prints in cheerful shades of strawberries and cream.
For our second day we'd discovered that it only cost a teeny bit more to get a private boat and so decided to set out early and be the first to some of the nicest spots and enjoy the beaches before anyone else arrived - like virgin snow, there's something very pleasing about yours being the first footsteps on an untouched, pristine beach.
Our first stop was "Secret Beach". Accessible only at low tide by swimming through a hole in the cliffs, you have to time the waves to avoid being mashed against the rocks and coming out looking like you've gone 10 rounds with a particularly vicious cheese grater.
Fortunately we had Superguide Eddie to see us through and made it in with nothing but a few minor scrapes into the small crescent of sand surrounded 360 degrees by rocks. Beautiful as it is, it's not a place to linger with the knowledge that the water is only getting higher with every passing minute. We only managed to get a few pictures before our camera died a watery death and went to join my mobile phone in Davy's Locker, it having fallen victim to the seas just earlier that morning... it was not a good day for technology.
In fact it was not a good day for engineering of any sort it seemed as only a few minutes after returning to the boat, the engine sputtered and died. The rough seas earlier had bent the propeller shaft. Not unheard of apparently as they had a spare but after an hour of banging about below, we were still stuck, with a strong current pushing us toward one of those merciless looking cliffs I mentioned before. We managed avoid disaster by waving down another passing boat to tow us to the closest beach where we had lunch while waiting for a replacement. We finished up the day having to tow our original bangka back to El Nido, directly into the wind of an approaching storm with huge waves crashing all around and just made it back by nightfall cold, wet and in great need of beer.
Fiesta!
On day 3 we'd planned a sea kayaking session but on waking to an overcast sky threatening rain, we decided to explore our other options. By chance we discovered there was a fiesta being held in a local village so we hired a motorbike and set off for a day of land exploration, discovering even more gorgeous beaches, fishing villages and great scenery.
The fiesta was in aid of celebrating Senior Santo Nino or the boy Jesus, (who apparently spent several years performing miracles across the Philippines which accounts for the ages of 12-30 when Jesus disappears from biblical texts... well I imagine we'd all need a bit of a beach break if we just found out we were the son of God). It was a lot of fun with food, drink, music and dancing and laughing men armed with charcoal drawing on everyone's faces and making the handful of tourists scattered through the crowd feel very welcome.
The main event of the day was a dance competition between local schools starting with the 5-7 year olds who were very cute but kept wandering off and doing their own thing while their teachers desperately tried to keep them on track. The older kids were a bit more organized, with great costumes, but varying degrees of enthusiasm - the whole thing was quite a show. It's a shame there was one big fat white guy who insisted on standing in front of everyone with his three cameras trying to get the perfect shot but in turn ruining everybody else's.
After that, we continued a bit further up the road to search out another beach we'd heard of and navigated some some pretty ropey and steep roads, to find a single (and at times non-existent) track leading to another stretch of lovely, windswept and given the means of getting there, deserted beach. If only we'd bought the kites!
So that was our time in El Nido. Well almost... we were off to Coron by boat the next morning, but that's another story.
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