A trip of about half an hour, to a white sand beach, backed by steep limestone cliff. Snorkeling is fabulous. Schools of fish go parading by. You just float there and they come to you. The coral here is more colorful the best I have seem in Asia. Orange, turquoise, lime green, lavender, mauve, and deep electric purple. Amazing.
Then a hop to another island called Isla Blanca. Guess why! It is rimmed in the whitest powder sand. It looks like to site for a Malibu rum ad! Most of the island is under high tide. But for us a beautiful deep beach,, had been raked by the resident security guard, pristine. We lolled there, all 15 of us, two boats from the hotel. The boat staff even carries my gear, towel, snorkeling stuff, bag to shore for me. And of course collected it when we left. This is how the rich people do it. No wonder they look so good. Their people carry all their stuff for them. Amongst other things!
I was on my own for this adventure because Tim was diving. They have a dive master who was already booked our first day here. So he added dives for Tim between his scheduled dives. So Tim has done 5 dives and acquired his deep water certificate, advanced dives. He is allowed to go down to 30 meters now.
This resort does anything and everything to please. Not like what we found in Manila or Puerto Princesa. There, they seem quite grumpy. But here it is like Club Med. They all know your name and greet you every time they see you.
We come to our room at night, the bed is turned down, a little leaf on the pillow that had written on it "Sweet dreams Ms Jane Mr Tim". And there is a page with a story on it. A bedtime story. One about how a single Mom learned to support her children by weaving coconut palm leaves to make money. Last night about a single Mom who now has a thriving business to support her son, and it is collecting pop cans and recycling them. Always the theme of conservation. They have their own generator, clean their own water, very conscientious about their garbage and our part in all that.
Today I had a guide take me snorkeling. It is much more fun to be with someone, particularly someone who can point out stuff. Like a turtle, about 12" flying through the water. A turtle is the most graceful in the water. Like a plane soaring on the thermals. I saw a clam about 18" . And then the most exquisite fish. This really is the best we have seen here.
We had a picnic lunch on a secluded beach. I was taken there, Tim dropped there from his dive. We had grilled fish, prawn, octopus, pork (belly ugh) and a pomelo salad (I love pomelo but don't buy it because Tim has a med he takes that says no grapefruit. So I have been digging in to the pomelo here at the buffet meals. Then a boat comes and brought us back.
It is story perfect here. Fancy, but simple. Conscious of foot print, yet very luxurious. A perfect balance.we sit on the beach, in shade, looking out at the limestone islands jutting out of the sea. We are in this perfectly protected bay. I can see there are white caps out there. There is supposed to be a thunderstorm tonight. We leave at 9 in the morning.
Look how the roots are above the sand. I imagine a strong wind would topple this one.
Our tiny perfect little island
These are the villas for family. Out over the water. They reminded me of Bigwin boathouse on Lake of Bays.
Tim arriving from his dive to meet me for our solitary picnic lunch.
A quick simple little picnic; prawns, octopus, rice in the banana leaf cone, pomelo on the right (giant sweet grapefruit) raw salmon (that's how fresh the fish is!)
The happy picnicers
Tomorrow is a travel day, back boat to El Nido ( an hour and a quarter a long way!) then a 5 hour van drive (yucky) to Peurto Princesa, one hour flight to Manila and a 4 hour flight to Singapore. A long travel day. I hear your groans of sympathy! HA
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