TURTLES

After Palawan were invited back to Calatagan to work with CAP Oceans. They needed scientific divers to help with their artificial reef check. Unfortunately, a typhoon struck Luzon and we were unable to do the work, but we got to help a stranded turtle make its way back out to sea!

Fiddler Crab

El Nido (aka Palawan Part 2)

The weather in El Nido wasn't any better than Sebang so day one we couldn't dive or snorkel so we went on a tour of the surrounding area

Jordan rented his own motorbike

Cori hitched a ride

and we rode in the tricycle, but because it was so wet, we actually walked most of the way through the mud

The tour included a trip to the beach, a trip to the hot springs, and a multiple river crossing trip to a waterfall.

look at this leg

The hot springs were not really worth all the mud...

 The next day Cori and I went out until we found someone willing to take us all snorkeling

 Our first stop was Big Lagoon

Nemo?

 Next we went to Small Lagoon

Feather Duster Worm

Cave snorkeling!

 Day two of snorkeling we knew we were gangster

Hanging out with our tour guide on Snake Island

A little more cave exploration

We snorkeled into this cave

Cowries

Feather Star

Can you find the file fish?

On our last day in El Nido we grabbed our tour guide Enrique and went on an epic rock scaling climb up the mountains overlooking the town.

these were the kinds of rocks we were scaling up

the town of El Nido in all its glory

PALAWAN part one

For the first time we have time off all together! We decided to go to Palawan Island.

After flying into Puerto Princessa we decided we would stay there for a few days and tour the city. This turned out to be a mistake...we were tricked into a tour that did not include going to see the Crocodile Rescue Center no matter how many times our guide told us "yes, that is where we are going." Instead we ended up at a strange religious cave dwelling

accidental cave exploration

I have the prettiest friends

 After checking out the caves with religious statues, we made our way the the butterfly gardens, which was much more rewarding.

I made a new friend!

Leslie and I at one of the vistas

 Our last stop on our tour was to an outdoor market (delicious vegetable friend lumpia) where we bought some chocolate and Leslie was attacked by a large snake

Watch out!

 With bad weather and no crocodiles we decided to ditch Puerto Princessa and make our way up to Sebang, home to the Underground River.

Upon arrival we made a new friend!

He is not a bear nor a cat, but a bearcat

The weather was not much improved in Sebang, so after some body surfing we went on a (deceptively long) walk to the waterfalls

Mustaches 

It continued to rain while we were in Sebang, canceling all tours to the Underground River, so the first chance we got, we caught a bus to the north of Palawan to check out the dive/snorkel town El Nido.