Tour B

In many places around El Nido, one can see signs of four tours, A, B, C and D. Each is a full day trip in a boat to the open sea and includes 5 stops to some the innumerable small islands off the coast, each about half to one hour boat ride away from the other.

I signed up to do Tour C which includes helicopter island. Overnight, it rained very heavily and by the morning at the pickup time, it had let up. However the coast guard had rescinded the permission for Tour C and the boat company switched people to Tour B if they still wanted to go.

To get to the boat, first you got into a two-person kayak which took you the 18 passenger plus 5 support staff carrying bigger boat.

As the boat took off, you could see the thick vegetation of Palawan Island in the rear.

Soon, on the open sea, you could see many small islands strewn around. Each with a different shape and size. The one that looked like a helicopter was visible in a distance.

From a distance, each island looked a little dark, but you could discern the dense vegetation on it.

As the boat came closer, the details became much clearer and exposed the beauty of the island, its volcanic rock and the surrounding blue waters.

Coming closer still, you could see the beach, boats moored and the coconut trees more clearly.

I had always wondered how islands formed from volcanic activity became densely wooded and saw it somewhat in action when I came across it a small plant just germinating from the igneous rock.

I could see examples of this all around the island.

We resumed the trip and shortly after, they gave us food in an interesting container. Almost two hours into the trip, it felt warm to the touch.

Opening it revealed four neat sections of food and the top part had compartments for fork and spoon

In about a 45-minute further boat ride, we came at the Entalula island but there was no beach access due to high tide.

The boat just anchored in the water, and everybody went Snorkeling. For the past 20+ years I have tried to learn to swim and I'm nowhere close to being comfortable in the water unless my feet touch the bottom.

Everybody was enjoying the water and one by one the 17 other people on this boat asked me why I was not coming to see the corals. I kept telling them that I was extremely scared of the water. They all were saying that the life jacket would keep me afloat, and I need not worry. I got tired of saying no to them, and reluctantly ventured in the water. I made sure at least one of them was close by in case I got panicky.

As I let go of my fear, I noticed that the life jacket indeed kept me upright, and I could just stay in one place without sinking. Encourage by this, one of them help me put the snorkeling goggles on and the breathing tube in my mouth. I was still next to the boat at this time, and with some encouragement, I let go and came out to the open sea.

As I put my head in the water and started slowly breathing through the tube, I was getting the hang of it. This was the first time in my life that I took this risk and thereby discovered a whole new world of corals and colorful fish.

After an hour, we resumed the trip and reach the next island which has a sandbar in the shape of a snake, but invisible to us due to the high tide.

The Snake Island did offer a small hike and views of many other islands in the vicinity.

The next stop was at the island with a cave named Cudugnon cave.

After entering through a very narrow entrance lined with sharp edges of the volcanic rock, you come to a very big interior of the cave with over hundred feet high ceilings.

The last stop of the day was the Cathedral Island which also looks green like any other island in the trip, with an added feature.

It has an entrance on one side that exposes an area like a church cathedral.

After everyone got their pictures in front of the cathedral while staying in the boat, we headed back to El Nido and before an hour was up, we were back at the starting point.

It is a very short introductory trip to island hopping in Palawan and well worth it.