Palawan: A paradise on Earth

As promised, I am writing posts on the places that I've visited in the Philippines during my Summer 2013 :) The first post is about PALAWAN!!!! :)

Palawan is an island province of the Philippines that is located in the MIMAROPA region or Region 4. Its capital is Puerto Princesa City, and it is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction. The islands of Palawan stretch from Mindoro in the northeast to Borneo in the southwest. It lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. The province is named after its largest island, Palawan Island, measuring 450 kilometres (280 mi) long, and 50 kilometres (31 mi) wide.

The history of Palawan may be traced back 22,000 years ago, as confirmed by the discovery of bone fragments of the Tabon Man in the municipality of Quezon. Although the origin of the cave dwellers is not yet established, anthropologists believe they came from Borneo. Known as the Cradle of Philippine Civilization, the Tabon Caves consist of a series of chambers where scholars and anthropologists discovered the remains of the Tabon Man along with his tools and a number of artifacts. (source)

taken from the web

Palawan is definitely one of the places that we Pinoys should be proud of! I am happy to say that I've stepped on almost "entire' Palawan already! Last year, I was blessed to have visited the very rich waters of Coron. And this year, my friends and I were blessed to have explored El Nido (for 3 days) and Puerto Princesa (2 days in my case because I have to leave early in time for my Davao trip but 4 days for my friends).

This post will be dedicated to the wonderful photos that we took during the said trip. However, I will be honest and say that I didn't remember all the names of the islands that we've been too :) I will be writing a separate post about all the preparations, "behind the scenes", and itinerary :)

El Nido

Rainy Day 1

Sunny Day 2! Yay!  

Makan Day 2

Makan Day 1

Ang buwis buhay na photo sa Matinloc Shrine

view from Matinloc Shrine

"secret" beach in Matinloc Shrine

proof that Day 1 was a rainy day

Matinloc Shrine

Sunny Day 2 = chance to have my tan lines! Thank you Cess for hiding all my fats away!

inside the cave (i forgot the name :p)

Sani exiting the cave. Yan ang mowdel! despite the sikip e todo pose pa din :)

dun po tayo dadaan, Manong :D

where's the helicopter? :D

because our tour guide, Kuya Roldan, made sure that ALL of us (even those who were scared AT FIRST) will experience El Nido, this was the method that he thought of ! Mind you, the tourists were all looking at us! Hehehe :) 

Of course, I will not miss the opportunity to have "my" signature JUMPSHOTS! :D

 Here's a collage from Cess (sya po yan at hindi ako, magkamukha lang :D )

What a beauty!!!! 

 Last but NOT the least, we would like to thank our tour guide / swimming instructor / photographer (who literally went to heights just to take good photos of us!) and also ka-LOVETEAM (kung kanino e bahala na kayong manghula! :p) Thank you so much Kuya Roldan! You are one of the reasons for our very memorable El Nido trip!

Puerto Princesa
Let me begin by saying that I have very few photos of Puerto Princesa since I only spent 1 FULL day there. Needless to say, we chose to visit one of the 7 Wonders of the World, Underground River! :)

the bats left some traces :D

see the dinosaur??

what image do you see? 

Let me share my realizations on this trip:

1) God is an AMAZING God! I can't think of anyone who can do these creations except God! I've said this before and I will say it again, one of the reasons why I love to travel (and why I encourage everyone I know to travel) is I ALWAYS feel blessed and renewed after I travel. The beautiful creations and other creatures that I've never even imagined exist and finally got to see right before my very eyes make me see things bigger than myself. Travelling makes me grounded. It makes me realize how small I am and that I should not be consumed in myself because there are much much bigger things outside of me :)

2) It is nice to travel with friends. Apart from the good place to visit, a good company also makes the trip memorable. I am blessed to have experienced both the good place and the good company :)

3) Philippines is a BEAUTIFUL country! It makes me so so proud to be a Filipino and to be living in the Philippines. Our country has so much to offer! I don't want to make any promises that I can't keep but I will try my very best to think of visiting the other places in our country FIRST before I visit other countries :)

To end this post, allow me to show you my favorite shot of the entire trip.... (I am showing this despite all the exposed fats!)

Minus my fats, I honestly think that this will pass for a MOWDEL shot! Excuse me, Tyra Banks! :D

For the nth time, thank you Cess for most of the photos that I used here :) You can easily spot the photos that I took! :D