08 April 2009. The moment we’ve been waiting for, to see the other islands of El Nido. The day before, Ate Lee met with our tour guide, Kuya Delon, who has previously accompanied her during their El Nido tour last year. The tour has been set. There are actually 4 tours available, each having different islands to visit. To complete all tour packages, you need to stay in El Nido for at least 4 days. We picked Tour Package A, which is the most basic, no scuba diving involved. Apparently, it is best to start with Package A before proceeding to the other tour packages. We were to visit 3 islands and 2 lagoons, but Kuya Delon threw in an offer to visit another island and agreed on a sunset cruise, for a lower price compared to what Og’s is offering… And he also prepared our lunch.
Small Lagoon. I actually expected normal island hopping. You dock on an island, snorkel, take pictures, the usual. All my expectations were shattered when we went to small lagoon. First off, there wasn’t an island to speak of. There’s just the entrance to a big limestone cliff. The boat anchored on shallow water in front of the entrance. We alighted with our snorkels and life vests and I wrapped my digicam in this disposable plastic camera bag so I can take photos of the place. You have to swim to the entrance. Upon entering, we were faced with a magnificent view. The lagoon is surrounded by high limestone cliffs, their jagged edges meeting the blue sky. It is like being inside a giant crater… and they say it’s a “small” lagoon. The water is a clear aquamarine that gets deeper as you move along. On the other end of the lagoon is the entrance to a small cave. It was a long swim to the cave and Kuya Delon was swimming back and forth to help us get to the cave because we were such slow swimmers. In the middle of the lagoon is a stopover where you can stand on a coral formation just beneath the surface. Getting inside the cave is tricky as it is flanked with sharp rocks on both sides and the entrance only fits one person. You’re not even allowed to touch the rocks for balancing as it will cut your hands. Inside the cave, we were able to rest on rock formations protruding from the bottom of the lagoon. Kuya Delon, with his rock climbing skills, even showed us a hollow on the rocks up in the cave where a balinsasayaw, the bird responsible for making the nest used to make Nido soup, is nesting. Yup, he found a really small portion of the nest which he eagerly gave to us as souvenir. We left when the other tourists started pouring in. At least the lagoon was ours even for just half an hour. My only regret on this trip was not having an underwater/ all-weather camera. My digicam didn’t work using the plastic camera bag and I didn’t have any photos inside the lagoon.
Big Lagoon. After seeing the enormity of the Small Lagoon, I can’t help but think how long we’ll be swimming in the Big Lagoon. Turns out, this lagoon is for scuba diving. It is that big. We docked on a makeshift wharf in the middle of the lagoon for taking photos. Big limestone cliffs, with edges forming familiar shapes like the Virgin Mary, surround the lagoon.
We made a quick stopover at Miniloc island but did not dock as it is not allowed if you don’t have reservations.
Simizu Island. According to Kuya Delon, this island’s original name is not Simizu, I forgot what it is but it starts with P. Simizu came from the names of the two Japanese divers who died in 1982 due to oxygen loss while swimming the surrounding waters. We didn’t dock on the island and proceeded to snorkel in the surrounding reef. The water is clear and teeming with different kinds of fish and corals. I was the first one to jump, too excited that I didn’t wait for the boatman to lower the boat’s ladder. We stayed in the water feeding the fishes, I don’t know for how long, that even when it started to rain, we were still snorkeling.
Secret Lagoon. This is where we stopped to have our lunch. The weather became rainy all of a sudden that we had to retreat to our boat for a few minutes for shelter. When the rain stopped, we played with dead jellyfishes littering the beach. It was a sumptuous lunch—crabs, yellow fin tuna, itlog na maalat—everything malansa. It is at this point where we found ourselves really lucky to have Kuya Delon as our guide. Pinagbalat pa kami ng alimango. Service deluxe talaga.
After lunch and a short break taking photos, we proceeded to the Secret Lagoon. Why secret you ask? You go further down the beach, treading on dead jellyfishes, to find a really small entrance (fitting half a man) in a limestone formation. Inside that entrance is a teeny weeny lagoon, perhaps 1/16th the size of the small lagoon. You can swim if you want but because of the crowd of tourists on our heels, Kuya Delon just took us on a boat docked inside the lagoon to see the lobsters at the end of the lagoon. We could have had one of them for lunch but they were so expensive. Outside the lagoon, on the way back to our boat, I got stung by a jellyfish, which is barely alive perhaps because first aid was not necessary, though the sting was very painful that I still felt it up until the end of the tour.
Entalula Island. This is the extra island inserted in Tour Package A. This is not included in the regular package but Kuya Delon nonetheless took us here, despite the island being out of the way. It’s a private island that has a really beautiful view. We didn’t swim here, just took photos then headed off to the last island on the tour.
Seven Commandos. There’s a story why it was called Seven Commandos but I forgot the details. All I remember is that it involves American soldiers running away from the enemy and finding the island. They scrawled messages on the limestone faces which, thankfully, have been removed by the owners of the island. The owners actually are simple folk who make a living on the island by selling their coconuts and some snacks to tourists. Perhaps they have other means of livelihood other than that but they are very pretty hands on in managing the island. One of the owner’s sons even climbs the tree for coconuts. Asked if they ever consider selling the island, our guide said that the owners are not interested. When I asked the island’s value on the market, Kuya Delon said that it used to be 120 million pesos, but that was years and years ago.
We waited for the sun to set here as it has a breathtaking view of the sunset. We were the first to arrive here, and we were the last to go. It turns out that on the regular tour package, boats are supposed to leave the last island, (Seven Commandos is always the last island as it is the closest to the main island), before 5:00PM. We weren’t able to snorkel because the water was thick with jellyfish, mostly dead of course, but the other batch of tourists who tried came back in no time because they started feeling itchy. Even the scuba divers weren’t so lucky.
After a breathtaking view of the sunset, we headed back to the main island, all of us already in agreement that next year we’ll go back to El Nido. I can’t wait…
Going to El Nido? I highly recommend you contact Kuya Delon Garcia to be your guide. He’s so accommodating you’ll feel like you have your own personal assistant. He'll also volunteer to be the photographer. Here’s his contact number: 0909-642-3117.
Other photos courtesy of Uncle Buds. Other photographers: Ate Lee, Iris and Kuya Delon.
