April 7,

We had to set an alarm for six, but actually we both woke up before it – me by just five minutes, Jeff said he woke up at 0430. We got about and headed out by 0630. We have a 47 mile drive to our destination, but it takes 1.5 hours to do those miles! The young lady who helped us set this up said to be there by 0800.

It was a nice cool morning drive, as the sun was not out full strength yet. (Sunrise was just after six.) About half of the drive was on a highway, Puerto Princesa North Road. It was good and smooth for our scooter. The traffic was mostly other scooters with a few vans, and large transport trucks – like box truck size. Then we turned off and went onto a smaller one lane, each way road. This road took us north now as the highway headed east now. We actually crossed the island of Palawan here and then drove on the west coast. The island is a mix of jungle and farms, with the limestone, Karst-like up-croppings.

We arrived just after 0800 at the Sabang Wharf area. We were going to the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park. It is a UNESCO, Natural World Heritage Site. The young lady at church basically registered us, so we just had to basically pay for our entries into the National Park and onto a boat. We were directed where to go for our boat.

We were assigned to boat #74 and we boarded at 0840 with five other tourists: three were a Spanish couple with their teenage daughter; the other two were guys (Australian). Once the boat started there was no talking, because of the loudness of the engine, you couldn’t hear. There were two Filipinos- one was the driver and the helper. We were only on the ocean for like 15 minutes. Finally we arrived at the National Park. It is a river running underground through a cave system.

We existed the motored boat and walked a bit to another boat, a rowboat. We seven were given audio guides and staff synchronized our start times all to start together. The oarsman plied us into the cave as the audio guide explained what we were seeing. We have seen better caves – we are spoiled. We both enjoyed our Vietnam Kayak tour much more, as we were the only ones in the cave on that river! This is boat after boat… not all crammed together, spaced out, but close enough to know there are many others. They did have us keep silent and the only lights were from the headlamps of the oarsmen and cell phones taking pictures. We could hear and see the bats all around. There were some interesting formations, which the audio guide mentioned and the driver pointed at with his headlamp.

We went in 2 km (1.24 miles), but the river is 8.2 km total length (just over 5 miles). The park does not allow anyone further in. We returned and switched back to our other loud boat. We were taken back to the wharf, finished by 1030. The whole excursion cost us 1,085 PHP per person ($18.93). Overall, I was glad we went on the excursion. The audio guides helped make it a little different. We we were walking from one boat to the other we saw a monitor lizard and a Long-tailed Macaque- an old world monkey🐒.

Then we found our scooter and ate at the cafe right in front of it – Winnies Eatery. For brunch😂 we had a chicken curry and a steamed fish in coconut milk with rice plus me a coke, which cost 245 PHP. Jeff had a mango shake from a juice shop out front of the cafe, that cost 150 PHP. Total price was 395 PHP, which was $6.89. Both dishes were great and hit the spot! We “scootered” back to Puerto Princesa and our place. We arrived around 1300, realizing we had not called our sisters!🤯🤣😂  We send them texts. We then took a swim in the pool and had a siesta.

It had been quite a morning/afternoon. We were rested by early evening and hungry again. We went out on our scooter to a seafood place called Badjau Seafront Restaurant. It is a bit upscale and sits over the water in a mangrove area. I ordered Grilled Blue Marlin that came with Sea Grapes and Calamansi – the Philippine Lime; Breaded Okra; and a glass of white wine. Jeff had the Set Meal of the Day – Clam Soup; Pan-fried Fish Steak; Rice and Dessert. He also had a Red Horse Beer to drink. Both our meals were excellent! Jeff even liked the Okra! It was the whole okra, breaded and lightly sauteed. I really enjoyed it. Our meals cost us 1,316 PHP, which was $22.97. The dessert was fruit: papaya, banana, & yellow watermelon.

We left and went back to our place and watched some YouTube videos. What a glorious day!