And away we go: El Paradise, Summer Adventure Part 2

"Let's dance in style.
Let's dance for a while.
Heaven can wait, we're only watching the skies."

Island Living

To get to paradise, it'll cost only seven hundred pesos, five to seven hours in a nicely air conditioned van, and a lot of ass fat to endure a long and bumpy ride through one very poorly managed road. Half of the road to this couple's haven is paved, but the last stretch into this tiny secluded portion on the northern tip of Palawan Island is rocky and vomit-inducing.

However, tourists have to pay a two hundred peso "Eco-tourism development fee", good for up to ten days, which may help in paving the rest of this road in the future. But, more accessibility will mean more tourists, which may ruin what makes El Nido, El Paraiso.

But, it would be silly to neglect mentioning the ride into El Nido altogether. Afterall, it is the journey as well as the destination that makes traveling great. As you can imagine, there were endless views of foliage as we were driving through trees and jungle, there were lots of wild dogs and cats on the path that made me yelp several times in fear that we had hit one of them, a World Vision hut, and what had interested me most, was that occasionally along this pathway you could see families walking in a line in the darkness of night (I left the airport at 7 and made it to El Nido around 2 am). The families would walk on the side of the road, some of the older children holding the hands of little ones, some holding other things, fathers holding infants cradled in their arms, and mothers carrying torches to light the way. I wanted to know where they were going in the middle of the night. Where they lived. My perfect vacation getaway as their everyday.

***

The Darkness

I got a single room in a hotel for four hundred pesos a night ($9USD), right on the beachside with the ocean in view, sweet drinks on hand, and the sweetest landlady ever, who nearly begged me not to leave so soon at the end of the week.

I guess this is a typical island habit, but the electricity was cut off from around 3am to 5pm everyday, so during daylight, there was no way to use a computer, charge your MP3 player, or get a pina colada. But on more than one occasion, when the electricity was supposed to be on, something would happen and it'll shut off. So, you may be sitting at a beachside restaurant, digging your feet in the sand, waiting for a drink, listening to the live guitar strumming of a local musician, when the lights turn off on you. And it gets dark. A darkness you are not used to because darkness simply doesn't exist in city life. Not real darkness anyways. That darn sky again and its continual surprises!

Anyways, the waiters quickly have candles and flashlights on hand, somehow food is still prepared, the music keeps playing, the stories still get told, and people laugh, drink, and good times are had.

***

Island Children, Island Dogs, Island Generosity

Since I was there during the off season, there were only about one hundred tourists, mostly couples, as it was the epitome of a secluded romantic get-away. My tour guide for the island hopping trip said he knew everyone on the island. To test this, I took out my camera, and showed him a picture of the cutest island child I have ever seen. "Oh, thats the son of this person and this person," my guide, Donde, told me.

"...Let us die young or let us live forever. We don't have the power but we never say never. Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip, the music's for the sad man. Forever young. Do you really want to live forever?..."

The people on this island were amazing. It was a lot cheaper than Manila, it appeared that I was being ripped off less here (although this cannot be either confirmed or denied), the children were tanned and easily amused, and the island dogs were loving and cuddly.

A sweet moment? Arriving at my first El Nido beachside bar after finding a guesthouse and having the mother/owner ask me my name. Her calling me by my name (and pronouncing it correctly) every time after that.

Telling her I wanted to try chicken adobe because a local told me it was Philippino cuisine. Her bringing me some of her family's adobe to try some.

A sweeter moment? Giving a two year old boy named Dexter 20 pesos to buy candy for himself and his playmates after he sung the English alphabet to me and SP.

Me with my first island dog, Rover. (Photo by SP)

My second island dog that I named Elle Needo.

My third island dog named Blanca (named by SP)

Cutest island kid ever.

"So let's just stay in the moment, smoke some weed, drink some wine. Reminisce, talk some shit, forever young is in your mind. Leave a mark that can't erase neither space nor time, so when the director yells, "Cut!" Ill be fine. I'm forever young."

Some more El Nido Photos: