El Nido – Day 4: Tour C
EL NIDO
Day 4: Tour C
October 16, 2024
On my fourth and final day, I set off once again to El Nido in order to catch another bangka for Tour C. I have to admit that, by that point, I was kinda over island-hopping tours, not to mention that I was terribly hungover once again.
Well, my mood didn’t quite improve when they announced our first stop: Helicopter Island. By then, I was intimate with that place. I knew it better than my backyard, once again, mostly cause I have no backyard. And, to top it all off, the cute puppy wasn’t there this time round.
I started to rethink my itinerary at that point, wondering whether I should have done something different instead. It was right there and then that it hit me: I was snorkelling on a pristine coral reef on a gorgeous tropical island and I was complaining. How ungrateful and privileged does one have to be to say such things, huh?
Hidden Beach
The second I realised that, my outlook changed immediately. Really and truly, I would’ve snapped out of that funk either way the second we reached our next stop: Hidden Beach.
It’s not very difficult to guess why it’s called that, but I am gonna try. While one may think they’re approaching yet another unassuming limestone cliff, hidden behind it is a… get this… hidden beach. While it’s easy to get there with a guided tour, I don’t think the people who discovered it had quite the same experience. That said, it is now one of the most famous stops on the tour, and the reason for that is quite simple.
After swimming a very short distance through a space enclosed by limestone cliffs on both sides, a cove slowly comes into view, with the most pristine white sandy beach imaginable, thick vegetation in the background and water the colour of pale cyan. And, once you get to the beach, you can also notice a shallow pool that leads to a cave which communicates directly with the outside. Honestly, it felt like being on a slice of paradise. The only pity is that we only had a few minutes there. I could’ve easily spent an entire day just taking it all in.
A Spiny Situation
Then, as usual, we stopped at Talisay Beach and had the same kinda buffet I had been having for almost an entire week. I’d complain about the lack of variety, but the food in the Philippines had always been so good that I honestly didn’t mind eating the same thing again and again. I mean, how can you not like fatty food and carbs?
As soon as I wolfed it all down, I grabbed my mask and went snorkelling right ahead. This beach was quite particular in that there were patches full of long-spined sea urchins. I’m talking dozens of them in each spot. Crazy. I also managed to spot a lionfish and a scorpionfish, and this was all in the shallow, walkable zone. Yikes.
Secret Beach
By the time we started heading to our final destination, we were pretty much surrounded by a storm so dense it looked as if we were stuck in a cloud.
Having gotten oh so used to the tropics, I knew it’d last just a short while. In fact, by the time we got to Secret Beach, the rain had all but stopped. So yeah, Secret Beach. I know, I know. I’d been to Secret Lagoon, Hidden Beach and now this. You’d think I’d have become jaded by then, but somehow, I wanted more, with each and every stop being as cool as the previous one, if not more.
When we got to Secret Beach, all we could see, once again, was a limestone façade. We jumped into the sea and swam through a tiny hole in the wall, immediately revealing a hidden cove entirely circled by the same limestone cliffs. Facing us was, once again, a picture-perfect beach with immaculately white sand, dense vegetation and palm trees at the back. Despite how much I hate land appropriation and the privatisation of public assets, I can’t say buying the entire thing didn’t cross my mind. There was just one tiny problem with that: money. And laws. And basic morality. Fine, three problems.
One Last Night at Nacpan
With my last tour in El Nido over, I headed back to Nacpan Beach, where the rest of the gang was hanging out, along with Tiger’s puppy, who revealed himself to us for the first time. So damn cute!
After spending an appreciable amount of time playing with the puppy – an hour or two, who knows – we all gathered around for Trivia Night. Given that no new customers had shown up, we were all competing against each other. While I’m no trivia tycoon, lemme just cut a long story short and say that Malta now had two points on the scoreboard. Also, I got a free shot of Pacquiao Punch. Kinda blech, but it did do the trick, and, as I quickly noticed, being tipsy considerably improved my beer pong game. As does playing aggressively instead of overthinking things. I nearly won the tournament! And yes, we did do karaoke. Again.