Group Photo at the top of the zipline

Angela was the guinea pig on this one

Our driver Ronald

The view from the top.  You can barely see the cable from the canopy to the small island across the bay

Zipline and a Long Ride to El Nido {Day 4} August 17th

We got up early in the morning and enjoyed a fabulous buffet breakfast with fresh fruit, fresh omelets, pastries, juices, Filipino food and more.

 

Mom was sick with a migraine so she stayed in bed most of the morning. So we took mom some breakfast in bed. Her migraine was making her so sick she was vomiting and it was hard to keep food down. So we left her to rest and went to the zip line.

 

We took a small boat across the water and then hiked 100 feet above sea level through the jungle to the zip line. Angela, Jordan, Tanner, Jeremy, Mark, Monica, Matthew and Merritt were all along for the hike. In fact our driver Ronald even came along. No one expected the 7 and 4 year olds to go down the zip line, but they did. They did awesome!  The zip line was awesome. It went over a bay of the South China Sea.

 

On our hike back to the van we found a mature coconut. Jeremy cracked it open and we drank the milk from it. Then he cut it open and we ate the coconut flesh. It was delicious.

 

When we got back to the hotel we ate lunch and tried to take in the last few moments of the beautiful resort.

After lunch we took a long, long drive in the van to El Nido. On the way there we passed through Roxas and TayTay. Our poor mother was sick for the entire drive and little Merritt got sick too.

We stopped by this banana tree so someone could puke. It was fun to see the banana tree.

While we were stopped we also checked out this farm.

When we stopped by the farm we found some shy grass. This video shows how it shys away when you touch it.

 This was our drivers mother-in-laws house. He stopped here for a minute to get something.

This is a view from inside the van while driving. We thought it was funny that Ronald has so many stuffed animals on his dash. It was not uncommon to see a vehicle pass by with standing room only.

 We stopped by this cool tree when the driver Ronald lost his bummer navigating through the bumpy dirt road.

When we finally made it to El Nido we got dropped off in the sweltering heat with all of our luggage in a dark alley. It was really creepy. Apparently our beach resort was a hike away and could not be accessed by car. Jordan disappeared to find out where we were staying. After what seemed like and hour he returned and let us know they were still working things out. So we packed our things back in the van and walked down the beach to sit down and get a drink at a restaurant.

When we made it to the hotel we discovered that part of the getting things worked out was trying and failing to get rooms with A/C. So half the group slept with no A/C for the next four nights. The resort was really nice if you did not mind being hot. :) Our secret to staying cool was that we would run the fan and take a cold shower in our underwear before going to bed.

Our dad had been at the hotel most of the day and we were all happy to see him. We were all hungry so we went to eat at the hotel restaurant. The Cadlao Beach Resort restaurant left much to be desired. I ordered a fruit plate and crepes. The fruit was fine, but the crepes were horrible. Dad ordered a burger and it tasted like fish. He later went to the kitchen chef and said his burger tasted rotten. The chef said, "I put in salt, and onion and no fish." Funny, no one mentioned anything about fish to the chef. We are pretty sure his burger had fish mixed in the meat. This was the last time we had dinner at the resort restaurant.

 Just as I was starting to get comfortable in my heat sauna room Jordan came knocking on the door. He wanted Angela to take a picture of this glow worm he had found. The first picture has the flash so you can not see the glow but below you can barely tell that the worm was glowing a vibrant green color. Every time Jordan pocked the worm with the leaf if would glow. It was pretty cool, but my phone camera did not do it justice.

Puerta Princessa Under Ground River and Resort {Day 3} August 16th

We woke up Thursday morning in a Swiss Family Robinson Tree House style hotel. It felt like we were in something Disney tried to re-create. As you can see above the walls were made of local materials.  I had lots of time to take pictures of this hotel while my mom and brother tried to make arrangements to help my dad meet up with us later that day.

A look at the 2nd and 3rd floor of rooms.

The courtyard in the center of the hotel. 

The view from the hotel. 

Our view at breakfast from the 4th floor. 

Merritt and Matthew

Mark

Merritt

Merritt and Monica

Monica and Jeremy

Monica

I took this because I liked the lions and I thought the brooms they used in the Philippines are very interesting. 

Check in desk of hotel.

Cool flower arrangement made from fresh flowers in the hotel courtyard.

Cool fountain.

Merritt, Monica, Matthew

A look at all 4 floors of the hotel. 

Cool light fixtures. 

After we had secured travel for my dad we headed over to check out the crocodile farm  in Puerto Princesa.  We all got a chance to hold the crocodile. It was not until we were almost done that we found out they charge 30 pesos for each person who holds the crock. If you want a professional picture printed that is an additional 150 pesos. I was a little freaked about holding the crock, but I did it. This little Filipino guy propped the crocodile on each person for four different shots. 

Monica

Matthew

Angela

Tanner got in trouble for this photo because he was not holding the crock with two hands.

Lacey only took two pics because she did not really like the crocodile. 

 

Jordan

We took a short tour of the farm and it started here with this huge crocodile skeleton and hide.

We went through several tubs of young crocodiles, only a few years old.

Next we were greeted by this guy that said. "Hi I'm Your Future".  And we entered the gangway bridge that took us over these giant crocodiles. 

Here is a video of the crocodiles. After the guided tour we took a tour of the forest that had caged animals like parrots, bear cat, long nosed boar, other birds, and more. 

Tanner and Angela playing crocodile. 

After the crocodile farm we headed to Sabong to see the Under Ground River. We had to set an appointment to be able to get on a boat to visit it. So we had to be there by 1 pm. While we waited for our time slot to get on the boats we enjoyed a fleshy, slimy taste of a young green coconut. We took a boat to an island where we saw 20-30 wild monkeys and lots of monitor lizards. Then we hiked back in the jungle to the rivers opening where we took a boat tour through the Underground River. The fresh water river drained into the Sea. We rowed back inside of it where we saw bats, swallows, stalactites, stalagmites and columns. It was amazing. 

The Sheridan Beach Resort in Sabang was my favorite place that we stayed. This is a view of the enormous pool from the front office club house. The resort had a pool table, foosball, table tennis, darts, a full gym and a spa. The spa included massage which we took advantage of.

Here is a view of the pool from the beach. It. Was. Amazing. 

We also enjoyed the food here. Some of the favorites were the Beef Steak Tagolog, Sheridan Burger, Fruit mix served in a coconut, Teriyaki Chicken and pizza.

Hammocks lined the beach outside the restaurant and Monica and Merritt enjoyed a little R and R relaxing in them. 

Matthew caught a little tiny lizard while we were here. Isn't he cute!