What can I say about a place as beautiful and amazing as the Philippines? Lots actually, it was an experience I will never forget and truly loved (except for certain parts of course). The beaches are fantastic and there is an abundance of them, you can go for days and days and still never see them all.
Elnido is a small tourist town that is full of great restaurants with lots of nightlife available to you all along the beach, you are literally sitting on the beach having dinner almost wherever you go to eat. The food was so good, spring rolls galore, if you like other foods there are many different options for you to choose from, they have traditional Filipino foods as well as western dishes if you are craving something from home. We went on an island hopping tour one day, we went to 5 different islands, we snorkelled, went swimming and kayaked in a lagoon. I would recommend doing a tour while visiting there for sure, it was very affordable and worth every penny.
Port Barton is a secret gem not yet totally discovered by tourists yet. It is smaller than Elnido and the cities but if you like to relax and chill out this is the place to be. They also have so many different beaches and boat tours to do as well, we did one and swam with a turtle, went to a private island (private owned one) and we also went snorkelling here and saw coral, and so many different fish. Did I mention the water is amazing and so warm that swimming here was perfect for me, except at the waterfalls, that was too cold for me but so much fun getting there on our rented motorbikes! My favourite place in Port Barton is Mojito’s, it is a new restobar just opened up by a couple from Victoria who now live there, the food, atmosphere, drinks (especially the Mojito’s) and company are fabulous!!!!
Sabang is another place I would recommend going to, here they have the Underground River (one of the 7 Wonders of the World) and Zip Lining over the ocean, which is priceless and amazing!!! The Underground River took my breath away all the way through it, it takes about 35 minutes and is full of bats (that don’t bother you), the way the formations have formed over the years and what they look like now is too hard to put into words, it is a must see if you are in the Philippines, well at least I think so.
I have made so many more friends here and had experiences that I will never forget, so many laughs, lots of ups and downs, the children are amazing and so accepting of volunteers that they made my job teaching kinder so much more fun and easy to do. I even survived the bucket showers!!!
