Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Day 1: Puerto Princesa




So for your reference I live on the island call Luzon, on the left side of the square box. Puerto Princesa is on the island of Palawan in the circle area.

On Friday we left after school, drove to Manila, spent the night in order to catch our 6:30 am flight to Palawan. Once we arrived we checked into our hotel and proceeded to make it out to Honda Bay, where we went by Banca Boat to different islands in the bay and snorkeling. 



Heading out on the boat, it was a gorgeous day, as we got further out into the bay the waves did pick up and everyone got soaked. But we were taken to various different islands. The first of which was slightly more busy, but at it you could get a massage on the beach in your own hut for the equivalence of $7. Not the cheapest massage every, but after the 4:45 am wake up to catch our flight it was well worth it. Then after our picnic lunch on the beach of rice, fried chicken, fish, pork spare ribs and cucumbers, we walked around the island then headed off in our boat to our next stop snorkeling!

This was my first snorkel experience, and although it won't be my last, I'm pretty sure it will be at the bottom as one of the worst. 
Problem #1 you had to stay in this small roped off area, so you couldn't explore as much as I had hoped. Problem #2 you had to wear a life jacket at all times which made it difficult to swim/snorkel well.
 Problem #3 the smallest size of life jacket they had was a men's medium, indented for someone roughly 45 lbs heaver than myself. Therefore the entire time the life jacket was choking me and would start to float up by my head. So every time it popped off  the workers would freak out and start yelling at me. 
Problem #4 the snorkel I was given had a crack in it and water kept leaking in. 
So eventually I just held my breath looked through my mask while trying to hold down my life jacket. The coral was cool, and there were cool fish, but the whole experience was just frustrating. 

Then we went to another island/sand bar. It was a great way to end the day. 








You had to jump at the right spot where they had dug out the sand, otherwise the water was only 7 feet deep. 


Starfish!



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