By Benjamin Layug
Palawan beckoned again and joining a Business Executives Alliance in Tourism (BEAT) Familiarization Tour to El Nido, me and my son Jandy visited one of the most beautiful places in the world, dubbed by CNN Go as the “Best Beach and Island Destination” in the country. A Palawan wish list is never complete without a visit here. Our home for our four-day tour was the beautiful, 8-hectare El Nido Bayview Resort Hotel, owned by current El Nido Vice Mayor Edgardo O. Trinidad and his wife, and BEAT member Rhodora Balajadia-Trinidad.
Climbing the 72 steps of beautifully made stairs up a hill led us to the resort’s 20 tastefully decorated and furnished air-conditioned rooms with ensuite private bathroom, refrigerator, safety deposit box, hair dryer, tea/coffee-making facilities and comfortable seating area. The rooms were spacious but homely. The 10 Bayview Suites have private balconies with a breathtakingly panoramic, million-dollar view of the gorgeous sunset and the tropical forests, islands and beaches across Bacuit Bay. The resort also has a restaurant and a 24-hour front desk.
The next day, we commenced with our resort-sponsored grandiose Tour A and C, an island-hopping tour, boarding a big outrigger boat from Las Cabanas beach, down the hill from the resort. Set on a headland, the beach offers a panoramic view of the lush and lovely outlying islands we were to visit, the first of which was the heart-shaped Matinloc Island. Landing along a beautiful white-sand beach, we first dropped by the shrine of Our Lady of Matinloc, built in the 1980s. Beside the shrine are the abandoned ruins of the mansion of religious El Nido resident Jablon Fernadez, said to be a lodging facility for pilgrims. We also climbed up a stair-like path, up a steep cliff with sharp craggy outcrops, to a vantage point where we had a sweeping view of the gorgeous limestone cliffs of the island and Matinloc Channel.
Lunch was held at the simple yet pretty Star Beach—a small, secluded area of white sand nestled between two large rock outcroppings. After lunch, we proceeded to the Secret Lagoon, coming ashore a very beautiful white-sand beach lined with coconut palms beneath a limestone cliff face, with massive and towering, alien-like limestone formations surrounding it. To the left of the beach is a huge cliff with a small opening—the entrance to the lagoon. Once through, we were mesmerized by the majestic limestone rock formations and cliffs surrounding it.
From the Secret Lagoon, we continued with our island tour, this time to the Small Lagoon. On arrival, our outrigger boat parked just outside the narrow entrance of the shallow lagoon. Here, we rented a kayak to view the wonders of the lagoon for P300. Donning life jackets, we paddled our way to the narrow archway between the rock face. Once through, we were ushered into eerily quiet and serene waters of a beautiful, turquoise lagoon enclosed by towering limestone cliffs. The giant limestone walls towering over us bounced around our echoes of wows.
The last part of our island tour was to be spent at the picturesque and very laid-back Seven Commando Beach, which boasts of the clearest beach waters in El Nido. Ideal for swimming, beach volleyball, silhouette shots or just beach bumming, it has fine and clean of a little coarse white sand, turquoise-clear waters, calm waves, fabulous rock formations and coconut trees.
The next day, we boarded a van for a resort-sponsored inland tour of the town. Our first destination was Bulalacao Waterfalls, one of the most beautiful falls in the town. It is actually a series of waterfalls aptly named Big Falls and Small Falls. We were to visit the easier and more accessible Small Falls (also called Naganlec Falls). The hike through the well-shaded and marked forest trail took 20 minutes, and we had to make five boulder-strewn river crossings. The Small Falls, with four accessible levels, was calm and inviting. The easy-to-reach second level, a beautiful low cascade, has a shallow, swimmable pool that was a nice, cool and refreshing break from the heat of the morning sun.
The last leg and main feature of our inland tour was lunch at the pristine, nearly 4 kilometer long, bare and unspoiled Nacpan Beach, said by many to be the “Boracay of El Nido.” This cream-colored sand beach, fringed by coconut trees and warm, crystal-blue waters, has no high-end resort, just a few eateries, stores, picnic huts and cottages.
The place offers serenity and an amazing view of the nearby islands, islets and the sunset. Highly recommended, you won’t regret visiting this place as it doesn’t have the usual crowds that the other islands of the town have.