We got up and enjoyed one more morning photo session on our balcony because well, see for yourself!
As we left to find breakfast the hotel staff advised us that many places would be closed because of it being Holy Week. They weren't kidding. However, we managed to find one restaurant attached to a hotel that was open. I had the American breakfast and Mark tried lonsigna, which is a sweet filipino sausage with rice and eggs. It tasted really, really sweet! After, we hopped in a jeepney (a vehicle from WW2 that has been repurposed as a mode of public transportation). We weren't sure where we were going and we had no idea what we would be paying but we knew we wanted to try riding in one, so we did. We watched other people get on and off and those people definitely watched us--we were the only foreigners on the rickety thing.
The jeepney stopped near a really crowded intersection and a man riding the jeepney asked us where we were going. We told him we weren't sure (which probably sounded pretty crazy) so he told us to get off here. Another passenger chimed in and told us the name of a church very close by that we should visit. We paid the driver our 8 pesos and jumped off the jeepney into the crowded street and boy were we glad we did. We happened upon a massive street market selling just about everything in existence, from ears of corn to underwear to mobile phones. BUT DAMN WAS IT CROWDED.
Shoulder to shoulder we wandered up and down streets until we came upon the church the woman from the jeepney had recommended. It was beautiful but it was SO INCREDIBLY FULL. People were standing, sitting, even wading through. I thought the market was bad but this church didn't hold a candle to it (pun intended). I usually don't have a problem with crowds but this was over the top. We stayed just long enough to say we did saw it and then started our hectic retreat. We headed down a side street to escape the masses and were able to wander at a much more comfortable pace. We saw a sintomas vendor and decided to stop. (Our taxi driver, Bong had told us all about sintomas and made us promise that if we saw one we would definitely try it). This was the first time we had seen one, so we asked the man about it. He removed one from the bunch, skinned it and cut it for us to taste. He then handed us some spicy pink seasoned salt to put on it. Woo! The fruit was bland on its own but the salt gave it a real kick! We paid and thanked the man and somehow ended up with even more sintomas that we couldn't seem to refuse.
This time, in order to get back to the hotel, we took a trike that had a motorcycle powering it, not a bicycle. The trike was equally as scary because we were whizzing in and out of traffic and stopping way too fast for my liking.
We made it back in one piece though and grabbed our bags to head to the airport (we were boring this time and just took a car). Now we were headed for Palawan, specifically El Nido. On our way we saw the strangest thing. I had literally never, ever seen this before. It was an overhead gas station. The pumps were hanging from the ceiling! How Crazy!!
This was the first flight where we had to check our bags (because it was a tiny prop plane), but we managed to get the exit row seats yet again. The airport was super tiny, but our airline, Air Swift, had prepackaged lunch bags for us complete with tuna sandwiches, juice boxes and roast nuts. We touched down after an incredibly short flight to what looked like a wooden lodge house but was actually the airport.
We took a motorized trike from the airport to our hotel and more times than not I thought for sure we were going to slide straight back down the hill we were climbing but somehow we made it to our hotel with bags intact (they had been tied to the back of the bike with a piece of rope).
Our room was paradise. It was beautiful complete with a balcony view of the pool and the ocean. We were really going to enjoy ourselves here!
The resort was lovely and small and had an outdoor bar and restaurant attached. We put on our suits and grabbed a beer while watching the sunset. Could it get any better? Of course it could. We ate dinner along the water-- I had grilled fish and Mark had mixed seafood chopsuey. Partway through dinner I headed to the room; something just wasn't right. We hadn't gone out the night before though because of my sun rash, so I was determined to see what the El Nido night life had to offer. I laid on the bed and told Mark to give me half an hour. I'd rallied before. I could do it again. Then things got better, way, way better. I got sick. Multiple times. It was official- I had been sun poisoned and food poisoned. I felt so bad for Mark because now he was stuck in for yet another night so I insisted he buy a few beers and consume them on our balcony (away from the wonderful sounds of my sickness). And then it got even better. How? Because then Mark got sick too.
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