Princesa Subterranean River National Park

Feb. 19

Puerto Princesa, the capital of Palawan is in the middle of Palawan Island. To the east is the Sulu Sea, to the and west, the South China Sea. It is recognised as the cleanest, greenest city in the Philippines.

Our main reason for this visit is the river tour.

The world-renowned Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, is in the New 7 Wonders of Nature, and is included in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

We booked the tour through our resort which is a two-hour drive to the entrance of the underground river. When we arrrive we first take a boat up a river through the mangroves. We see monkeys, monitor lizards, and some poisonous snakes sleeping in trees that hang over the river. I feel better knowing we have a canopy on our boat as we pass under some of the branches, knowing it can catch a snake that might decide to fall off a branch onto our boat.

After our mangrove tour, we stop for lunch and then wait to board our second boat to the cave entrance. Once there, we board our third boat to tour the underground river.
We are repeatedly advised to keep our mouths closed. Not just so we minimize noise for the bats, but because the bat guano has bacteria in it, we must not get into our mouths. The entire trip involved seeing bats hanging and flying, so I adhered to the advice.

There were 12 of us on this tour, and even though the day was enjoyable, the guide was pretty useless. There was never any explanation, direction, or timeline established. We kept each other entertained, wondering what to do and where to go next as he was never around. Needless to say, he did not deserve a tip from any of us. One bonus of waiting around meant we toured around a little and tried some Bananacue. It's fried skewered plantains cooked with brown sugar. Very tasty!

Shortly after returning to our room, we took a taxi to the Baywalk, a boardwalk in town. It's a busy little boardwalk where people come to watch the sunset and eat from one of the local establishments or vendors.
We opted to eat at one of the restaurants that offered the most veggie options. If meat is your thing, there is no shortage of menu choices.

When you eat at tourist resorts, etc, you pay prices comparable to North America. However, in local restaurants, it's much less. We each had a hardy portion of chop suey and rice for about $10.00 for the two of us.

Following dinner, we took our first ride in a Philippino Tricycle, the popular mode of transportation here. They are motorcycles with sidecars. Some are rigged up fancier than others. Ours was interesting as the motorbike headlight shone into the frame and windshield rather than out onto the road. We made it back to our room wrapping up another fine day.