An 8 hour 'ferry' (larger than usual Bangka) ride brought us safely from Busuanga to El Nido on the north of the main Palawan Island. The trip was rather stunning, passing by many secluded island where some extremely lucky people appear to have built their exclusive retreats. We met a couple of lovely Americans on the boat, Katie and Sean working in Indonesia and China respectively, what might have been a rather quiet 8 hours was certainly enhanced with some excellent company, fruit, San Miguel and Tanduay Rum! A couple of hours in to the trip the boat broke down and we all took the opportunity for a quick dip in the big blue. Always a little cautious I asked Katie 'is it cold' before I jumped in. Clearly forgetting I was in the Philippines and not back on Highcliffe Beach braving the English Channel. I'm glad to inform you it was most pleasantly warm! The engine was soon fixed and we clamoured ungraciously aboard using the helpfully placed arm balancing things on the side of the boat. We were powering forward before James was clear of the danger zone and after a precarious couple of seconds he too was aboard.

Pulling into the bay of El Nido feels a little like the set of King Kong, the islands in the Bacuit Archipelago are awe inspiring, sheer ragged cliffs, green slopes and coconut treesall around. The small town itself caters virtually exclusively for tourists and is a little reminiscent of islands in Thailand on a smaller scale.

More island hopping was called for and we joined a Filipino couple for a day's excursion. At first we both thought they were American as most Filipino's speak English with a distinctive American twang, where on earth they get it I don't know. After realising our mistake we were rather amused with the range of questions they asked us, the absolute classic has to be 'oh you like rice, do they have rice in London?' I swear it was asked in utter seriousness.

Some of the snorkelling here was wonderful but it was all a little depressing as so much of the coral has been destroyed by blast fishing and unfortunately continues to be damaged by tourist boats dropping their anchors willy nilly on coral.