Looking wistfully out from the beach at the fleets of banca boats on the calm water we waited for our crew to give us the green light to board.

We ended up being one of the last boats to leave the bay - very annoying. To add salt to the wound they then said - as we were motoring away from the shore - that we wouldn't be going to the Small and Big Lagoon, the two main sites on the tour, as Ms Philippine was having pictures taken there for her Ms Universe campaign. Naturally, there was outrage amongst our fellow tour goers and amongst my shouts of 'mutiny' and other people's scowls the crew looked more than a bit concerned. They eventually gave in and said that they would try and get to the locations but that it was doubtful that we would be granted access.

Luckily, we did manage to get into Small Lagoon. It's cyan waters were glorious despite the obvious depth. A lagoon is a stretch of water separated from a main body of water by a natural barrier. The barrier in this case was made of foreboding looking Permian rock which rose out of the water and encased the lagoon in large flat cliffs with vicious looking spikes that echoed the appearance of fictional, evil castles.

Leaving behind the lagoon we made for Big Lagoon. This unfortunately we couldn't enter. Chelsea had booked 'Tour A' ultimately with the sole purpose of visiting this lagoon so she was not a happy at all. I mentally paid for the poor company she had booked with, she was slowly easing into her 'tornado' mode.

We went instead to secret lagoon. Evidently not that secret as there was a strangled queue of people waiting to get through a small tunnel in the rock. Once through the gap you were greeted by brown water in a narrow chute that stretched up hundreds of feet above our heads. It wasn't very appealing and only offered a few moments entertainment before we went back to the boat, purchased a can of beer from one of the many kayak bound salesmen and awaited the rest of our brigade.

After some snorkelling along one of El Nido's many reefs, where we saw a few puffer fish and stone fish (one of the most venomous fish in the sea), we climbed back onto the boat for our complimentary barbecue. The food was superb, with lots of chicken, fresh fish and prawns. When devouring my fifth helping of watermelon our banca set our again, this time for 7 Commando Beach.

The beach was my favourite part of the tour. It was a very hip and happening place where we had a good chin wag with the Irish, American and Spanish girls from our boat. The beach offered cheap beer, white sand and a huge swing where you leapt from a tree and swung out over the water. It was a good way to end the day and as the sun began to sink we splashed back onto El Nido beach.