Day 3 marked our last day in El Nido but it wasn’t enough to stop us from asking more of the paradise we came to love. Time did fly so fast, but day 3 is as equally spectacular as the other two despite the mood we decided to move in.
Click here for Day 0 / Click here for Day 1 / Click here for Day 2
We had to check-out from our hotel at 12nn. So we decided to sleep in till 9am before finally waking up to have breakfast. After discussing with the crew and ourselves, we learned that SPIN offers van rentals for a day that costs P3000. Coincidentally, the van’s max passenger capacity was 7, fit for our group (YAY!)
We decided to go for Nacpan Beach which was around 45 minutes land travel away. Apparently, Nacpan Beach was situated in a private territory of a farm so we had to pay P50 entrance.
Our van driver, kuya Dong, brought us to the front side of the beach to his friend so we didn’t have to pay for cottage rentals. We almost had the whole Nacpan Beach all to ourselves since there weren’t many visitors.
Photo by Armen/ @armenavy
I finally had a chance to actually lay on a hammock for the first time ever.
We also had a photo ops session with the cool SPIN mobile! 😀
L-R: Armen, ate Yon, Gian, me, Lorenz, Jaysel, Jed | Photo by Armen @armenavy
Lunch time, we ordered from the restaurant nearest our location, Catian’s Restaurant who’s owner was also a friend of our van driver, kuya Dong. Food arrived at least an hour after we ordered but they were guaranteed fresh. They were even kind enough to offer a free fish to Gian and ate Yon who also ordered fish, to which they shared to us generously. (I dibs on the fish head too because yay!)
We spent half a day in the beach bumming around. And it was a really nice experience and a non-stop photo opportunity haha
And a toasted groupie posted on my IG!
Watch our 360 El Nido experience posted by Ate Yon.
Since we left SPIN late, we only had little time to spend on the beach. Kuya Dong was planning to bring us to Nacpan Twin Beaches, but we realized we would only have too little of a time to enjoy it so we decided to just stay where we were.
Around 5pm, we headed back to town in hopes to see a nice sunset view. Kuya Dong was suggesting us a place but could only drop us off. Trike fees were P150 for 3 people one way if we opt to go there. But we dismissed the idea when he also mentioned that sunset in the El Nido Beach itself was also nice enough.
Around 6pm, the sun slowly went down and it was the most spectacular view. I always love sunset and there’s a reason why you should too.
Around 6:30, we headed to Rovic’s Tourst Hotel to check-in and wash ourselves clean. Around 8pm, we headed out to town to grab ourselves some dinner. We were looking for The Alternative which we read in blogs numerous times, sadly they were already closed for good. We were all pretty hungry already so we ended up just going for whatever was available, thus having our last option landing at L’Jodec which is probably the only restaurant without any customers during dinner time. But one thing is for sure, L’Jodec is a pretty underrated restaurant and they really deserve a chance when you go to El Nido.
(RELATED – Read up my full feature of L’Jodec here)
Ate Yon and I were pretty desperate in getting proper El Nido souvenirs, sad to say by the time we finished our dinner, almost all the stores are already closed 😦 It was supposedly our last chance to get something *authentic* from our visit but we can’t do anything anymore since they’re all closed for the day.
We got back to Rovic’s around 10:15pm, we were all pretty lutang and wanted to get some good rest. Around 12am, Gian woke us up telling us that we had to check-out. We apparently had no choice so we ended up waiting for Tito Fred in the lobby.
We got into the van and continued our good night sleep. I was super tired since I woke up so I crashed in the front seat despite waking up every few hours or so like usual. It was a good thing that after our midway stop at the same location when we were en route to El Nido, my sleep was better. We were in Puerto Princesa soon after.
Tito Fred dropped us off some souvenir shops and we bought ourselves some goodies to take back to Manila. I personally bought Cashew Tarts for P100 for a huge pack, a pack of Banana Chips P50 since I missed it since our former maid brings some home when she goes back to her province, and a Cashew Barquiron for P90 which Armen suggested to be delicious.
Afterwards, at around 9am, we then headed to the airport and bade goodbye to Tito Fred who was really good to us. We check ourselves in, paid a domestic terminal fee of P200 (P700 for international) and sat in the pre-departure area waiting our 12nn-ish flight back to Manila.
Time check: 9:15. We still had 3 hours to wait for our flight. While waiting, one of the airport crews asked us if we wanted to go onboard the current flight leaving during the time. We won’t be able to sit with each other though so we let go of the idea. When ate crew mentioned that the yesterday noon flight got delayed, we thought it was only a short 90mins of separation (clingy friends LOL) Sad to say, when we informed them, the vacant spots were already taken and we had no choice but to wait for our flight.
Around 10:30 I felt my stomach mumbling asking for food so I had to get myself some overprices hotdog sandwich for P100 from Hot Hugz Cafe inside the Puerto Princesa Airport.
Nearing our boarding time, our fears announced. Our flight delayed to 12:40. We had to wait some more 😦
When 12:30 came, another announcement came saying our flight got delayed to 1:40pm due to air traffic. We were pretty much full of regrets that we didn’t board the earlier flight. Cebu Pacific gave free cup noodles and a bottle of water as a means of easing our annoyance and hungriness.
We boarded the plane at 1:40 and while waiting to leave at supposedly at 2:25, we had to wait until 2:45 since there was one missing person not on-board yet. (UGH VIPs -_-, reminds me of the similar experience we had when we went to Sagada)
Anyhow, we reached NAIA around 4pm. Armen went ahead to get a cab home, while us 6 lined up for the airport bus loop to get to MRT Taft amounting to P20. After 40minutes, we arrived Taft station and boy was it filled with rush hour passengers.
Good thing Jaysel, Lorenz and I were going for the connecting route to LRT EDSA which surprisingly was pretty empty during the time. We were able to ride the train in no time. But obviously, since we were in the second stop coming from the terminal station of Baclaran, people went in the train at every station stop.
I alighted at Djose and rode my usual Jeepney ride to Divisoria. I changed clothes and crashed to bed in front of the electric fan and fell asleep. Woke up the next day, 12 hours later. LOL.
Life and Lemons 