Nic Trips

Our 2nd day in El Nido and our last full day in the Philippines, we went on an island hopping tour. They offer four different tours of the area, each going to 5 destinations and including snorkels and a lunch. We did tour A, which was the highest recommended from everyone we talked to. Our tour group was one of the largest, with 22 people. Most groups are on small boats with only 6-10. I was skeptical at first, but I ended up liking having a big group, because it meant we got an extra big boat with lots of space to move around and sit in the sun. One of the islands advertised in a different tour was Helicopter Island, named because it looks like one. We spotted it out on our way to our first destination. Our first stop was Seven Commandos Beach. It was on the same, main island of Palawan, but is unreachable except by boat. Here we had our first taste of snorkeling in the crystal clear water. Then we also had our first taste of jellyfish stings. The

After spending on night in Manila at the Lions Den Hostel, we woke up super early to go to the airport and catch our 7:00am plane. Because we booked a flight to Palawan so last minute, everything was full and we were forced to book a private airline called ITI that flies straight to El Nido. It was more expensive, but kind of worked out nicely because we didn't have to go to Puerta Princesa and then take a 6 hour bus to El Nido. Because it was an expensive, private airline, everything was super fancy. There was minimum security to go through, they gave us wooden boarding passes, and we got to sit in a really nice waiting area with a free buffet of fruit, sandwiches, soup and drinks while we waited. We even had our own table with name cards on it and the WiFi password waiting on a little slip of paper. When we were ready to depart, they shuttled all the passengers to the plane and we had a red carpet entrance! The flight was only an hour and then we got a red carpet exit as

I picked up Andrew from the airport in the late afternoon on Thursday. From there we took a taxi to the bus terminal at the abandoned Costal Mall to catch a bus heading for Tagaytay. We arrived there around 9 pm and checked into Our Melting Pot Hostel. This was a clean, spacious and adorable house with what we would soon realize was the most kind and helpful staff ever. We spent the entire morning of our first day in Tagaytay sitting around the hostel and planning the details of the rest of our trip with the help of the staff. Then they gave us some instructions on our trip to the volcano and a recommendation for a restaurant for lunch. The restaurant we went to, called RSM, was a gorgeous and fancy Philippine restaurant with an incredible view of the lake. We got a ton of food and rice to treat ourselves to our most expensive and fancy meal in the Philippines, and it still only came out to 750 pesos (about $17). The food was delicious, accompanied by some Philippi