Paradise Found: Our trip to El Nido--Day 2 island hopping at Snake island, Cudugnon cave, and Shimizu island

Day 2

After our breakfast of bibingka (another type of rice cake) the next day, we started our activities with feeding the jackfish (locally known as talakitok). At the dock, there was a pail of fish leftovers which were handled by tongs (hands for the non-squeamish) and fed to the jackfish. It was a sight to see! The jackfish were about 2-3 feet long and the feeding frenzy lasted only under ten minutes. After the feeding, we got ready for our scheduled island hopping tour and some snorkeling in the afternoon. We first went to Snake island, which has an S-shaped sandbar, clearly visible during low tide.  A 5-minute hike to the top gave us a better view. The hike was not too steep and the girls managed it well with our help. We were off to Cudugnon cave after. To get inside the cave, we had to tuck our knees to our chest and roll over to get through a hole as big as a couple of backpacks.  There was light from the top which allowed us to see the beautiful rock formations. We even posed inside what locals called the Mickey Mouse formation-- a smaller cave shaped like Mickey’s head.

Afterwards, we took a boat to one of the islands by the Big lagoon, where the entire beach was reserved for our private lunch.  What can I say? That was the life!  Our waiter, Ray prepared some soup and green mango salad to start with. We had smoked tanguigue and freshly baked bread as well. Then, we had grilled feast of tilapia, skewered shrimp, and pork chop. We ended with banana cake and maja blanca (coconut pudding). Ray left us to enjoy our meal and to swim and relax until we were ready to be picked up.  There was an attendant who stayed with us and radioed the boat to come pick us up when we were done.

We went snorkeling at Shimizu island next. Our guide, Raymond had a buoy for the girls to hold on to while hubby and I went snorkeling. We had some bread handy and schools of Matangbaka (purse-eye scad fish) gathered around us to the girls delight. Sadly, a lot of the corals had been damaged. There were some nice species that you can still see while snorkeling, though. Definitely diving would have allowed one to see more (including the resident sea turtles and whale sharks) but hubby decided not to leave us girls to go on a dive. The girls were too young to go on an intro dive with me, so we had to settle for snorkeling.  We went back to the resort for a dinner of chili crabs, grilled oysters, grilled shrimp, crispy crablets and perfectly-cooked palitaw (yet another type of rice cake)!  Ahhh….crabs… I can definitely live on crabs. If you promise not to tell anyone, I will say that I can eat 2-3 whole crabs in one sitting. But my family already knows this so they pretty much leave me to enjoy my crabs which take me over an hour to savour.

Darling Daughter #2 (DD-2) was not feeling well this day. Her fever and energy was on and off but we got clearance from the resident doctor for the day’s activities. He did check up on her twice (and twice more daily from then on) to make sure she was ok. I brought medicine with me, but the clinic was sufficiently stocked as well. Even for instances like these, the resort had us covered. DD-2 was better the next day.