Once again we found ourselves in a situation whereby we were uncertain on how to move onwards. Our plan was to move south to El Nido on Palawan for a few days and then go over land to Puerto Princessa followed by a ship over to Cebu. The problem we encountered was finding anyone who could give us reliable information about getting to El Nido. After loads of faffing about we came to the conclusion that to travel in the Philippines you need either lots of time or lots of money. There were ship / boat connections to various locations but due to their infrequent schedules none of these fitted with the date and our current location.

Thus, running short on time we decided to scrap the idea of going to Palawan and head straight to Cebu in order to reach Malapascua and Bohol. We contemplated a long, painful yet adventurous route which would have involved a cargo boat to Mindoro (8 hours), a Jeepny to Roxos (4 hours), a ferry to Caticlan (4 hours) and bus to Iloilo (6 hours) and a ferry to Cebu (12 hours) but given the unreliable information and potential problems of getting stranded anywhere on route we decided against it (Our dive leader told us a tale of how he was stranded in Mindoro for 5 days!). Accepting the inevitable, that we were once again going to have to return north to Manila just to go South again and with ferries fully booked we had no choice other than to take a flight.

For about £60 we were both flown in a small 50 seater that afforded us wonderful views over many islands and reefs and left us in Manila domestic airport from where I write this (don’t be fooled by the dates though… it will probably be a while before I publish it). In a few hours time we will be on our second plane destined for Cebu, this one much better value at £35 for the pair of us, and that is even cheaper than the ferry, not to mention quicker (21 hours quicker in fact).

It is much less romantic than the island hopping in boats and ships that I had hoped for and the constant trips via Manila are making my map page really ugly, but without heaps of time, reliable information and good planning the sea going is just not an option.