Palawan II

So, we're a little behind on the blog right now. Were actually in Germany and will be home in a few days, which makes us both happy and sad. However, we will still be putting up posts of all the places we've been on the trip and we hope to catch up in a few weeks.

Anyway, back to Palawan. While we were in El Nido, we decided to go scuba diving. It took a little convincing to get Kaycie to do it, but in the end she agreed. She didn't like her first time much, and every time I told her we should get certified and go on diving trips, she'd give me a funny look. This basically sums up her opinion of Scuba http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkxfnrLlNLo . I was really excited to go. Since we have each been once before, our dive master, Barry, took us out for an open water dive instead of going from the shore. Since I was all excited to go, I went in first. After falling backwards off the boat into the water I met Barry around the front of the boat where we decended into the water. I had to come up a couple of times to adjust my mask cause it kept getting water in it (a problem I had throughout the whole dive). When we finally started to go down deep, my left ear would not pop all the way no matter how hard I tried. I could get it to pop enough that it was bearable while I was underwater, but once we got down to about 30 ft, I didn't change depth much because of my ear. I swam with one hand on my nose trying to pop my ear most of the time. It was really fun, and I saw a bunch of fish and rays and huge hard and soft corals. When I came up, I my ear still hurt and I had bruised the tip of my nose from pinching it so hard and had gotten a little bit of a nosebleed. Kaycie saw the blood and looked less than happy about what I had gotten her into. She gamely went over the side and down in the water. I assumed that she would be back in a few minutes and that would be the end of our scuba adventures together. Well, and hour and twenty minutes later she comes up and before she's even on the boat she starts talking really fast about all the neat things she saw; the fish and rays and soft corals and turtles, and we all know how Kaycie feels about turtles http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMNry4PE93Y . Barry told me that he had trouble keeping up with her, every time he looked away she'd be off chasing a fish or looking underneath a rock, or diving down deep to get close up looks at neat corals. Basically, she was like a five year old with a scuba tank. She got onto the boat and told me that we had to get scuba certifited and told me about all the places she wanted to go diving and such for the whole ride back. I spent the ride back trying to get my ear to pop.

I look hot in full body neoprene.

That was our last day in El Nido. The next morning we took the 5am bus back to Puerto Princessa. We'd flown up, but they only had a few flights a week, so we had to take the bus back. You know all those things you think about when you hear "third world bus ride?" The chickens and pigs, people riding all over the bus, someone with the large basket of some not so good smelling fruit, the bus flying around curves on the edge of huge cliffs, the guy carrying a lifetime supply of machetes? It was all that. Ask Kaycie for all the details. She was not happy when she got chicken blood all over her legs.

Back in Puerto, we went to the Sabang Underground River (http://www.new7wonders.com/ ). Or tour guide was named Jasper, and that is another thing to ask Kaycie about. Really. Anyway, we rode in a van with AC and then a boat to the entrance of the cave where we had to sign in and wait for a canoe with a guide to come and take us a few km's up the river. While we waited, we were told to watch out for the monkeys.

Their cuteness belies their devious nature.

These little guy were all over and liked to steal things from people, especially food. While we were waiting, and despite the signs and repeated warnings from the workers, we say one guy lose his hat, another his bag of chips, and a third almost get pooped on twice. (Monkeys don't approve of being teased.)

When it was our turn, they put us in some sexy lifevests and hardhats and took us 1.5km up the river.

Smokin'! That is the entrance to the cave on the right.

There were tons of bats and birds in the cave. Our guide told us that if we got dripped on and it was cold, that was alright because it was just water. If it was hot, it was bat poop. He loved that joke and said it about 5 times. He was also very polite, starting and ending every sentance with "SirMa'am" or "Ma'amSir."

One of the few pictures in the cave that turned out. This is the "heart" of the cave.

The little brown dots are bats. Gotta keep your eye on those buggers.

The exit, which is also the entrance.

We also went to the beach by Puerto Princessa around sunset for fun. We kept noticing that in the twilight the beach in the distance seemed to be squirming. We would walk over there, but when we got there, the beach seemed normal. Then we would see another part of the beach squirming and walk over there and it would be normal. Well, we stood there for a few minutes wondering what was going on when we heard an odd squelching/clicking sound. We looked down and the beach around us seemed to be bubbling. and then we saw the first of thousands of crabs that were coming out of the sand all over the beach. They would feel us walking and bury themselves, but if we stayed still they would come up in swarms. For some reason though, Kaycie couldn't seem to stay still when they would boil out of the sand all around her flip-flops.

This was the best pic I could get in the low light. The ones that showed many more crabs were all too blurry. Just try to imagine the top half of the picture covered in crabs

A close up of the cute little guys.

So that was most of Palawan, next up is Europe. We will probably be in Virginia when we write that one.