Ten months…that was how long I waited for this trip to finally happen, and it was well worth the long wait! Seven days after that five-day vacation, I still have vivid images of Palawan in my mind.

Arriving at the Puerto Princesa airport around 1pm, we went for a quick lunch in Balinsasayaw Restaurant. The place isn’t as quaint as the one in Tagaytay, but the food was filling enough to satiate 13 hungry stomachs from Manila. By 3pm, we went to our van for a long drive to El Nido. We were told it would take us 6 hours to get there, so we braced ourselves for a past 9pm dinner.

The weather was cooperative up until we got to Roxas where a slight drizzle greeted us. We went for a short stop to buy kasuy. We went for two more short stops along the way. Halfway there, when we were all quiet and sleeping, the road became rough. It wasn’t exactly

what we had expected, and it made us feel uncomfortable. And then, somewhere behind the mountains, we saw our first rainbow (we saw four more during our entire Palawan adventure). Looking back now, it was God’s way of telling us that the rough ride was nothing compared to what He was going to show us for the rest of our five-day vacation in this paradise in Mindanao.

By around 8pm, we finally arrived and settled in Marina Garden Beach Resort. We were one hour earlier than expected, and that was another good sign. We had a late dinner at a beach front restaurant called Sea Slug’s, where I shared a hearty feast of adobong alimasag with Tonette (the reason why I was part of this trip. Thank you so much, my friend, for inviting me).