"Under the sea, under the sea. Darling, its better down where its wetter. Take it from me..."

What a BEAUTIFUL morning in El Nido! Since we only had one day to explore, we woke up early, so as not to waste the day. The hotel had a nice little dining/lounging area for us to use complete with 2 hammocks. They also had these beautiful birds that are called Kyaos (they're kinda like a parrot). They were just learning to talk and all they could say was "Kumain Kyao", which means "Did you eat, kyao?" lol.) We had an amazing breakfast of rice and scrambled eggs. Then Michel went and used her Filipino magic to find us a boat for a decent price.

Most of the "Island hopping" boat tours come with a free lunch. When Michel explained to the people that we were vegetarians they were a little worried (since pretty much all the meals were fish or pork of some kind). So we told them we would pack our own lunch and in exchange we got a boat for cheap.

So we were off on our El Nido Island Hopping Adventure. So sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. That started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship. The mate was a mighty sailor man, the skipper brave and sure. Five passengers (and Nini) set sail that day for a three hour tour, a three hour tour. The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle...

Lol...Sorry, we couldn't resist. Anywho, so we found a boat and some scuba gear for a good price and we started our journey. 

**Note: Our day in El Nido could not POSSIBLY be summed up in words. So this blog will be mostly pictures, which, also, sadly cannot express the TRUE beauty that we spent the day surrounded by.**

Andrew and Michel.

We LOVED this island! It looks like a parrot laying on its belly.

We were on the boat for about an hour till we reached our first stop, which made Nini especially happy because she wasn't handling life at sea very well.It was a lagoon and the water was so clear and gorgeous. We snorkeled for a little bit and then headed off to our next location.

The next location was "The Secret lagoon". It was interesting. You had to crawl through this hole in the rocks and it was like a lagoon trapped inside the mountain. It was beautiful! 

After the Secret Lagoon we headed to an open beach where there were SOO many fish nearby. We snorkeled for awhile and then stopped to eat our "vegetarian-friendly" lunch of bread, fruit, and rice (we ARE in the Philippines, lol). Afterwards we remembered that you're suppose to wait an hour to swim after you eat....but we figured there was an exception to every rule and this was definitely the exception! So we brought some left over bread out with us and fed the fish. It was at this time that Andrew told us that his digital camera was an underwater camera!! So we decided to take some pics under the water as well.

Lunch with a view.

After we snorkeled for awhile, our boat drivers told us that there were more fish in the other stops. So we loaded up and set off for the next location, the Big Lagoon. We didn't swim here because there were alot of sea urchins but it was INCREDIBLY picturesque!

The water was SOOO clear. I guess all the black spots were all sea urchins.

The next stop was a good, hour boat ride. By this time the sun was getting to us and we were pretty tired. So most of us fell asleep on the boat ride over.

When we finally reached our destination it was a gorgeous beach with a coral reef right off the shore. We spent the rest of our day here. It was amazing and it felt good just to chill on the beach.

Nini wanted to do her part. She found a stick and used it to clean the seaweed from the water. She is so adorable!

There were SOOO many sea urchins. We were fortunate to have the scuba gear, they were hiding everywhere!

We were SOOO excited. We actually FOUND NEMO!! A couple Nemos actually....

It was SOOO nice. Our boat drivers made these adorable little leaf animals for Nini. They were creatively made.

They sold coconut juice IN the actual coconuts. It was really good!

Michel is SOOO clever! She dug a hole in the sand, then took her life vest and made her own beach chair. Are we
foolish that we never thought to do that??

When we had taken all the pictures we needed and snorkeled to our hearts content we all loaded back on the boat and headed back to the mainland.

After watching Finding Nemo, Nini was SOO excited to spend the day in the ocean. At one point, Michel put her snorkel mask on Nini, so that she could see the fish and everything. After snorkeling for a little bit Nini gave back the mask and then seemed down. Later Michel asked why she was so sad and Nini said, "How come the fish didn't talk to me?" and Michel was confused. Then she said, "Yesterday when we watched the movie, I could understand the fish. Today I couldn't understand them." Filipino children don't watch many movies. So they are still very impressionable. After Michel explained to her that it was just a movie and fish don't speak English in real life she seemed to perk back up again. lol. Poor kid...

After being in the sun all day we were really tired when we got back to shore. So we pretty much went straight to bed. It was definitely an amazing day though. We're sorry there is not as much commentary in this blog. But as we said at the beginning, No words could describe the scenery we saw that day. And besides, a picture is suppose to be worth a thousand words, right? So we posted an extra 48,000 words for you all. Anyways, it was definitely an awesome day. Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us! Till then....

~Me and Her