"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

El Nido, Burrito!!

El Nido is located on the Northeastern side of Palawan. It is the more tourist-y side of the island and we've heard nothing but AMAZING things about it since we've been here. So when Michel and Andrew decided that they were gonna go and asked if we wanted to tag along we could only think of one answer, TOTALLY!!
So early Sunday morning, our crew loaded up the truck. Our crew consisted of Andrew, Michel, Nini, Rico and Us. However, the road to El Nido passes through Puerto. So Rovalyn, Haddie, and the Nanny asked if they could ride along and be dropped off in Puerto. Adding the extra 3 put our numbers passed the truck cab capacity. Some would see this as a downfall, but not the Hanaway sisters!

On the island of Palawan there is really only 1 traffic law. The driver of a motorcycle HAS to wear a helmet. Speed Limits, Seat Belts, Texting and Driving. Doesn't Matter. As long as motorcycle drivers wear helmets, the world is at peace. So Andrew decided to use these traffic laws and our ability to fall asleep anywhere, to his advantage. Translation: We rode in the truck bed. It was no easy task. All the luggage had to be organized, just right, to fit it all along the perimeter of the bed and then we put a camping mattress pad, our green blanket and our pillows in the center and we made a comfy seat for 2.

We slept most of the way to Puerto, only having to stop and pull the tarp over us, to escape rain, once. Overall we were extremely comfortable in the back. So when we stopped in Puerto and dropped off Rovalyn, Haddie, and the Nanny, we decided to stay back there.

The 2 of us fit snuggly and perfectly in the center of all the luggage. So when our favorite 7-year old, Nini, wanted to ride in the back with us, we realized there was only one thing we could do....cram together to make room!

Nini definitely made the trip more memorable. After we started driving and we were still getting all situated, Sam asked Nini if she was comfy. "What is this comfy?" Nini asked. So we spent the next 20 min trying to explaining to her what it means to be comfortable (we pretty much settled on 'No pain anywhere') then we'd drive a little more and Sam would ask again, "Nini, are you comfy?" and again we would get, "What is this comfy?" lol.

Another highlight was when Nini was having a "conversation" with the vehicle driving behind us. "Truck! What are you doing, truck? You go this way, you go that way. Truck! What are you doing?" this went on for a good half hour. We love that girl! She never fails to make us smile. :)

Beautiful view! Much to beautiful for a gas station

Sadly, for us, we didn't add up: Riding outside the truck all day + white girls not wearing sunscreen....so we got some pretty interesting tan lines. Overall we were in the car for 10 hours (4 hours to Puerto, 6 hours to El Nido) Finally we were there!

We found a nice hotel, near to the beach, and started to unload our luggage. We were SOO excited to see that they had water heaters in the bathrooms! So we were able to take our FIRST warm shower since we left home in September. It was Amazing!

After we got ready for bed, we decided to watch the movie, Finding Nemo. It seemed fitting seeing as to we were gonna spend tomorrow in the ocean. It was Nini's first time seeing the movie and she LOVED it. She kept referring to it as "the ista mobie" (Ista means fish and Mobie because they don't say their V's over here) She really enjoyed it.
After the "mobie", we all went to bed. Now even more excited for the adventures that tomorrow would bring! Till then...

~Me and Her

"Climb every mountain, Cross every stream..."

We woke up the next morning to the lovely sound of rain falling. Exactly what everyone wants to hear when they're suppose to hike out of the mountains.....NOT! To make it all better, it was a steady drizzle (which we've learned in the Philippines if its a heavy down pour it will be over in about 10 minutes. When its steady....it could go all day...Joy...) We were not very excited to hike out in the rain but we packed up our stuff, said our goodbyes and headed out.

The rain subsided by the time we got to the village of Noog. However, the trails were wet and covered with mud. We tried to make the best of it.

This hut was built on the top of the mountain
Gorgeous!

At the 1/4 mark on our way out of the mountain.

Group pic at the river.

Since we hiked in (almost) the same attire as the day before we weren't worried about getting our clothes/shoes wet or muddy. It was definitely easier because we didn't have to find alternate routes around mud puddles or the river. We just trudged along.

The half-way point. Seriously, this view makes the whole hike worth it. 

Beginning our very steep
descent.

3/4 view. Almost there!

When we were 3/4 of the way done our legs HATED us. Walking became extremely difficult. We had to try and walk with our legs pin-straight because our knees were so tired that if we bent them there was the chance that they were going to give out on us. "I feel like a retarded horse." was the only explanation Allison could give to describe the way her legs felt.

We were excited to see 2 shirts from places we recognized. Made us feel
like  home was so much closer.

In the end we made it out of the mountains in 3 hours, again. Woohoo! We are average! This time around Sam fell twice and Allison fell 3 times, scraping her arm. (No big, Souvenir!)

Sam tried her hand at documenting once again and filmed parts of our climb down the mountain:

Waiting at a hut in Bingby-land for our ride.

FINALLY!! We're finished! Its such an exciting feeling to have accomplished such a task as climbing a mountain. We came back a little muddier than when we had left but that was all part of the fun. Now comes the question everyone's wondering, "Would you do it again?" Answer: Oh yeah! Just give us a day or so to sleep ;)
Till then...


~Me and Her

Happy Thanksgiving from Kemantian!!

After our 3 hour hike the day before, it goes without saying that we had no problem falling asleep our first night in Kemantian. Even though our sleeping conditions were far from our norm. The missionaries in Kemantian live in huts. Like straw roof, bamboo slates for the floor, strong, well made huts. We were actually really excited because we had never stayed in one before. They had bunk beds inside, so it kinda had a camp feel to it and everyones bed was covered with a mosquito net (kolumbo, as it is called here) So it was kinda like sleeping in our own little forts. 

Before we went up to Kemantian, everyone was informing us that "its much colder in the mountains. So be sure to pack warmer clothes and warm blankets for night time" It wasn't until the next morning, when we woke up sweating in our long sleeve shirts with our blankets kicked to the side that these people probably had never lived in Wisconsin. The "cold night weather" was really only 60 degrees…*sigh*

Here is a video Sam took the next morning:

Becca and Joha try out the wind-up
electric shock machine.

The next morning we got a tour of the Kemantian medical clinic and the schools, both of which are VERY organized. Their clinic has an examination room, a pharmacy, and a laboratory. It also had enough rooms and beds to host 6 in-patients. And the schools went all the way up to high school.  We were able to spend time getting to the know the other missionaries better. 

The gorgeous hike to the George's

Then we took the 10 minute hike to Pastor and Leonda Georges home. Their house was the perfect size and the view from their living room window was to die for!

We'd love to wake up to this
everyday!

One of the reasons we decided to come to Kemantian this particular week was Mrs. George had invited us to come up and spend Thanksgiving with their group. Technically Thanksgiving was the week before (as you may know) but some of the missionaries were down in the "low lands" the week before and they wanted to wait until everyone was together. So, Thursday, December 2 was Thanksgiving for the people in Kemantian. We spent the day helping Mrs. George cook. 

Sticky rice cooked in bamboo. So creative!

When we were finished helping Mrs. George prepare, we went back to the hut to take a nap before the big dinner. Around 5pm we started to walk back to the George's house. Along the way, Sam slipped in the mud. And this wasn't just a dainty-little-trip to the ground, no this was a real, literally head-over-heels slip. The back of her nice skirt and white shirt got really muddy. It was so funny. Especially because Sam had asked earlier that day, "Am I tempting fate by wearing a white shirt out here?" Answer: YES! So we headed back to the hut so she could change. Then we started out again. We weren't even 15 ft away from the hut when Sam's flip flop flung a huge splotch of mud up onto the back of her clean shirt. So she had to go back and change again. "This is my LAST shirt. So if it gets dirty, so be it!" she said as we headed out again. Finally we made it to the Georges mud free (Wee!)

Yay! A clean and successful trip!

Pastor George has a way of
becoming the life of the party.

Sam and Joha.

Dinner wasn't quite ready when we got there, so we spent the time getting to know the other missionaries. It was nice being able to fellowship with other Student missionaries, and exchange things we've learned and things we miss from home.

Thanksgiving dinner was AMAZING. Totally beats out our own Thanksgiving meal, a week earlier. There were 22 missionaries that came, so the house was a little bit crammed. And did we mention the food?? Lol, It was a good time. 

During dinner Pastor and Mrs. George (who recently celebrated 15 years as missionaries in Palawan) gave us some words of wisdom on being missionaries and Life in general. It was really inspirational. Then afterwards we went around the room and everyone was able to say what they were Thankful for.

After the dinner we had to take the 10 min. hike to our hut in the dark....overall we survived (thanks to these awesome lanterns our Gpa bought us!) and the stars were SOOO beautiful!!

Thank you AFM for your
hospitality.

After stargazing we climbed into our bunks and went to bed. We really enjoyed our day in Kemantian and being able to spend "Thanksgiving" with everyone. We set off for the "low lands" early tomorrow morning. Till then....

~Me and Her