Bahala na

Travel from Davao to Palawan (with a one day stop in Cebu) was super smooth. After landing in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, we took a couple of trikes (they call them tuktuks on Palawan) to the mall for some groceries.

Then our driver picked us up for the one hour ride to the jungle retreat. He had a nice 15 passenger van, similar to the one at the end of our time on Bohol. Before leaving, he handed us some motion sickness bags…Then he drove like he wanted us to use them! It was quite the experience, but we kept the bags unused. After getting our feet back under us, we explored this beautiful oasis, called Artremaru.

This place is amazing! There is beautiful stonework everywhere, including many mosaics. The winding paths are lined with beautiful foliage. It even has a private beach! They said that the beach was at the end of a twenty minute jungle trail. They did not say how steep the trail was 🙂

We saw some real live wild monkeys and flying lizards on our travels back and forth from the beach too 🙂

The beach itself was gorgeous of course. The water was warm and shallow for a long way out. We had it to ourselves except for a couple local fishermen who sold us fresh coconuts and were happy to show off their catch of the day. One of these fishermen was particularly friendly and became our guide for a snorkelling experience that I’ll share in another post. The beach also housed a mangrove forrest. Some other guests at Artremaru launched our curiosity into this ecosystem and Daniel subsequently did a great research project and presentation on them. Everyone in the family learnt a lot about mangroves from his presentation.