PHILIPPINES- Tao Expedition

We arrived in the Philippines on the 24th late. We flew into Milan and arrived at the hostel around 5pm. The area was not great so we took a taxi to a food spot and back.

The next day we flew to Coron. This is the first town we visited in the district of Palawan. We attended a briefing from our expedition company, Tao. Robin got me a water bottle and a t shirt as an Xmas present. I bought us the Tao expedition as robins present.

Day 1:

Expedition 1: we boarded our traditional Philippine boat. It has two large bamboo structures jutting out from the base connected by taught rope to the top deck. These stabilize the boat in wavy conditions. The Philippines is isolated with few protective islands. This creates very rough seas. Over time they developed boats with stabilizers to combat the waves.

Our guide had a dog, Mykos, who joined us through the expedition. She was the best swimmer by far.

Day 1 was great. We had no waves. Completely still sea with no wind. We snorkeled in seas with the brightest coral we have seen so far. Brilliant blues contrasted with fluorescent greens and orioles. Clown fish resided in anemones with colorful parrot fish floating around the corals.

Lunch was amazing. Grilled salted mackerel, veg stir fry with salads and potatoes.

We spent the rest of the day snorkeling and enjoying the still water.

We reached camp 1. Here we were assigned huts and set up our beds with mosquito nets, pillows, and mattresses. To celebrate Christmas they had prepared a hog roast which I loved and Robin refused to even look at. We both got a little sad in the evening. Everyone else on our expedition were families with kids. Older couples with children were in bed by 7:30pm leaving robin and I missing our families.

Day 2:

We had a 4 hour crossing. The wind was powerful making the sea very rough. It took us 6 hours to make the crossing due to the need to go slow. Waves crashed against the stabilizers and the boat leered with each break. Robin felt very sick. I was enjoying the spray from the waves flying up through the slatted deck.

Once across we had a few swim stops with more tropical fish.

Lunch and dinner both involved tuna steaks which made robin very happy. Paired with veg and salads made an amazing meal.

Our camp was the same style as camp 1. Huts on the beach made of bamboo and rattan leaves woven to form a roof. The huts looked out to sea. This was amazing but meant wake ups at 6am from sunrise with sailing at 8.

Day 3:

Today was much more manageable sailing. We went to 3 islands, each with great snorkeling. One stop included a tug boat ship wreck which had become overwhelmed by fish and corals. It was 50 years old.

After snorkeling we settled into our last camp. We had a camp fire and indulged in our last meal. The food during Tao, we agreed, was the best food so far since starting our travels.

Day 4:

We headed to the next camp in the morning. Here we said our goodbyes and took a transfer taxi to the bus station.

Being on island time, our bus was 2 hours late due to a ‘faulty break’. We eventually made it to Port Barton where we upgraded our outdoors bucket showers for indoors normal showers. We put our laundry in and had dinner.

Off to bed.

-M