03/04/18

We’d managed to score a couple more nights at Tapik, and have them book our fast ferry to Coron and organise transport to the ferry port. This meant we could stay at paradise rather than go to El Nido town.

Today we decided to hire a scooter and drive to Nacpan beach which is the other side of the island but north of the main town. As it was one road I thought it would be easy to get to, and as it went round the edge of the island we had an amazing view. Funnily enough our side of the road was empty and many people were coming from the El Nido town side towards Sibaltan. We drove for over an hour, when it was only meant to be an hour drive and we passed the waterfalls signs, I knew it was close to the waterfall but we hadn’t seen any signs for the beach. I ended up driving the scooter for another 20mins until I realised we had driven into the town! I checked my maps.me and the beach was to the west of the waterfalls, so we turned round and headed back North. We had to stop a couple times to ask for directions, but it seems to be a trend that the signs are broken and we had to look out for other signs. Eventually we came across the correct turning and we had a bumpy off road ride to the beach which was a little scary, especially as I’m more nervous when driving with a passenger. The journey ended up being a whole hour longer than planned but we finally made it. On arrival we had to pay 100 pesos as an environmental fee and the pass lasts for a week.

Napcan beach is gorgeous, it’s a long stretch of beach with parasols available to hire. We settled down in the shade, still nursing our burns, grabbed a couple coconuts and enjoyed the breeze. The sea was a little wavy so I couldn’t help but spend my afternoon jumping in the water.

For lunch we just went to the nearest restaurant which was set up beach side. I ordered steamed crab, and it was only 250 pesos and I had two reasonable sized crabs with rice. There were no tools so I cracked it’s claws with my teeth, but every bit of juice spray was worth it as it was so delicious and fresh.

We stayed for a couple more hours and then headed back before the sun went down. The journey back was just as pleasurable and we both really enjoyed seeing the rice fields, and the views of the coast.