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We went south to the Island of Palawan El Nido Resorts. Our flight was uneventful...thank goodness! We were greeted by the resorts' tour guide @ the open airport terminal and taken to a banca boat for our tranfer to the resort. Such a beautiful place and many water activities to fill each day that we were there. We did alot of snorkeling, bottom fishing, exploring the lagoons, hiking just to name a few. We were even able to squeeze in a romantic private island luncheon;-) But the most exciting new thing we did was Diving 101!! I was thisclose to chicken out but I had the banca captain cheered me on so I couldn't let him down hahaha. Big mistake! I fought the coral and they won...just my luck, come to find out I was allergic to coral/sea anemones. Another battle scar to add to my messed up knee already! At least Mer-Michael got to swim with jackfish! What a great vakay!
We visited the infamous Banaue Rice Terraces about 6 hours drive northeast of Clark. We stayed at the only decent hotel there The Banaue Hotel. First thing in the morning we signed up for a Rice terrace tour ( fee includes tour guide & an hour jeepney ride up to the saddle). There were many rice terraces to choose from but we 
chose the Batad Rice Terraces because of its beautifully 
contoured amphi-theater like terraces. It is not recommended for the faint of heart. But being a true soldier that I am (joke) I toughed it out...almost did me in. The hike up the mountain trail was about 2 hrs (for a strong hiker) & many mini stops for me hahaha. You really don't appreciate it until you are finally up on top and looking down and wow.....it is quite a sight! Makes me think of my mom, she always tell me stories about her growing up in a farm and working in the rice field back in Laos. Our tour guide Darwin said that it is better to go in April as the rice planting is done and you can see the different shades of green in different rice paddies. 
As we near the end (and i am exhausted as ever!) we came upon a restaurant/inn just up the hill above the village; just in the nick of time. Thank goodness we had health bars & bottled water to snack along the way. There is a waterfall another hour hike down but we opted not to since the water was dirty that day. Best decision ever!...because once we got back to the saddle & jumped in the jeepney it started pouring down...HARD! Had a really difficult time coming down the mountain. The next morning we went to the many viewpoints of Banaue. Got some friendly Ifugao natives to pose for us...quite a cultural experience!
