El Nido is widely known for its fine beaches, hidden lagoons, and majestic rock formations. In our tour however, our guide invited us to do some trekking. I have always been interested in the great outdoors but I know that I am also not fit for such activities. So when they announced that we are going to see a waterfall, I was excited at first then I sort of doubted myself if I could carry on with the journey without slipping on mud or asking the group to take a break so I could catch my breath. Haha! I was with my cousins, it was not a time to expose myself in such humiliation or else I will be the laughing stock in Christmas dinners and reunions.
Anyway, from Buluang Beach, we spent a little more than 45 minutes to reach Mansilawit Viewing Deck. We did not however trek to the viewing deck but to a waterfall that was within the area.
DISCLAIMER: All photos from our climb are from my cousin's cameras.
Our journey started with a walk through a plain that was lined with rows of coconut trees and green grass. Easy peasy! I can do that!
Then the trail started to go up hill and we crossed numerous rivers. I almost lost my slipper while crossing one because the water current was getting stronger as we get nearer to the waterfall.
At some point, we were able to pass by other groups of tourists. If you're visiting Palawan as a smaller group, like there's five of you, and you sign up for a tour, they will group you with other travelers and from our hike, it was a disadvantage for them because they had to maintain the pace of the slower members.
That's me posing for a bit for a photo while crossing a river in one of the later parts of the hike while holding a tree branch for support. At some point I felt like Gandalf with my staff.
We spent around 30 minutes or more in this climb. We happily joked around while walking and shared a few talks about pop culture and such e.g. Game of Thrones.
You can see me in the photo above contemplating if I should take a dive into the deep water. Hahaha! I did it anyway! It was not as scary as I thought. The waterfall pushes you up so you don't have to worry about falling into the deep.
It rained harder on our way down and it made the trek very slippery. Some of us slipped and we were joking about how easier it would be to just slide down the mud.
After our hike, we went straight to this buffet restaurant for dinner. We climbed concrete stairs with almost a hundred steps to reach the top of the viewing deck. LEG DAY! But the moment we got there, we were silenced by the scenery that was waiting for us. It reminded us that we were still in El Nido.
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