Relaxation and local ways in Coron!

So the next few days were more laid-back. I woke the next morning and got Laura some presents, a cake and some candles for her birthday and said goodbye to them before they left for two nights on a posh island resort that I definitely couldn't afford! I also went accommodation searching, and after an hour I found Coron Backpackers Guesthouse, which was down a rickety old wooden beamed 'path' on stilts. It was in a really local community so amongst local peoples' houses so it felt really homely and local, plus the whole thing was on stilts over the water so really authentically Filipino!

There were always a group of kids greeting you on the way to the hostel. It was also run by a Filipino who'd moved out there 4 years ago from St Neots, Cambridge, so it's a small small world! He was now semi-retired with a family on the way and so so helpful! I also met Matt who was from Bristol so sat chatting to him for a little while before venturing out.

I decided to spend the day walking around the market, trying local foods and local restaurants, walking up to Mt Tapyas hill to see how far it was to walk - too far in the blazing heat so decided to wait for an evening when it would be cooler. I then spent the rest of the day on Sea Dive Resort sun terrace, catching up on my blog whilst admiring the sea view.

In the evening I had booked a trip to the hot springs. So I got a tricycle there through tiny little villages and basically a dirt track. The cute little tricycle driver waited for me for the hour I got in there and I basically admired the sea view while sitting in some amazingly hot springs - did my foot a world of good! I got talking to a Filipino couple and they shared tips on foods to try and places to see in El Nido and if I came back to the Philippines, places to return to. I then also got talking to a guy from Chile who was on crutches so we shared battle wound stories and chatted about travelling, work, (he worked as a teacher in China and was here for Chinese New Year) etc and drank some beers until it was time to leave.

I then headed back to the hostel, went to the market to get some food and when I arrived back it was a brownout, and as the hostel didn't have a generator, I basically had to have a cold water bucket shower in candle-light, which felt very very local, and then wrote my blog and read by candle-light until the power came back on and I went to sleep!

The next day I also spent blogging in the same place, literally all day, and did the same things, ate local - had beef tapa for breakfast (see left), skyped the parents, walked the market/town etc. Nothing much to report that day really!