I love to travel! Before our baby #4 arrives (just one week before our 8th anniversary), Nate and I decided to take a little get-away trip, just the 2 of us!!! We haven't had our own little vacation since 2007 BC (before children). What a blessing we got direct flights to Palawan during a promo sale in January, an island I have always wanted to visit!
We left our 3 boys with some wonderful friends and helpers, and took off for 4, count them FOUR nights!! It was almost better than our first honeymoon--in many ways!!
We stayed at the perfect place, Cooper's Beach Resort, an hour north of the city of arrival. The reason I loved it, other than they upgraded us to the honeymoon suite, was that it was totally isolated on a beautiful beach! So peaceful and private! I felt like it was just us on an island to ourselves. So refreshing!
We got to take a little road-trip tour to the Underground River, which is now one of the top 7 natural wonders in the world! Trips like this make me love the Philippines even more. I just love this country!
This is the longest underground river in the world. It sits under several limestone crags that jut up from the green terrain. We were thankful to get a booking, even though it is hard to get in with limited passes. It's so exciting to see God's artwork and creation hidden for centuries under this cave (locals were afraid of evil spirits so never explored it 'til an American "discovered" it in the 1800s). It was also soothing to sit in the boats for the tour as it quietly wound its way through the dark cave.
Nate and I--the lovers by the lagoon! Behind us you can see the cave where the underground river tour begins. Our boys would have liked this part, but maybe when they're older.
This is my favorite picture!! I will frame this for our home for sure! It looks almost fake, but no, it is REAL. It really looks like this! Please come visit us! =) Romantic, perfect weather, beautiful creation, lovely Philippines.
I was walking along the beach at sunset and almost stepped right on this jellyfish!! It was kind of cool to see the blue pattern on the top when the waves flipped it over, but after this I watched my step really closely and no longer waded in the water. Nate wasn't too scared to go for many swims in the ocean, but I just stuck to my sandy walks and the hammock.
A local fisherman was cleaning his nets. Such a natural place, untouched really by much tourism--yet. It will soon be discovered, I'm sure!
I couldn't help but think of my dad when I saw Nate in this chair. He would also love this place. Just walk out of your room and relax by the beach reading a book!
We loved that first place we stayed--just for 2 nights. Sad to leave, but we had booked another place for 2 nights, closer to the airport. It was fine for us to relax and swim, sleep and read, play games and eat...but they had all these strange statues all around. Like they had a snake strangling a pig, or a huge giraffe, and some nude statues--unpleasant. The strangest thing to me was in the swimming pool there was a temple underwater (seen in the picture) and a red pagoda statue on the other side of the pool in the water. Hm! Interesting! Definitely an Asian pool.
Thankfully we had the perfect date on our last night there. We found this restaurant, "Badjao Riverfront" (thanks to our friends who went before us). You walk out on this long bamboo bridge to this restaurant on the water. We arrived just at sunset! Beautiful and breathtaking views! Fishing boats just peacefully cut through the calm waters. We could see the outline of the mountains in the distance as the sun painted pictures in the sky. The weather was perfect and the air was so quiet and peaceful.
The food was also good--though very Filipino, which we like. What a fun place to sit for a meal with my man! Thank you, Lord for the blessing of this trip just the 2 of us (plus one inside!). Thank you that our boys were okay at home, and that we got to have some special time with you and in your creation!
One of our friends, who helped us with Malachi, put some pics of his time on her blog, if you want to see what he was up to. Nice to know our kids were having fun too!
Malachi while we were away
