Puerto Princesa

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Until last weekend, I have always underestimated how absolutely wild and savage Palawan is.

Boarding a Cebu Pacific flight to Puerto Princesa from Manila, a few friends and I were greeted by a definitely humid progressive town with different looking tricycles. Unlike the other trips that I have made, my stint in Palawan was arranged with a tour guide. In retrospect, I think this is the best way to go through Puerto Princesa as the town is relatively large and going through it without someone who is familiar with the place would limit you to places that you would see in a small amount of time and also with the added information as the tour guides were highly informative from the interesting to the banal.

I was really impressed with the Crocodile Farm as they were able to display how untouched and wild Palawan is.

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After we checked into the hotel, we were taken by our guide on a van heading to a private butterfly farm. For some reason, the Philippines is absolutely ravished by butterflies as Ilocos Sur and Baguio has their own versions and I bet there would be other hundreds more everywhere. The difference between this and them is that this farm’s roof is relatively low which allows the butterflies to be in a more limited flight space and makes you feel like they are closer to you than being abject.

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We then headed off to the Crocodile Farm. A joint venture of the Japanese and Filipino governments, this farm has become iconic as they aim to breed more Crocodiles and act as a safe haven for the ones that are found in the wild as they are attacked because of fear and ignorance (I personally wouldn’t blame them). The start of the tour included this amazing display of large: a seven foot long crocodile skeleton and skin display which apparently ate a fisherman and then died from it plus a skeleton display of the huge sperm whale head. After an 80’s inspired information video, we headed off to the baby crocodile pools. About what seemed to be a hundred bath tubs filled with baby crocodiles, it impresses. We were offered the chance to take a picture holding a baby crocodile and with a Php30.00 fee, it was well worth it. Pressing on, we were invited to walk on a metal bridge conveniently placed over a set of large deep pools filled with crocodiles about 4 feet long. In it, there were 2 species (and I forgot their scientific names) that are endemic in Palawan. It was a bit nerve wrecking walking through the bridge as in some parts, the crocodiles became a bit restless as they fought for this rogue towel which fell into the pool.

Moving on, we then visited one of the largest open prisons in the world, Iwahig. The general idea is to provide prisoners an anti-prison experience: without walls and with activities allowing them to do what they do normally (sans the violence, etc of course) so that when they are released, they can integrate back into society easier, without the “Shawshank Redemption” experience. The prisoners are separated with different colored shirts to identify how dangerous they are: brown as primary, blue as secondary and orange as tertiary, the type that needs more looking after. They sustain their needs by farming and making interesting looking souvenirs. I personally bought heaps of key chains with some parts made of lizard and interestingly, it was kind of fun watching other people say “no” to the locals in the area. If you plan to go there, I would implore you to buy one of those shirts like what the prisoners wear as until now, I cannot get over the fact that I missed out on it.

Finally, we visited two relatively uninteresting places. One was a local governor’s rest house which was more of a display on how rich the politicians are in the Philippines and Baker’s Hill, a local bakery offering interesting looking baked products. Also, we visited the local Cathedral and a fort where apparently, another 150 people were burnt inside an underground bunker just like in Fort Santiago in Manila.

We then headed back to the hotel. I was really impressed with the Crocodile Farm as they were able to display how untouched and wild Palawan is. The next day however, I personally come face to face with Palawan.

But before I go, just a little reminder: when you are in a tour van with other people, you should be a bit more courteous with the other people. This is because the people we shared our van with were very obnoxious. They were loud, made calls, talked insistently and played with their rainmaker (this bamboo thing that make rain noises – apparently, used to call rain by people of old) insanely, which by the way, is one of those things that sounds cool when you first hear it but as it gets older, it gets more annoying.