Journey to Culion, Palawan

One of the benefits of my previous work is I get to travel for free around MIMAROPA (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, Palawan) as part of my job. A chance to travel to Culion materialized this month. We were to conduct a semestral performance review of one of our agency coverages and its attached hospitals, Ospital ng Palawan (ONP) and Culion Sanitarium (CS).

When one hears Culion, he is immediately reminded of a colony of lepers thrown in a faraway and isolated island. Culion today, however, has changed a lot since the Sanitarium there was established over a hundred years ago.

The travel to Culion is not a simple one. You have to travel by air, land and sea. First, we took a Cebu Pacific propeller plane at the NAIA Terminal 3 bound for Busuanga, the airport that services the entire northern Palawan.

our team waiting to board at NAIA terminal 3

Trip to the Bird's Nest (El Nido, Palawan)

We had planned to go to El Nido ever since we visited Puerto Princesa about 2 years ago. So it was good news when our office announced that we will be going there and that we can take along immediate families (of course at their own expense).

Our office was able to get a round trip fare for around P4,000 each: via Cebu Pacific going to Puerto Princesa and via Superferry returning to Manila. The entire trip would take 6 days which includes the trip via the Superferry that will take more than 24 hours.

boarding our flight to palawan

Trip to the Port of Princess - Puerto Princesa, Palawan

We celebrated our daughter's 5th birthday by going to Puerto Princesa City, the capital of Palawan. We stayed at the Balay Inato Pension for 3 days and 2 nights. It is quite near the airport and they offer free transfers. Aside from this, it is within the same compound as Haim Chicken Inato, which became the favorite chicken of my wife because of our stay there.

Palawan in 5 days

My 5 days in Palawan may have been the most grueling travel I had done. Yet it had been both fun and educational. We traveled from the southern most part of mainland Palawan (Rio Tuba, Bataraza) to the northern most part, which is the Calamianes Group of Islands. Below is a detailed account of my travel.

June 9, 2004 (Day 1)

I woke up at 5 AM to take the 7 am flight to Puerto Princesa City (Puerto for short) via Cebu Pacific. Upon arrival at Puerto, we had breakfast at Hotel Asturias before proceeding immediately to Western Philippines University (WPU) in Aborlan (about 1 ½ hour drive south of Puerto). There was a power failure at WPU. Fortunately, they had a generator so the budget hearing went on as scheduled. Lunch was served afterwards with crabs, calamares, sinigang (I can’t remember what kind of fish it was) and shrimps, which we all downed with fresh buko juice.