I woke up at 6am with the cockrels making a lot of noise so I got up but the light didn't work as they'd turned off the electricity. I went for a walk and saw the disappointing sunrise before going back and packing. I paid for the room than sat outside talking to a German man who was from Bavaria and was here visiting his daughter, was a good chat before the bus came. There was another girl waiting for a bus but she didn't get in so I wondered if I got the wrong bus and the driver gad already packed my bag away but it was the right one so we headed off and I talked to an English family who live in Costa del sol and had been moving slowly around Palawan island. We stopped a couple of times including at a cafe restaurant with a pond and decking. The other tourists on the minivan were French. We got to El Nido around 12pm and I walked out of the us station down the road towards town. There were a few places on the way but they didn't have rooms and then in town there were a few places along a street including a hostel. The cliffs around the area looked pretty nice. I left my suitcase at one place and asked around all of the others but they were quite expensive. I came back for my suitcase and this place called Francisco inn had a room for 600 so I took it although it was a bit dingy it did have an en-suite. I bought a pancake for some sustenance and then wandered around town. There were a lot of places for tourists, travel shops, hotels and restaurants. The beach seemed ok and there was a medium sized church. I chose somewhere to eat that looked cheap but was mid priced at 70 pesos for rice and vegetables. I was considering buying a snorkle set and swimming to an island but the weather turned and it looked like rain so I went back to the inn and had a short rest before getting up and deciding to go for a walk to the waterfall. It had rained a bit and the sky was still overcast so I took my umbrella. The walk was mostly along the road and I chose the waterfall with the path to it as I wasn't sure how easy the other one would be to get to. It was 3pm and the walk would take 3 hours meaning I would get there at 6pm, around sunset. the road took me past the airport and I checked on skyscanner if there were any flights to Coron but there was only 1 flight tomorrow to Cebu and the day after no flights at all. The airport turned out to be more of a big field with a runway in when I went past. I carried on and came to a small village where I got a portion of spaghetti for 30 pesos. It was a small portion and cold but still with the cheese in it, it tasted delicious. Then I went past a water purifier place and I still had half of my 1 litre of water left but it closed at 7pm so I worked out if I walked fast and gained 35 minutes I would make it and by walking fast I would also get to the waterfall earlier and not have to worry about sunset as much. I started walking faster and cutting across the road corners and went over 2 bridges where there were lots of goats. I checked the map and time and I was ahead by 10 minutes and if I kept at that pace I would gain 40 minutes which would give me 5 minutes at the waterfall. There were lots of tourists on bikes coming the other way but they stopped as it was getting late and I was even further ahead of time when I reached the waterfall parking area. I tried to follow the signs but got lost a bit and then I had to cross a stream that was not so easy and I was back to just 10 minutes ahead. The path was earth and slightly muddy in places but the problem came in that it crossed the stream several times and it was difficult to cross without getting wet. After a few crossings the next looked like I would have to wade across so I removed my shoes and did so which meant the stony path was harder to walk along. It was a long 40 minute walk and when I got to the waterfall it was not bad so I took a few pictures but not much else and at 6pm I started heading back. The light started getting worse so I used my phone as a torch and it was all ok apart from the last river crossing as I had put my shoes back on but couldn't find the place I had crossed where a concrete bridge had broken but the gap was jumpable. I found it after a bit and was back on the road a little behind schedule and likely to make it back after 9.
I walked along for a while and it got past 7 so the water place was closed and I was going a bit slower in the dark and feeling a little tired with about 1km to go to the village where I planned to have food when someone on a motorbike offered me a lift. He was called Richard and kept looking back to talk to me which along with it being dark made it a little scary ride. We got to the spaghetti place where he let me off and I got some spaghetti and also a lentil meat dish with rice, it was all quite good. I left and walked the 3km back to town and had a quick look around. My hostel in Puerto Princesa had found my towel but had not found someone to take it here. I went back to the hostel and read a bit before sleep.
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