We were up bight and early, and at the Puerto Princessa bus terminal before 7 am. Just after 7, our bus was full of passengers, rice, bags and boxes, and we were on our way. We were told that the journey would take anywhere from 8-10 hours, depending on the weather and the road conditions. We braced ourselves for the worst. The first three hours of the road were smooth sailing. We would stop every once in awhile to pick up stray passengers, but other than that things went on without a hitch. That was, until we got to Roxas. After quickly stopping in this small village to do a few repairs to the bus, we were back on the road, but the “road” was not quite there to be on. We were now traversing a muddy, bumpy, clay road. Needless to say, the journey became a lot more “exciting/nail-biting” as we made our way from Roxas to El Nido. At several points, our bus was slipping and sliding leaning from side to side, and as leaning neared to “tipping” screams of panic could be heard throughout the bus. Once, in the thick of things, we were going up a muddy mountain pass… sideways… when our bus seemed to grind to a halt with it’s tires spinning aimlessly. That’s when the engines shut off.
As the weight of the rice bags on top of the vehicle began to pull us off balance and toward the ground, the engine simply wouldn’t start. As people moved to the side of the bus that was in the air (to try and even out the weight), the driver began jumping up and down in his seat and the engine roared to life. And with a couple of engine revvings we skidded out of our muddy trench and we continued up the hill. Although we had survived the mountain pass, the rain that pelted down didn’t help matters at all. We bypassed several vans stuck in the mud, and were just praying that we wouldn’t suffer the same fate. And we didn’t. After about ten hours, seven of which were bumpy and quite frightful, we arrived at the northern tip of Palawan, at the small village of El Nido. We were ready to relax (our rear-ends at least)!