at last, palawan! (part 3)

riding on the bus, we passed by the pier of taytay, which used to be a spanish stronghold.

i returned to puerto prinsesa, and found that the weather was a bit better. i was told it had been raining for the last two days. palawan is so big, that it didn't even rain up north in el nido when we were there!
the best part of being back in puerto was the seafood fest! i missed eating lots of seafood in el nido. the people there, apparently, preferred meat because they were so used to seafood. whoa!:O for dinner, my tito and tita cooked fried fish, inihaw na pusit, and sinigang na hipon. i went to bed early because i was tired from the bus ride. in the morning, i woke up to an empty house--my cousins had gone to the beach with their barkada, and their parents went to the market to buy food for the day. we had a different kind of shellfish--tasted like kuhol, but much bigger, and squid. very good! burp!
after a short nap, the family decided to take me around the city (puerto prinsesa is more than 100 km!) for my last day. we went to the butterfly gardens (bigger than the area in john hay), skipped the crocodile farm (thankfully), went to the baybay (found out that puerto prinsesa was named after undulating mountains in the distance that look like a reclining woman/princess),

and ended up at rene's saigon restaurant. now i had wanted to go to viet ville for the longest time, but they say that since most of the vietnamese refugees had either gone home or to the US, there strictly isn't a viet ville anymore...there was nothing to see. going to rene's was wonderful though. i had a bowl of spicy beef stew soup (pho without the noodles!) and dipped crusty baguette--crispy on the outside, soft and chewy inside! rene's supplies baguettes sold all over puerto prinsesa--for only P7 each!!! i have to say, too, that it was the first time in the philippines that i tasted spring rolls as good as the ones i had when i was in ho chi minh city!

the next day, my cousin and tita brought me to the airport, and i thanked them and we said our goodbyes. on the plane home, thankfully i had a window seat, i kept taking photos as the blue-green ocean and islands disappeared from sight.