Palawan

After visiting the local town where my parents live and their ward area for a couple days we hopped on a flight and went to one of their larger islands Palawan.

 This part of the airport was pretty small but it was different because it was just one large room.  Nothing was sectioned off for the different gates.  We eneded up leaving a couple hours later than we planned so we hung out in that room for a while.  They had Papa Johns, Cinnabon, and Starbucks.

Once we got to the island we were with a tour group most of the time.  Our tour guide was great, she was friendly and nice as she and the driver took a van of about 12 people around for 3 days.

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Here I am shopping.  They are known for their pearls and were pretty inexpensive.  

 I got to hold a stick bug,

a scorpion,

and a giant snake!

They had a pretty butterfly garden.

The next day we got on a boat and traveled to the underground river.  It was voted one of the new 7 wonders of the world.

There were lots of tourists.  Here you can see a boat going in.

We listened to an audio tour so we wouldn't disturb the environment.  There were so many bats!

It was neat!  There were lots of rock formations, we were in it for about 45 minutes and the river was even longer than that.  I didn't take pictures because it was pitch black inside.  The only light came from our tour guides helmet lamp.

It was a once in a lifetime experience.