Palawan – All about El Nido

**CLICK HERE for special room rates, discounts and reservations on Palawan Hotels**

Located at the Northwestern top of Palawan Island, is the Municipality of El Nido Island. The land of El Nido consists of a total land area of 50,000 hectares having 18 villages. According to the 2007 census, it has a population of 30,249 people in 6,311 households in its eighteen villages or barangays. The population rate is about 33,000 people or more in the year of 2009. The people who live there are a mixture of natives as well as travelers from other areas of the Philippines. In the year of 1934, the giant Tridacna was discovered and is the biggest pearl in the earth weighing about 14 pounds, and it was found by a Filipino diver below the Sea of the Palawan Island.

The Limestone Cliffs with the natural engraved and solid layers of coralline that slowly rise from the sea, came from the accident of China and India about 60 million years ago that are now scattered all over the sparkling sea which eventually became the most outstanding in nature and holds marvelous characteristics of the picturesque landscape of El Nido.

Like the Palawan Island, El Nido is also a completely separate plate from the Philippine Mobile Belt. In fact the best evidence is on the land since it has no active volcanoes, very much different from the rest of the Philippine Archipelago. It was assumed that for the last 40 million years, the Palawan Island separated from China and drifted downward 15 million years ago and linked up with the Philippines.

The name El Nido came from the edible nest of Swiftlets, which can be found on the craft of its limestone cliffs. The word “nido” means “nest” in Spanish. Spaniards used this ingredient to make soups.

El Nido is famous for its clear water beaches, but what attracts most tourists are the people who have a simple livelihood with a trademark of hospitality. The magnificence of El Nido beaches is as good as the island of Camiguin. Tourists are willing to spend an hour to ride a boat just to see and to personally experience the nature which consists of hundred kinds of tropical fishes, corals and sea turtles. It was boasted to attain the most pristine seascape in Palawan Island, and people sometimes called it “The Island of the Gods”. Therefore, El Nido was chosen as one of the areas to be protected by the Philippine Government because it played an important role to the Palawan Philippines to serve as a display of Palawan’s physically blessed beauty and wildlife finery.

There are so many things that people can do in El Nido Palawan. Tourists normally enjoy hiking, fishing, lagoon tours, cave tours, mangrove river tours, bird watching, hat making, picnic lunches, sunset cruising, kayaking, windsurfing, hobie cat sailing, snorkeling, and diving, but with prior arrangements of dive courses.