El Nido, Philippines – It’s hard to hear over the one-cylinder banging of the banca’s engine.  We left the kids of Papa John Center a while back and are now ‘holed up’ under the posh palms of the Dolarog – a water-access-only resort just up the coast from El Nido on Palawan Island.

Talk about contrast.

It’s a balmy 27 Celsius and a round of island hopping is the order of the day.  Winds are picking up hard in the afternoon making for some interesting navigation.  Last week, the boatman says, they lost 14 boats of this type when unexpected headwinds starting flipping everyone.  Luckily, other boats raced to the rescue and no one was seriously injured.

Today, I’ve got my gear zipped up in Lowepro’s DZ 200, so bring it on.