WE RENTED AN ENTIRE ISLAND IN THE PHILIPPINES (hidden gem?)

Very good, our host Evelyn - she showed us around our house and it is confirmed that we are the only guests here. She told us that we were the owners of the

island

for one night. Just look at the view from our room. Oh, we're Karen Nate next. Traveling to a hundred countries and all seven continents, we are back in the Philippines for the second time so far. It has been an incredible journey. We explore the second largest cave system in Asia. We camped on an

island

. This is. Watch the sunrise from a dinosaur-shaped sandbar and last night we slept on a glass houseboat in a stunning Blue Lagoon.

As epic as this trip was, we may have saved the best for last While searching for places to stay in Corona, I came across an ad that seemed a little too good to be true, a private island that can be

rented

for less than $200 a night. Honestly, we have no idea what to expect. We had minimal communication with the hosts other than arranging our transportation and the photos on the internet weren't exactly right. Great, the one showing the island was an image of a computer screen. This could be one of those situations where you get what you pay for or it could be a

hidden

gem and either way we're about to find out because we just jumped into a The gang will take us down a bumpy road across the island. , where we will arrive at the port and get on a boat that will finally take us to the island.

We will make a quick stop at the local market. also because locally for the islands she lets us choose what we want to eat, they asked us if we wanted to stop at a local market on the way to buy some things and we said yes but expected like a grocery store, not this. Great, I just asked him what he likes. She just held up the bags we had bought so far and said, "Okay, breakfast, lunch, dinner, maybe just a start to pit the fishy garlic in the produce section. It smells a little better here, you're just delivering." . the money starts randomly oh I don't know this is interesting as our host because a lot of it in English and she pointed out all these ingredients like what and we have no idea what they have, we are the ones who are going to cook our food.

Do we need salt and pepper or like a lemon? I don't know how to cook a sauce, okay, anyone, okay, and you're buying some cooking oil, so I think this means that all we're buying today is everything. Let's do it, yes, thank you, how is the clothesline? I just remember asking him if he had coffee. Do you know what would happen if we had been on an island in the middle of nowhere with no comfort? I think we have bought something crazy to survive. this island for a month I think he's laughing at that I think everything we bought cost $40 sitting around we filled the back of the van not that bad bro he literally ended up in the water now a warning about okay okay now this vote It's going to take We're 30 minutes from our house to spend the night so far the heat is looking pretty good but so far it looks like we've made a great decision this place is amazing their dogs are here to greet us this dam is just white and soft the view where Are we around here?

Well, our boat driver just pointed out here. The kitchen is perfect. Oh, we have a urinal. What's here? Is anyone sleeping here? This is ours. Okay, very good, our host Evelyn, showed us our house and confirmed that we are. We are the only guests here, we have bunk beds around us. I think we both fit in the bottom bunk. Just look at the view from our room right now. It seems too good to be true. I mean, it's worth the risk and I think she's cooking. we have lunch right now, I bought some chicken, thank you, so the mangoes in the Philippines are very good, so there are two houses on this island and from what we gather, one of them is ours and the other is where the caretakers live. the restaurant and they just made us a delicious meal with the food we got at the market, the same rice, the shrimp we bought at Dominguez, they look and smell delicious, this is ginger soaked in soy sauce, it's amazing, I'm still getting the hang of it how to open myself these things I think I'm getting better, you know what all the locals do, hey you want a shrimp, hands down the best shrimp we've had in the Philippines and the best mango.

I wish you would let me start over and enjoy it all again so we could We wanted to go snorkeling after lunch and they gave us these masks and I'm really not one to complain. I'm trying really hard to see the best and everything, but I don't think I can put this black mold-filled snorkel in my mouth, but the good news is that we've already done a lot of epic snorkeling this week. We also have nursing homes. I thought I would be much happier taking out the local boat. Surprisingly they let us think we're just going to walk in. circles, so we spent the rest of the afternoon perfectly clear, well, it was a beautiful, relaxing afternoon and we just found out that there is a viewpoint at the top of this island, so we're going to walk to the top to see the sunset of sun, which I'm pretty sure I don't need to do anything.

You can see it much better from the beach. We have trees here, it's not really a viewing point for the sunset. You can see the other side of the island though, which is nice, but that's not where the sun sets, so it's okay. go ahead, set the sun is about to set let's wait in the wrong direction the feet are still better damn, well we don't have anything else, we did some exercise now I found the solar panels, it's okay Parral, back to the beach, we didn't miss it, it's just gotten better since the sun went down.

This is beautiful, so I asked Evelyn if she could teach me how to cook Filipino food tonight while she was cooking our dinner and she said yes. I'm going to go to the kitchen and see where I can help. I don't know how much help I can do. I think I'm learning more than helping. I think Evelyn has a cover so today during filming it's March 13th and things got really interesting very quickly yesterday in the US. They sent the travel ban to Europe and we just found out that now we have practically two days to get out of Corona or we risk being stuck here for a month, so all this delicious dinner we're having is being slightly overshadowed by us.

I'm desperately trying to find a flight out of this island to one of the larger international islands because right now international tourists are not being restricted from international hubs, but we might be restricted from they. All the flights, buses, boats, everything is there. Movement in and out of these cities will be shut down over the next two days. It looks like we're going to be fine, but things are changing very quickly and right now it looks like we'll be leaving in the dark tomorrow morning. We'll try not to think about it, we won't let it get us down because we're on a private island in the Philippines and this is amazing.

The good news is that, as we will be leaving very early in the morning, our hosts. They cooked us both fish that was hot in the market, one of them is their national dish, it translates as fish with milk in English, they had a much nicer word for it and then the tuna-like fish that we bought and of course Of course, a huge plate of rice. meal and Philippines is complete without rice and we will finish it with fresh and juicy pineapple, this is the one that was pitted with pieces of garlic hmm Wow, that is amazing, it is perfectly fried before we had to book flights to leave, she was planning to cook this for us in the morning, but I think I'm glad to eat it tonight with my coke instead of in the morning with my coffee, this feels good, we're going to soak up every last moment here and probably eat too much and, hopefully getting confirmation that we have parts that are happening well or maybe not.

I think I might be stuck here because a mom wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Don't tell anyone that this is a secret between you and me. The animals here are the best, yes, a little friendlier than dogs. I tried to love dogs when they didn't love women. I felt a little suspicious. I'm going to move on to plan B. I literally can't stand up, so I did it. I didn't realize how itchy my back while I was rowing, but look at this, a homemade anchor, you have the rock to weigh, the piece of wood that is a kind of frame and then a piece of rebar, okay, your phone is.

So close to getting soaked it's cold, isn't that what's going on here? I think I blew a fuse. I came in here and turned on all the switches, tried to turn on the lights. I didn't know which one it was and everything was gone. Wow, I turned it off and I can't pick up anything, yeah, I think it's on the camera, this is on me mm, do you hear a crackling sound? ASMR