Kate’s Winter Vacation

Other highlights of the El Nido trip included me learning how to scuba dive (and cutting my knee on some coral, furthering my “I’m having fun!” look in six-year-old terms), some truly excellent first diving experiences with Mum and Dad, in which we were able to check a few more things off our wildlife scorecard, but unfortunately no turtles or dolphins were to be found. I also went rock climbing (ON REAL ROCKS!) on Entalula island while Mum and Dad did another, deeper dive that I wasn’t allowed on (well I suppose I could have gone but it would have restricted their depth), and then I sunbathed while waiting for Mum and Dad to show up, then I showed them just how good I was at rock climbing by climbing up… and then slipping off and dangling on the end of a rope while scraping other bits of my anatomy against the very sharp rocks. There are some lovely pictures of that one: “Here’s Kate climbing… and some more climbing… then here’s where I was taking a picture and she fell off [blank rock face]… and here’s her dangling on the rope…” yep I love my Daddy’s obsession with picture taking.

We had lots of lovely food and picnicking, lots of lovely sightseeing (lagoon and island hopping tours, very nice), and lots of lovely sunbathing (and no major sun burns, haha!), and we got to experience some Filipino dancing at Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners. A good time was had by all, I believe.