For a small secluded town, El Nido Town Proper can be quite noisy and grimy these days especially during the festival seasons or holidays. There’s the town plaza events with music heard all over town, tricycles with blaring speakers and not to mention the traffic on narrow streets. While its good to stay in town for more food choices, there are still people looking for a quieter place to stay yet still accessible to town. Corong Corong, the area south El Nido Town is also a good option. Unlike Sitio Caalan though, this one has a long beach stretch, stunning sunsets and easy road access.
The Sunset Beach
Stretching more than 3 kilometers, Corong Corong has an unobstructed view of the sunset at Bacuit Bay making for a beautiful gradient of islands at sundown. The beach starts off just behind the Public Market and Transport terminal. The beach quality gets a lot better as it goes further down south. The slope from shore can be rocky and really shallow but still swim-able on high tide. What I like about this beach stretch is the gentle lapping of the waves, its soothing sounds and sometime serene waters that looks so calming.
Beautiful Marimegmeg White Sand Beach
Further down south, near the imposing view of Pinagbuyutan Island is the Marimegmeg Beach. Personally it’s one of the best beaches to bum around and take the occasional splash and wades. It has a wonderful fine white sand fringed by palm trees. A couple of resorts and small stores sells drinks and food. The nearby Depeldet Islet is walkable at low tide. I’ve been here several times already and it’s really a great place to chill out under the setting sun. Just be ready for sand mites come night-time and you really need to have tricycle service to get back to town.
Wild Life Still at Large
Despite the developments in the area, some interesting wildlife can still be spotted. I had the chance to work for at least a month in the area. While walking at the beach at the south early morning I spotted a group of Palawan hornbills perched on the trees out in the wild. Squirrels are easily seen up the coconut trees and occasional monkeys can be spotted. I also crossed paths with some snakes too which people should be careful as well.
Mis-development in El Nido Corong Corong
As much as I like this side of El Nido, I am saddened by the fact that a lot of the area has been bought already and fenced. Right now it’s getting pretty hard to get access to the beach which is basically public property. Local government should provide the public right of way access to the beach and not sell every inch of the beach front property to private companies or people.
Then there’s Orange Pearl Resort in Marimegmeg Beach who recently installed a zipline going to the nearby Depeldet Islet. I’m not to sure I’m happy about it since it definitely marred the view of one of the best spots to see the sunset. I’m not sure what future developments would come but in the meantime I can say I enjoyed this part of El Nido in its semi-pristine state.
Ferdz Decena is an award-winning travel photographer, writer and blogger. His works has found print in publications such as Singapore Airlines’s Silver Kris, Philippine Airlines’ Mabuhay, Cebu Pacific’s Smile and Seair InFlight. He has also lent his expertise to various organizations like the Oceana Philippines, Lopez Group Foundation, Save the Children and World Vision, contributing quality images for their marketing materials.
