San Vicente | Port Barton Island Hopping

Approaching an unnamed beach in Port Barton There’s an advantage and disadvantage of staying in San Vicente town proper as I have learned. A...

Approaching an unnamed beach in Port Barton

There’s an advantage and disadvantage of staying in San Vicente town proper as I have learned. Advantage is that I get to stay real close to San Vicente’s Long Beach, the longest white beach in Palawan which I have immensely enjoyed combing through. Disadvantage is that Island Hopping here is costly unlike if I stay in Port Barton. The Island hopping tours (A to D) only cost Php 700 per head for a minimum of four people in a group. But since I’m travelling alone, I would have to shell out Php 2,000 to get to Port Barton by boat. The people at tourism office said if there are any groups from here that would do the tours I could always join in but from the looks of the people coming and going through this town, chances are pretty slim. I was resigned to spend my last full day in San Vicente by the beach when Ate Flor, the owner of Ursula Long Beach Travaller’s Inn called me up while having breakfast that she’s at the tourism office and managed to get me a slot to join a group doing a Port Barton Island Hopping Tour. I immediately said yes, quickly packed my camera and gear and hopped on a motorbike to take me to the port.

Sea anemone and fishes at the Twin Reef

Port Barton Island Hopping Tour

Port Barton is a small village of San Vicente, Palawan separated by mountains and hills. It has a different access road coming from Puerto Princesa, though there are talks of road construction connecting Port Barton from San Vicente town. Port Barton Bay is where most of islands and reefs are located in San Vicente. From the Port Barton town, the closest tourist spot is only about 2.7 nautical miles. Since we’re coming from San Vicente port, we had to travel at least 7.5 nautical miles which is around an hour travel time.

Twin Reef teeming with fish and good set of corals

Snorkeling at Twin Reef

I was the only outsider from the group on the boat. I was with a friendly French family with a French guy married to a Filipina. Tagging along is their young daughter probably of 4 or 5 years old. The French guy’s parents were also there and as well as his brother and the bro’s girlfriend. They were touring Palawan coming from El Nido and Taytay making their way down to Palawan. They were a friendly bunch and I never felt left out during the Port Barton island hopping tour.

The Twin Reef was our first stop. I couldn’t see where the name came from if it was the characteristic of this reef it’s not that apparent. What I do know is that the water here is shallow but deep enough to swim around. It has good set of corals in very good condition and fish aplenty. I enjoyed this first part of the tour and it seems my French companions as well that went down to snorkel.

German Island panorama

German Island Hammock Time

It was already inviting from the approach. German Island, is how tropical paradise are often pictured – gleaming emerald waters, blinding white sand beach topped with coconut trees. Named as such because a German national rented this private island for 20 years. This was our lunch stop. A native gazebo in the middle of the island and toilet facilities near the low hill. It’s a beautiful small island with a nice beach and surrounding waters home to a few resident pawikans (sea turtle). It was mid-day with the sun at its highest so I wasn’t in the mood for a swim. The hammocks beckoned and I spent the rest of my time there after lunch.

Approaching German Island and hammocks by the beach

View of the nearby island from the German Island beach

View of the Exotic Island

The gazebo at the center of the island

Hammock time

Exotic Island, unnamed beach and essential info on the next page…

The beach at Exotic island

Dog Crossing at Exotic Island

The sky was threatening rain and the wind picked up but our tour continues. This time we headed 1.6 nautical miles north for Exotic Island. A small island with a short strip of white sand beach and a rocky shore on one side of the island near the bigger Albaguen Island. A brief squall caught us on the island but it died down soon enough for us to enjoy the brief moment there.

What was memorable for me here were the amusing dogs swimming from island to island. I was just sitting by the beach when a couple of friendly dogs approached and then sat by the shore. Moments later, they went straight to the water and started paddling to the Albaguen Island. It was fun to watch them cross this small channel. At this time, the water is shallow, about hip-high, enough for people to cross. So I decided to cross and see the Kikamaku Beach across and stumbled upon a playful pup. I saw that another dog was planning to cross to the other island and decided to join him. It seems these canine swimmers got used to crossing island because visitors at Exotic Island would give them food or enjoy some of its scraps.

Unnamed beach on the mainland

Unnamed Beach

So there was a choice on whether we’ll visit another snorkeling site, the Wide Reef or another beach. Since most of the group wanted to wade on the water, especially the toddler, we went to another beach en route back to San Vicente town. I thought it was another island at first but it was part of the mainland already. A beach I forget the name but it was wide with beautiful white sand as well and the water also clear. My geotag tells me its the beach near Inaring Island. There were some jellyfishes though and the large kind which made me think twice on swimming. Coconut trees fringe the beach and we had the pleasure of having coconut juice and meat. This was our last stop for our island hopping adventure but not the last time I saw the family in Palawan. I was glad I was able to do Port Barton island hopping on my last day of stay in San Vicente. I do hope to be back again in another time. This time stay in Port Barton town.

Getting fresh buko

Essential Info

How to go to Port Barton from Puerto Princesa.

• From San Jose Terminal, there is a jeep that goes to Port Barton once a day usually leaves at 9:00am. Fare is Php 200. Travel time is four hours. Going back to Puerto Princesa, there’s a jeep that leaves Port Barton also at 9:00am. Fare is also Php 200 and travel time is four hours.
• At San Jose Terminal, there’s also a non-airconditioned San Isidro Express Bus that leaves Puerto Princesa at 10:00am. Fare is also Php 200 and travel time is four hours.

The rocky coast of Exotic Island overlooking nearby Albaguen Island

Kikamaku Beach at Albaguen Island

Doggy who just swam from the other island

Walking from island to island

The unnamed beach as the last stop for the Port Barton island hopping tour