Sea con­di­tions can change rapid­ly. And even when these are fa­vor­able, peo­ple with lit­tle ex­pe­ri­ence tend to get sea­sick eas­i­ly. Don’t leave it to chance, bring SEA­SICK­NESS PILLS to any boat trip.

Al­though our boats are pro­vid­ed with shade roofs, al­ways pro­tect your­self with SUN CREAM, a HAT, and LONG-SLEEVE CLOTH­ING. Bear in mind that the sun rays fall quite ver­ti­cal­ly over the Equa­tor and can cause se­vere in­juries in just a few min­utes of exposure.

Wa­ter is al­ways the best in­vest­ment you can make. Car­ry as much as pos­si­ble, in detri­ment of food and oth­er types of loads. Hunger is an­noy­ing, it’s true, but de­hy­dra­tion can lit­er­al­ly kill you in min­utes. If you still want to bring some food with you, the small and high­ly caloric snacks, such as nuts and en­er­gy bars, are al­ways the best choice.

Let’s ac­cept it, there is no room for dry­ness and com­fort in the Equa­tor, de­spite what the sports­wear man­u­fac­tur­ers may say. Even if there is no rain, your clothes and shoes will al­ways be wet due to high mois­ture lev­els or to your own sweat. In­stead, just fo­cus on keep­ing your back­pack dry and leave your rain­coat at home un­less you want to sweat dou­ble and get en­tan­gled everywhere.

On­board, be­ing wet will also be a com­mon con­di­tion, be­cause of wave splash and air mois­ture, or more like­ly be­cause you will be get­ting into the wa­ter quite of­ten. This may even make you feel cold un­der the breeze when nav­i­gat­ing. Quick-dry­ing swimwear, wa­ter shoes and tow­els will thus be of great help.

Pollen al­ler­gies are rare in moist trop­i­cal re­gions due to high di­ver­si­ty and low rel­a­tive abun­dance of each plant species. Trop­i­cal plants, more­over, have main­ly evolved to be pol­li­nat­ed by in­sects and oth­er an­i­mals, and rarely de­pend on wind for dispersal.

In­sect bite al­ler­gies and skin rash are oth­er­wise com­mon. In­deed, if you are al­ler­gic to bees or wasps per­haps it is a good idea to bring your own ep­i­neph­rine in­jec­tion with you. And, of course, wear­ing long-sleeve cloth­ing is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed in both cases.

There is also a chance that you ex­pe­ri­ence some al­ler­gic re­ac­tion to the food we pro­vide. Please, let us know about any AL­LER­GY OR SPE­CIAL DI­ETARY RE­QUIRE­MENT you may have, in­clud­ing those re­lat­ed to your re­li­gion or belief.

Tigers? Snakes? You bet­ter care about mos­qui­toes, they are re­gard­ed as the dead­liest an­i­mal on earth for a rea­son. Malar­ia, dengue fever, and oth­er in­sect-borne dis­eases are still en­dem­ic to Palawan. For malar­ia, pre­ven­tion drugs can be of great help, and in all cas­es long-sleeve cloth­ing, (good qual­i­ty) mos­qui­to re­pel­lent, and be­hav­ioral pre­ven­tion (main­ly, shel­ter­ing at dawn and dusk) are a must.

Horse­flies can be an­noy­ing in the coun­try­side where wa­ter buf­faloes and oth­er live­stock are present. Leech­es, in turn, are quite rare in Palawan, luckily.

Al­though in­sects are not an is­sue dur­ing nav­i­ga­tion, it is not un­usu­al to suf­fer the at­tack of mos­qui­toes and sand­flies dur­ing stopovers in beach­es and man­groves. The high­er the amount of de­cay­ing or­gan­ic mat­ter near the shore and the thick­er the sur­round­ing veg­e­ta­tion, the more abun­dant they will be.

De­spite be­ing the main con­cern for most trav­el­ers, this mat­ter doesn´t de­serve as much at­ten­tion as it is gen­er­al­ly paid to it. Be­lieve it or not, you have more chances of suf­fer­ing a sprained an­kle or even hav­ing a traf­fic ac­ci­dent on the way to our boat than of be­ing hurt by a wild animal.

Large ma­rine preda­tors, such as sharks and salt­wa­ter croc­o­diles, are ex­treme­ly rare, not just be­cause they oc­cu­py the top of the food chain, but also be­cause of the ha­rass­ment they have been sub­ject­ed to for cen­turies. If you have an en­counter, any­way, just avoid be­hav­ing like a prey. Stay calm, stand still, and sim­ply let him go on his way. Af­ter all, if he has been seen is prob­a­bly be­cause he wasn’t much in­ter­est­ed in you. In the case of croc­o­diles, avoid noisy ac­tiv­i­ties near tur­bid wa­ters and nev­er ap­proach one, ei­ther in or out of the wa­ter, even from a boat, since they are very ter­ri­to­r­i­al and may charge you at any time.

Gen­er­al­ly, you will have to pay more at­ten­tion to small crea­tures, which is par­tic­u­lar­ly true on land in Palawan, where the largest preda­tor bare­ly reach­es the size of a small dog. For the lit­tle an­i­mals, both on land and in the sea, it should be enough to wear ad­e­quate cloth­ing, watch your steps, and strict­ly fol­low a “no-touch­ing” pol­i­cy.

Yes, at the first glance it may look like a ter­ri­ble idea, but the truth is that wear­ing long-sleeve cloth­ing is the best choice in the jun­gle. This is so be­cause of a mil­lion rea­sons: sting­ing plants, hairy cater­pil­lars, thorny rat­tans, sharp pan­dans… Long-sleeve cloth­ing will not just pro­tect you from the harsh­ness of the en­vi­ron­ment, but also from the bite of mos­qui­toes, sand­flies, ants, and leech­es. And be­cause of the lat­ter two, it may also be a good idea to wear thick, tight-fit­ting socks over your pants.

In the sea, a long-sleeve swimwear will pro­tect from sun­burn and jel­ly­fish­es. Wa­ter shoes, in turn, will pre­vent you from get­ting harm by coral and will keep at bay the poi­so­nous crea­tures of the seabed, such as stone fish­es, sea urchins, and sting rays.

The lighter… the bet­ter. You don’t need to car­ry a mil­lion things on you to be able to en­joy na­ture. A big load will make you clum­si­er, slow­er, and nois­i­er. You will like­ly see noth­ing and sure­ly will get tired quick­ly. In­deed, all you need is wa­ter, mos­qui­to re­pel­lent and, of course, your cam­era and your binoculars!

Na­ture only re­veals its se­crets through si­lence. In this part of the world, life is lit­er­al­ly burst­ing out all around and just needs you to give it a chance to show it­self. Try to hold your emo­tions and stay fo­cused, you will soon feel the dif­fer­ence. Af­ter all, you didn’t come this far to just see a bunch of branch­es and leaves.

It may be ob­vi­ous, but we must in­sist on it: wild an­i­mals are un­pre­dictable by na­ture, there­on lies the beau­ty of watch­ing them. From our side, we will do our best to make sight­ings hap­pen, but we can­not guar­an­tee them either.

This is with­out a doubt the most im­por­tant ad­vice we can give you. Here, na­ture has a lot to of­fer but can also take much from you. Don’t be afraid, just be care­ful and al­ways fol­low the di­rec­tions giv­en by your guide. And, when in doubt, re­mem­ber that cau­tion and re­spect al­ways work fine. In oth­er words, sim­ply vis­it us, en­joy humbly, and get back home safely.