El Nido is a bay full of limestone islands with lagoons hidden inside them. More than 45 towers rise straight out of turquoise water at the northern tip of Palawan. Their cliffs are undercut at the waterline and pitted with caves, sinkholes and clefts narrow enough to swim through. Behind several of them lie sheets of still green water, walled in on every side. The town on the shore is named for the swiftlet nests up in those caves. All of it is protected water now — green turtles graze the seagrass, dolphins pass through the channels and coral gardens ring the reefs — so every visitor needs a permit before setting out.
The way to see it is by water, gliding island to island aboard the wooden outrigger boats Filipinos call bangka. You paddle into the Big Lagoon, a wide sheet of green water walled by cliffs hundreds of feet high, then thread a kayak through a narrow cleft into the stiller Small Lagoon behind it. At Secret Beach you swim through a gap in the rock to reach a cove that stays hidden until you are inside it, and over the shallow reefs you drift above parrotfish and the occasional grazing turtle. Between stops there are white-sand beaches with almost no one on them, and at the end of the day the sun drops behind the towers and turns the water copper. It is not a secret anymore. The beaches fill in the dry months from December to May, when the sea lies calmest and clearest. But push off at first light, before the day boats spread out, and you can still have a lagoon almost to yourself.