Explore El Nido - Palawan - Women weaver in Sibaltan
The Baquit Bay is nice but its surroundings are worth it as well. From time to time, we will explore el nido – palawan’s hidden secrets.
Explore El Nido - Palawan
Explore El Nido – Palawan: Today we went to the northern tip of Palawan with our old-fashion Jeep. What an adventure ! The road was pretty badly corrugated. Very soon we were covered with dust as the car had no windows (and no doors either !). Encouraged by the friendly « hellos ! » and the waving hands of the kids we crossed on the way, we carried on to explore El Nido – Palawan.
After an hour and a half of non stop noise and going up and down through road holes, we arrived on top of a hill and…wow ! The view was just sumptuous ! Islands at the back, palm trees in front of us and, in between, the sea. The perfect postcard picture !
Back on the road. After a few minutes we reached Sibaltan. It’s a little town like popping out of nowhere, mainly inhabited by fishermen and farmers. It was really well worth the effort ! The village is really charming, built directly on the beach. A few kids flying kites and laughing, fishermen’s boats on the sea, dogs wandering around. The place is quiet compared to El Nido, but still full of life.
We had a meeting with Melody, in charge of the « women weaver » program, encouraging local ladies to create original crafts and get their own income.
Supported by the Ayala foundation, more than 30 women make bags and wallets out of buri leaves collected from a special palm tree. They are sundried for 2 days and then weaved to create beautiful and unique items . «We don’t have any pattern to follow. So, we can express our own creativity ! » says Melody, « We work at home and it takes more or less a day to make a bag ».
The foundation provides training for the women willing to integrate the program and helps them connect with potential customers.
We thanked Melody for the informations and the picture, then it was already time to head back !
Do not hesitate to go there for a day and ask locals where you can find Melody. You can contact the Ayala foundation for further information or contact us🙂
You can find their products in El Nido Art Cafe & Boutique & in Maya’s shop.