Day04 - Exploring Palawan

The participants again woke up early to explore one of the most visited places in Palawan - the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park. (It is currently running first in the Official New7Wonders of Nature campaign. Vote to keep it in first place!)

This day trip is not only a must-see tour, but as part of the design process, it will help the participants to learn more about Palawan, its geographical location, history and culture.

Participants showed their excitement before taking the 10-minute boat ride to the Underground River. For a change, the weather cooperated and gave us a day that was nice and very sunny.


Before taking lunch, the students were given the chance to take a long walk on the beach and a quick swim to sample the warm waters of the Pacific.

Filipino architecture students with Mr. James Hubell, the leader of this project who, together with co-leader Kyle Bergman, keeps the participants inspired. He speaks with a soft voice, but his words and insights are freely and generously shared to help them reach their full potential as designers.

After lunch, Jovinee Sagun of the city planning office of Puerto Prinsesa gave a short pep talk about the City's ideas in this whole project. She told us of Puerto Princesa's vision to create an environmental preserve particularly in the site where the Park is going to rise, and how the Park will boost the development potential in Puerto Prinsesa.

From the Underground River, the participants returned to the city and spent the afternoon at the Palawan Museum. Just like when they toured Intramuros, the students were asked to look around and sketch anything in the Museum that interested them.

The hope is that the exercise of looking for more shapes and patterns, and committing them to paper would help boost their creativity as the design process continues over the next few days.