June postcard: The Lost Boys of Palawan.

Coming back to Never-Neverland.

Eleven years ago, when I was first in Palawan, I went on an island-hopping trip with Tao Philippines. Our expedition leader was named Oli, short for Oliver. At our pre-trip briefing, he was so effusive, so bubbly, that I was actually a little distrustful of him. Was he nervous? Was this his first time or something? Did he know what he was doing?

He did, of course. That was just his personality. As I learned, he was a Lost Boy—the Tao Philippines crews’ name for themselves, living on boats, from island to island, between turquoise waters and emerald coasts, in northern Palawan, which is the closest thing to Never-Neverland that exists on this earth. You can see the logo on their T-shirts :

And here’s a picture of Oli, courtesy of Tao Philippines. He was my expedition leader, and in fact the original Lost Boy:

But that trip got off to an uncomfortable start.