Today I went on a very long walk on a beach that couldn't quite decide whether to be rocky (sometimes smooth, sometimes razor-sharp) or sandy (sometimes fine, sometimes grainy), that went up and down and across, on an afternoon that was both hot and cold, with the sun playing hide and seek.

Today I fell in love with El Nido - for the beach's identity crisis, an easy metaphor for oneself, and for its beauty that requires work and perseverance to behold, a perfect metaphor for life.

It was a full kilometer of beach before I spotted someone, and beyond that there was no one else.