Locked down in Paradise

Sustainability Director Mariglo Laririt shares about life in isolation in one of the most beautiful places in the world

Before the pandemic, Mariglo Laririt, Director of Sustainability at Ten Knots’ El Nido Resorts, used to wake up at dawn to chase the sunrise. “It’s usually the best time of the day because the tourists, who move in predictable herds, are not up yet.” With the sky still dark purple and only a faint hint of the soft morning glow washing in, she would sometimes ride out to the small lagoon and enjoy its cathedral solemnity without anyone else there. But for four months in 2020, the predictable herds stopped coming, all resort operations at El Nido ground to a halt because Luzon was put on lockdown. Suddenly, the solemnity she craved for blanketed the islands, magically, all through the day.

Being on lockdown for Mariglo and her husband Angelo meant staying home at their compound on the northernmost tip of El Nido, at the foot of a forest not too far away from the ocean. Living in isolation and surviving on their own was, in many ways, simply coming full circle for the couple who moved to El Nido in 1999 when it was still a little known secret.

Mariglo was a young, idealistic biology teacher at the University of the Philippines, when an invitation came from Ten Knots, a resort developer in Palawan, to do a baseline study of the natural features of El Nido. “I thought it was a very noble idea, a very admirable idea, for them to think of doing a baseline study,” she recalls. “I was very young, no experience outside the academe.” With an eagerness to discover more about life in different forms while fulfilling an earnest desire to live a purposeful life, she bundled up her young family, uprooted from city life, to explore the irresistible frontiers of the Philippines. “That was in 1995, I never looked back.”

In those early days, they had to learn to live without running water and predictable electric power, without easy access to groceries, coffee shops, or malls. To settle in, her husband designed their own water and power supply system. In March 2020, when panic buying was happening in most cities anticipating the lockdown, they kept their cool. “We knew that we would be able to grow our own food,” she explains. “And I think that was what the whole pandemic really underscored. You only absolutely need a few important things—food, shelter, and the company of the people you love.”

Soaking in Nature

Perhaps the only thing she was not prepared for was having to stay put. Mariglo’s work was necessarily mostly outdoors: scuba diving, scaling forests, walking through mangroves and shorelines, and meeting with their partner communities. On lockdown, she had to learn to do what she could online. Like everyone else, she struggled to get things done through video calls and online chats. In between meetings, she went for long walks or jogged along the trail her husband built around the property to challenge her to stay fit. She also took to their stationary bike, which she admits she only used to stare at before the lockdown. Doing these activities stirred a pandemic-driven resolution to be more intentional about staying healthy. It became clear that she had to build physical strength so she can keep doing what she loves for many years ahead. “Health is very, very important. If there’s anything I can do to avoid the way I took my health for granted in the past, I should do it.”

In the evenings, when online meetings were done and homesteading duties took a pause, she and her husband would have quiet dinner and then go outdoors to talk. Before her new-found health goals kicked in, these talks would be over a bottle of wine. But that has changed. “This whole we-will-be-healthier lifestyle also made us turn our backs on alcohol, which was like a major thing, to be honest. That was super drastic because we used to drink a lot!”

What do they talk about to unwind? “Oh my gosh!” she blurts out. “It’s still about planning to save the world!”

There’s still so much to do to preserve El Nido and to keep a balance between progress and the fragile ecosystem. As the world begins to stir back to new normal frenzy, Mariglo’s fervent wish is for people to recognize the intrinsic solemnity of life. In an online radio conversation with friends Jojo Silvestre and Dinah Ventura of Daily Tribune, she speaks from the heart about the way forward: “The best way to enjoy El Nido is to be quiet. Put down your phone—even for someone like me, it is a challenge—and really soak in what Nature is telling you. It is my fervent hope that the pandemic would have stirred something in us, because it would be so tragic to have gone through something so difficult, so cruel as we have been through this past year, and come out just the same person that you were before it.”

The hope is for us to emerge from this challenging period with a deeper understanding of how inter-connected life is on our planet. Being mindful of the safety of one another, as well as all living things around us, is a shared responsibility. “Places like El Nido Resorts can impose new normal rules, but if you remained the same person [you were before the pandemic], you will not appreciate it. You will not like it. But if you understand the context that it’s a different world, and something has happened, something has changed…you will take on a different perspective, an attitude of gratitude that you can actually be here, you are [still] alive.”