CORON DAY 2 CONT...

Okay, let's continue... :D

After Banol Beach (and eating a hearty lunch) we then proceeded to our next stop: Skeleton Wreck. Here's a description of it from pacificwrecks.com:

12-16m deck, 25m bottom, Freighter, Length 137m. Possibly the Taiei Maru, lying on its starboard side in Coron Bay. This is a beautiful wreck dive site where you can observe groupers, sweetlips, occasionally turtles and sea snakes. Hard corals cover the port side, which is only 12 to 16 meters below the surface. Many scorpion fish hang out around the wreck area. The big cargo rooms and the engine room allow easy penetration of this wreck for Wreck Diver Certified divers. If you dive from 10 AM to 2 PM on a sunny day you get a cathederal like effect from the beams of sunlight entering the cargo holds through the holes in the port side. The two massive boilers in the center of the ship are a big attraction on this dive. You can pass behind the boilers and see the damage resulting from one of the bomb strikes that disabled the ship. It is possible to do a swim-through and pass from bow to stern without exiting the ship.

Makes me wish I knew how to dive. It must be really exciting to see the ship up close - as long as there aren't any sharks of course. Anyway, at the site, I couldn't dive down because of my life jacket but I was able to take photos of some parts of the boat/ship. The way the ship looked creeped Ruther out a bit. Well, it did look creepy so we focused on feeding the fish (again!). The boys meanwhile just swam away in their floaties.

After Skeleton Wreck, we then headed to CYC Beach. CYC stands for Coron Youth Club. It had white sand on the shore and looked nice as we approached. But I was so disappointed when we neared the beach because there was a lot of trash lying about. I hated that. I found out that CYC Beach was open to the public and I just wish some people would be more consciencious about where they throw their trash. For goodness sake it doesn't take a lot of effort to bring your trash home! Argh! It just makes me so mad! Anyway, we were still able to take good photos of the area (minus the trash) with some mangrove trees. Suffice to say we didn't stay very long at that beach.

Our last stop was at Twin Lagoon. From travelandleisures.blogspot.com:

The Twin Lagoon nestled in the largest limestone formation which is called the Calis Mountain, which is actually the Coron Island. The Twin Lagoon is divided by limestone wall and is connected by a small and narrow opening. The inner lagoon is only visible and can only be access during low tide. One must have a diving skill to get to the inner lagoon during high tide.
The outer lagoon has a number of sea urchins and the temperature of the water is a little warmer compare with the inner lagoon which is cooler and deeper and more serene.

The water in this area is brackish, our tour guide said. He told us that fresh water usually floats on top while the salt water stays below. When I looked through the camera lens, the water appreared blurry. The guide said that's how it would look when the fresh and salt water mixes. But he added that about a meter below the surface, the water would be clear again. The temperature of the water was also weird. There were areas where it was cool but other areas were cold! Again, the mixing of the waters. Anyway, when we got to Twin Lagoon we were pleased to find out that we could swim below the wall to get to the inner lagoon because it was low tide. If it was high tide then we would have had to climb this ladder to get to the inner lagoon which would have been not as fun as swimming underneath the wall. It was so cool swimming through the gap. It was like going through a small limestone tunnel. We had to be careful though because the rocks were sharp! Only Jojo, Ruther, I went into the inner lagoon. It was majestic. It was like a secret place for mermaids. Really wonderful. The boys stayed in the outer lagoon with the boatmen who kept them company. Ethan did yell for us to come out NOW! Sigh...

Anyway, Twin Lagoon was our final stop so we then headed back to Coron tired but happy. Even the boys found the experience fun which is always a good thing. :D

Day 3 tomorrow!

CORON DAY 2

Day 2 started at 7am with breakfast. It was covered in the package and we had a choice of a Filipino set breakfast or an American one. We got 2 Filipino and 2 American set meals. Yummy and filling.

We left the hotel at 8am in a tricycle and headed to Lambingan dock where our banca was waiting for us. Our tour guide was with us all the way. While at the dock, Ruther and I took photos while our guide readied everything for the trip to the islands. We finally left after a few minutes and headed to our first stop: Siete Pecados. Siete Pecados (or 7 sins) represent the 7 small islets surrounding the area. It's actually a marine sanctuary, I found out later. I was the first in the water (after asking my guide about sharks which he said there weren't) and once I put my head underwater there were so many fish!! They were just swimming all over me. It was amazing. I love to snorkel so I just snorkeled away and took photos. Once, our tour guide (named Jojo) dived a few meters below me and brought up these big triangle-shaped fish! It was amazing I just had to try it. Since I had my life vest on (and I can't swim well), I couldn't dive down to the area where the fish were. Finally after much coaxing, I managed to feed a few!! I was scared it was going to bite my finger off I quickly let go of the bread before it snatched it away. But it was so cool. Good thing Ruther took a photo of me feeding the fish. Anyway, after an hour or so (couldn't really remember), we went back to the banca and headed for our next stop.

Kayangan Lake is "a fresh water lake hidden behind limestone rocks amidst small mountains". We actually had to climb these steps up and down a small hill before getting into the lake itself. In other words we did a mini-hike to reach it. I was panting a bit when we reached the beautiful lake. I thought at first "this looks pretty plain". But was I wrong. Underwater, I found the most amazing rock formations. Since the water was fresh, it was so clear. I took Ruther's photo and it looked like he was flying over mountains of rocks. It was so cool. Then Jojo told me that there was a small cave on the eastern wall of the lake. Of course I had to check that out. It was cool. The cave entrance was small (one person could go in and out while avoiding the rough walls) but it was cool and wider inside. When you reached the inner part and looked up, you'd see a hole above where some light could pass through. I felt like a mermaid. :P Anyway, we didn't stay too long at Kayangan lake and headed to our next stop: Banol Beach.

Banol Beach is "just one of the many white sand beaches you can find on the island of Coron, Palawan. It is a small, cozy beach" and there were less than a dozen small huts along the shore which you can rent (but that's covered in our package). We also stopped here for lunch which is again, covered in our package. It was a buffet lunch with rice, barbequed chicken, roasted squid, ensaladang talong (eggplant salad) , crab, bananas, sodas and bottled water. It was a yummy lunch and I don't usually eat eggplant like that but I didn't want to offend our tour guide so I tried some and it was surprisingly delicious! I had a few more spoonfuls after that. :D Anyway, the boys didn't feel like eating but after a while, Nikki came out of the water and ate lunch. Ethan, as usual, didn't want to eat rice. Sigh. After resting a bit, we headed back to the water while tourists (mostly Caucasians) sun bathed. We then took more photos and then headed back out once more onto our banca.

more stories tomorrow... :D

BACK TO "NORMAL"

Well our vacation is over, Ruther is back in Japan and I'll be going back to work on Monday. So I suppose everything is back to "normal".

.....

We had a lot of fun at Palawan this past week. There were some minor setbacks (like the travel agency did not inform the hotel shuttle that we were arriving but fortunately when we arrived at the airport there were other passengers booked at the same hotel so we hitched a ride) but other than those, it was still a pleasant and wonderful experience.

We arrived at Busuanga around 1020 in the morning. We had to take a 45-minute ride to Coron where the city proper was located. Along the way there was nothing but grasslands, mountains in the background, cows, and ranches. Reminded me of the outback (seen from movies of course). We got to the hotel and after a few minutes of waiting our room was ready. We rested for a bit and then had lunch. Since we slept pretty late the night before, we all took a refreshing nap to prepare ourselves for the afternoon tour.

We started at 4pm. You'd think it was pretty late but it was hot that day. We went around the city (running tour) and realized how tiny it was. We saw the dock, the Catholic church (only one), the public market, the plaza and the city hall. We then proceeded to the foot of Mt. Tapyas, the tallest hill/mountain in the island. We had to climb 724 (or is it 726?) steps to get to the top. It was such a relief to finally get to the view deck after pausing every other flight of stairs to catch our breath. The view on the top was spectacular. Really great to see the water, the islands scattered about with the sun setting behind pale blue clouds. We asked our guide to take our photo with the huge cross in the background. It turned out great!

After going down Mt. Tapyas, our next stop was Maquinit Hot Springs, which was around 15 minutes away. We got there at dusk. It felt sooo good soaking our tired muscles in the hot water but Ethan kept on yelling "OWWW! OW! OWWWWW!" everytime he tried to put a toe into the water. *roll eyes* Well, it was pretty hot. I read that the temperature of the water ranges from 38 - 40 degrees C. I guess that's why it's named Maquinit (which means "hot"). Hmmmm... I smell a redundancy there... (Maquinit HOT Springs?) Anyway, I also read that the entrance fee is P100 per person but our tour package covered that as well as dinner that night. We stayed for a couple of hours then we headed back to the hotel to prepare for the next day.

second day report continues tomorrow... :D