island hopping in coron, palawan

i had gone through a turmoil several days before my trip to coron in december of last year, and it was a turmoil that is most feared by anyone -- flight reschedules. to put it bluntly, it disheveled my plans like a brat kid would do to neatly arranged things.

why did flight reschedules affect me like an upfront blow on my face? because in order not to feel the high expense of plane fares in a single time, i booked some of my plane tickets at the first quarter of the year. it turned out that early birds caught worms in poor quality. the airline had probably done some brainstorming to prepare for the infamous doomsday and had come up with entirely new flight schedules, even new flight codes at that!

end of rant.

so, breinn and i only had one full day in coron and we had to do the island hopping on that very day or else, i would throw bad fits and a ludicrous tantrum! heavens must have seen that coming and with how it would create a very inappropriate scene, a last minute island hopping booking and good weather were then in order for us. i couldn't be happier.

philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands and you could just imagine the amount of seas that surround us. i have lived in an island myself, where the nearest coast is less than an hour away. yet when i'm seeing this kind of view, time and again, it leaves me breathless! and i won't surely be trading the serenity that i feel with a fun indoors. i won't judge you if you do. but seriously? like for real? :P

breinn and i were up promptly and we then made our way to coron galeri where we made our island hopping reservation the day before. we actually made the call with them while in transit from the airport to coron town. the network signal was a little bit choppy that time and with how paranoid i was, we just had to get ourselves to their office early in the day and had to make sure that we had our reservation.

it proved to be that there was nothing to worry about and all worries, angst, frustration and whatever emotional trash i had, must rightfully be thrown away to the winds!

at around 9 in the morning and with the sun already in its glistening glory, we finally started our boat tour among other local tourists and a trio of young british tourists. then, off we went!

our first stop was the CYC island where the surrounding waters was crystal clear and the powdery white sands topped off our paradise-like experience. while in the boat, we could very well see the blue gradient sea; the turquoise color near the shores and in darker hue further away. (see first photo) nature's version was just incomparable!

a few in our boat went for snorkeling while breinn and i languidly walked in knee-depth waters towards the island. with a scenery like this, there shouldn't be no rush and just keep your pace slow to take it all in (said the wimpy kinds who were afraid to swim in deep areas with strong current. haha).

after the island, our motorized boat adeptly cruised through the rough seas until we got to our second stop, the twin peaks. we were even drenched inside the boat and the splash of water was seemingly vengeful on us! here comes again another set of strangers invading our territory, said the palawan waters. sorry to disappoint you palawan waters, we actually didn't mind for we were at sea after all and not getting wet would be too diva.

we didn't dock ashore and we just settled from afar to mesmerize on these twin peaks. again, snorkeling was the main activity here and the british guy was ecstatic when he was able to take a photo of a clownfish after his amazing free dive. sigh. i wish i could free dive (in my dreams).

as it was already nearing lunchtime, our next stop was of course, lunch! lunching in one of the islands. ahhh... how can it be more idyllic than that?

before we went to the shore, the boatmen told as to frolic first at the calachuchi coral eden which was right in front of the small beach above. breinn was close to being euphoric when he saw the diverse marine life during his quick snorkeling. as for me, i was probably more excited about food that time. haha

our lunch was nothing fancy but imagining the fresh seafood now is enough to make my mouth water. we occupied one of the two huts in the beach and for awhile, we felt like living an island life with our food spread on a bamboo table where all of us feasted.

after our lunch, we continued to our next stop which was the kayangan lake. we definitely needed what we had devoured for the challenging climb to get to the lake. the pathway was a rugged terrain with slabs of solid rocks as steps and we only had the shabby wooden rail to hold on to. if i could turn into a 10-year old child again, maybe i could race up this hill in a heartbeat!

our exhaustion was then rewarded with this view! this was still not the kayangan lake but those huge karsts turned this body of water into a small cove. this particular scenery is actually one of the most photographed spots in coron and to set our photo apart from the rest, we aptly included ourselves! haha to each his own, you know. :P

one thing i can remember about the words i gasped that time, was it was exactly how i saw it in pictures!

when we managed to catch our breath after the stunning view, we made our descent down the opposite side of the hill to reach the kayangan lake. our group was the first one to arrive and for quite some time, we had the enthralling lake to ourselves. when other tourists arrived, that was then our cue to leave, giving them a chance at least. :D

the lake was probably very deep because when one of our boatmen dived into the water in order to reach the bottom, he was gone for quite awhile. i didn't want to know what's down below for it definitely gave me the creeps.

coron has actually a number of lakes and one of them is called barracuda lake where there is said to be barracudas living in that body of freshwater. 

our last stop was the hidden lagoon where the freshwater met the seawater. the union made the water cloudy with warm temperature at the bottom and cold on top. it felt like there's someone who peed. yikes!

--

at Php650 per person, the coron island ultimate tour was ultimately worth it. i just can't help using its name. haha it was suited for us since we didn't mind joining a tour with fellow tourists and besides, we were not too many and it's cheap!

although one thing i should say that can be better is i hope the boatmen can be more engaging like shortly introducing to tourists about the stops and some tidbits, maybe. but anyway, somehow the scenic view makes up for it.

Calamianes Expeditions Ecotours
http://www.corongaleri.com.ph/

o-O