Coron, Palawan April '08: an accounting

going to coron was actually not a part of my itinerary for the year. but then the gang immediately decided to hit the beach and not waste the summer. after schedules were compared, the people realized that the best date with everyone available would be the weekend on the fortnight. waw...2 weeks planning lang!?!?

plane and ferry fares were compared. it ended with the people booking at asian spirit (there were only 2 airlines taking the coron route, cebupac wasn't one of them. the other airline was seair. we took asian spirit since they were cheaper and they had budget trips for those days. airfare to coron; one-way: Php2050. time: 7:20am)

on the day we were leaving, i was the first one at the airport. EDSA didn't have traffic at 5am.

we boarded the 50-seater plane. the ride was warm, bumpy, and sometimes nauseating. i surmised that the slightest winds seemed to shake the small plane. it was then i concluded that i hated small aircrafts. but heck, it got us to coron in one piece.

from the coron airport, we took an asian spirit jeepney. 'twas quite a long ride before one could see residential houses. the jeepney brought us directly to our resort, the village lodge, which was directly beside the darayonan lodge. (asian spirit jeep fare:Php150)rent at the village lodge was per day. don't remember the rates but we occupied 2 rooms. there were 7 of us and i had to pay Php920 for our 3-day stay (roughly 366php per day per person in our group). lunch was at the lodge as well. their one serving could be shared by 3 people. quite cheap since one viand only costs around 100php. place was interesting. one would see a bar room at the top of their restaurant. this room would be filled with photos of musician bob marley, reggae tokens, and framed pictures depicting the different moods of nature.





day1: island hop 1
that afternoon was spent island hopping. we rented a boat so we were only asked to cover php2100 (php300 each in the group) since we only started after lunch.

kayangan lake
first stop was the island where kayangan lake (entrance fee:200php) was located. a little trekking was required. one would then have to bring mask, snorkel, life vest, and water along. there are no vendors in the area. the same path had to be taken when leaving kayangan lake.
















barracuda lake
then it was barracuda lake, on the other side of the same island (entrance fee:75php). one would experience climbing limestones on this area.





















twin lagoons
no entrance fee for this one. visitors will just stay on their boats and either dive or snorkel.









banol beach
and then, sunset was at banol beach (entrance:100php)








day 2: island hop 2

the following day, we rented the same boat. cost on our pockets was around 590php each for renting the boat that round. we initially bought fish, rice, red eggs and tomatoes, uling, and other stuff for lunch from the market. we then headed on to our first island for the day, calumbayan island. it was the farthest we had to travel. we passed by mangroves and large jellyfishes. took us nearly 2hrs. we reached the place by lunch time. (entrance: 100php). on the island, our boat men cooked the fish we bought earlier from the market. sumptuous..terrific..excellent..one of the best meals i had since i skipped 2 meals previously.


from calumbayan, we then headed to lusong wreck. lakas ng alon we decided to head on to the coral garden nearby instead. heading on to our last stop, we passed by pearl farms and floating guardhouses along the way. final stop was the gunboat wreck.

day 3: tour of coron proper

by the 3rd day, i was not feeling well so had to pass up the dive kr and jeo went to. jub, mylene, mark, and i decided to rent a tricycle instead and explore the coron town proper. we then headed to the Mabentanga (?) dam, did a little trek, visited PSU-coron, explored lita escarda's coron harvest kasuy and met lita herself, and bought some things at a souveneir shop. we waited for sunset at mt tapyas. by 9pm, we were on our way to the pier readying ourselves for an overnight superferry ride back to manila (superferry ride:1395php, economy (non-aircon).recommended to book 3 weeks in advance so you can get the traveller's accommodation which would have the same price as economy. otherwise, the prices begin to vary for the economy (non-aircon), economy (aircon), and traveller, if you start booking within 2 weeks before your travel date.)

love coron.



thanks to jeo, jub, and kr for the pics.