This trip was accidentally planned due to the overwhelming piso-fare of Cebu Pacific somewhere in September 2010. The initiative started with two people (me and my best buddy at work) then the plan spread like a malignant disease that made the company counts to 15 pax..wow!!
Upon research, I found that Coron is a second class municipality in the province of Palawan. Few people are familiar with this municipality in Palawan compared to the prominent tourist destinations Puerto Princesa and El Nido. It has a number of lakes, famous one is the Kayangan Lake, a number of white beaches, aquamarine park and many more sites that made up my surprises.
And so we were booked! Next action is to find an affordable resort that will suit our super tight budget. My best buddy took charge of finding the resort while I took charge with the itinerary and room assignments of our 15 pax company. Fortunately, we found a very good deal with the Darayonan Lodge just right at the downtown of Coron, Palawan. Our package includes 2 nights and 3 days superior quad room-sharing accomodation, full board meals for 3 days, transfers from/to airport and tour for 2 days.
going to our plane
busuanga airport
There's no wasting of time, we headed straight to our itinerary..the start of our Coron adventure, yeyy! Our first day was a combination of snorkeling, trekking, swimming, spa and just having fun! Sites we completed that day are the Twin Lagoon, 91 Beach where we took our first picnic lunch, Banol island that is great for its very fine white sands, the 7 islands marine reserves good for snorkeling and the surprising part is the Maquinit Hot Spring. This spring has an unbelievable hot water! one is very lucky to last 30 minutes soaking or else you'll get all the weakness your body can feel.
Our sumptuous lunch from the lodge consist of seafoods (yummy crabs) which I do not eat because I'm allergic, unfortunately..We also had other viands such as meat, chicken, vegetables, fruits and drinks..that is so much for a budget meal. Big thanks to Darayonan!
Reaching the Twin Lagoon, it was unfortunately on high tides. kayaking is not advisable during that time, but we managed to cross the hole between the rocks by our floating life jackets..It was scary at first but it was a lot of fun in the end.
This is what I was saying..surprisingly, the water seems as hot as it sounds (Maquinit sound like "mainit"). The feeling is like when you first soak, the water feels like in its near boiling point then it cools down a bit but the feeling of warmness stays as long as you are soak down..People with hypertensions, heart ailments, rheumatism are not advisable to soak or swim in this spring because of health implications, if you know what I actually mean.
Come night time, we were bored at the lodge so we decided to have a stroll downtown Coron and dine outside.
The lodge has a complimentary Bar where they serve beers and other happy hour food. We managed to drink some liquors that night to have a good night sleep.
2nd Day
Very early the next day, we opted to trek the Mt. Tapyas. The trek took us 30 minutes to reach the top..whew! more than 650 steps up--what a height! I remember the more than 400-steps we took when we trek Mt. Tabgon in Caramoan, Cam. Sur. Atop the mountain is the gigantic Cross of Jesus Christ and the breathtaking view of the whole Coron Island. By the way, this site was not included in our package but we managed to include it in our own activities during the day.
We had to head back to the lodge through these trikes to prepare for our 2nd day island tour and for our next sumptuous breakfast waiting back there. Breakfast served were the typical Pinoy choices of tapsilog, tocilog, consilog, hotsilog and bangus silog..yumyum!
Alas..our second day island tour...we started our unbelievable trek to reach Kayangan Lake. What's funny was we were trekking with our life vest on with our swimming attires, not really knowing that it's a lot of rough walking and climbing, thank you very much to our kind tour guide: )
and here it is..the view of the Kayangan Lake from the top
And we're almost there..almost!! excited to soak deep in the water, it's so effin' hot walking all through out the hours!
Next stop, the CYC Beach. We took our lunch (again), swam til' our hearts contents and just enjoyed the picturesque view of the long strands of white sands and clear blue sea.
Of course we do not want to miss the Siete Pecados, the best snorkel site in Coron. This is where I first experienced seeing lots of fishes and corals under the sea. We went around 1pm in this site and luckily it was high tide and we just had a great time!
Exactly 5pm when we end our tour, head back to the town proper and have a good rest. To maximize our spare time before sunset, we had a walk downtown to buy souvenirs and find a good place to dine in.
The restaurant's name is so funny.."Pinili Ko Restaurant" when literally translated in english means "I Chose Restaurant" hahaha! nice idea there!
3rd and Last Day
Very early just before breakfast is served, I decided to go to the harbor center and have some walk and witness the sunrise and take some snaps.
Along the way to Busuanga airpport, we were blocked by the cattles and they looked sadly malnourished:-)
Our last souvenir pic at Busuanga (Coron) Airport.
Happy Trip!