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| Malcapuya Island |
After putting up Part I of the Coron, Palawan adventure, now I am obliged to finish Part II and conclude the whole experience. Our first Island Tour was arranged by Coron Galeri, but we seemed to be looking for something that wasn't there. So our next Island tour, we asked the GLC attendant if they have a boat contact and he gave us Ms. Joy. She and family owned a motorized banca used for island hopping.
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| Bulog Dos Island |
For the usual near places and beaches visited by tourists like Kayangan Lake, Atwayan Beach, Coral Garden, Barracuda Lake, Twin Lagoon, Japanese Shipwreck, Siete Pecados, Twin Peaks Reef, CYC Island, Smith Beach, etc., they will lend the boat with a boatman for Php1,500, although you may need to pick the nicer places since you cannot cover everything in one tour and be able to enjoy them at the same time. However for further places like Malcapuya Island, Banana Island and Bulog II (Bulog Dos), that's Php3,000 for the boat rent.
Anyway, let's get the ball rolling ang start where we left off.
Day 4/June 10: Malcapuya Island, Banana Island, Bulog Dos Island, Japanese Shipwreck and Barracuda Lake
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| Malcapuya Island |
After our first island hopping and Mt. Tapyas trek on Day 3, we geared up for an island hopping to the beaches they compare to the famous Boracay Beach in Caticlan.
We rented the boat for Php3000 for the day and arranged to meet with Joy at the market at 7am to buy some foodstuff for our lunch, which our boatman will cook in time. The prices were reasonably okay. We bought some pork belly for Php150, pork chop for Php100, fish for Php90 and some allium vegetables for Php42. We gave Php200 to Ms. Joy a night before to prepare for our rice, water, soft drinks and charcoal for grilling.
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| Malcapuya Island
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Our trip started at around 8:30AM. We were ready at 8:00am, unfortunately, I forgot my cam at the lodging house so Labsy needed to get it back. So, before leaving town, make sure you check the things you will need in the trip, it's gonna take a lot of time wasted if you are already in the middle of the trip and remembered what you left. Make a checklist if you need to.
Our first stop is at Malcapuya Island. It took us almost 2 hours to reach the island. It was a long stretch of white sand and a nice rock formation at each side.
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| Malcapuya Island
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We strolled the whole beach line and captured how we enjoyed our moments in the island. While we took some time wandering around, our boatman (Joy's husband), prepared our lunch. We bought some pork belly, pork chops and a large fish (sadly I forgot what it's called), which was superbly delicious after it was grilled.
We took our overly satisfying lunch in the island and had a good swim at the very much undeniably inviting water after. Then we prepared to leave, paid our bill, which was Php200 each for the entrance fee and Php100 for the cottage we used.
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| Banana Island |
Our second stopover was at Banana Island, which took us just about 10 minutes to get to. Our boatman was concerned about our group's expenses, since if we visit the island, we'll have to pay another Php200 per pax for the entrance fee and we might not stay long enough to get completely enjoy ourselves, but we went anyway. And just before we land, we were already consumed with the beauty of the island and paying Php200 was worth the visit.
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| Banana Island
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The island has a nice side curve that uniquely gave away a nice spot to hang out and have an overwhelming game of "catch me if you can" with your company. We asked our boatman why was the island named Banana, and he said because if you look at it from the top, it formed a Banana-like shape. On the other hand, we were kind of looking for some banana tree within the resort to justify the name, and indeed we found two growing banana trees, still in their adolescent stage. :)
We spent a few minutes in the island and then off we went to the nearby island, Bulog Dos, which is also owned by the owner of Banana Island. Thus, we paid Php250 before leaving Banana Island, that is Php200 for Banana Island and Php50 for the Bulog Dos entrance fees.
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| Bulog Dos Island |
Bulog Dos is a small island, where you can enjoy swimming on all sides of the island, somehow it felt like a sand bar. It also goes without saying that you should not go there without your sunblock, there ain't no shade to cover from the UV rays. We stayed there for a few minutes, we tried to go around the island, but with the tide rising and with the considerations of our equipment, we just swam nearby.
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| Bulog Dos Island
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After Bulog Dos, we went for a little scary ride back to the beaches nearer Coron town. The waves were kind of going a little crazy, we had goosebumps. But hey, despite the crazy waves and all, we ate our leftovers during lunch, while on board a dancing boat. What can I say, we were hungry after those swimming and jumping and having so much fun in those islands. Then a
fter about an hour or so, we reached the location of the Japanese shipwreck, the waves were friendlier and we were full again. :D
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| Skeleton Shipwreck |
We were about 20 meters from the nearest shore and so we thought, we won't be paying another fee while snorkeling in searched for a view of the Japanese shipwreck. But nope! There was a collector, on his own little boat, rowing as he gets nearer the boats on standby waiting for their passengers enjoying the waters. Only three of us went down, Labsy, Nonots and I. Helen stayed in the boat, so we only have to pay Php300 for all three of us. "Again?", we said, and we thought Hundred Islands is somewhere in Pangasinan. There are new versions of Hundred Islands in Palawan, because every island you visit, you need to pay at least Php100. ;) So, that's why the nickname (some visitors call Coron, Hundred Islands).
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| Skeleton Shipwreck
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Anyway, the water was not clear enough to get a view of the shipwreck, so after a few moments of snorkeling and some fish feeding, we went on to our last destination, the Barracuda Lake. After our experience a day before with Kayangan Lake's trek, we imagined the same. When we arrived at the landing area, we prepared ourselves for another trek, but our boatman said, it's not as tricky as Kayangan Lake's. So, we went on, and indeed we found a few steps of a wooden ladder going up and then another few steps going down, and wallah! We have arrived at the famous Barracuda Lake.
We put on our life vest and off we go for a little swim.
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| Barracuda Lake |
Barracuda Lake was a nice place. The water was clear, that we can see the rock formation going down to the bottom of the lake. We also saw a big colorful fish, that some visitors tried to pursue. But of course, the fish was fast and it can breath underwater, so it was effortless to avoid human disturbances. :)
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| Barracuda Lake
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We were a bit worried that the wind might go crazy later again, since it's already past 5:00PM, so we started to move out and head to our boat. And of course, paid another Php100 each (php400) for the fee of visiting the place.
After a full island hopping day, we went back to GLC lodging house, get freshen and warmed up and went out again to look for a nice place to dine.
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| Barracuda Lake
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After much thought and discussions, we ended dinning at Coron Edge Restobar again. We had sizzling mixed seafood (again for Php215), hot and spicy squid, nosi goring rice for Php160, which we all love so much but we also ask for a couple of plain rice (php20 each) to mixed with it, sweet and sour lapu-lapu (Php 75/100g minimum of 300g) and bottomless iced tea for a total of Php 1,010.00.
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| Coron Edge Restobar |
The food were delicious, but right after we finished all of them, we saw a plastic covering within the plate of one of the viand we had. We asked what was that and the waiter said it was a hot sauce cover. We told them to check their food and be careful next time. I'm not sure if they've thought about it though, they didn't seem concerned.
After some good food, nice ambiance and quiet surroundings, we head back to our place and laughed out loud while viewing our pictures and the places we visited.
Day 5/June 11: Siete Pecados and Smith Beach
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| Siete Pecados |
On our day 5, we had friends who wanted to visit Coron's Safari, and invited us to join them. The four of us then talked and decided to decline. One consideration is, if we are joining them, we need to wake up and start the road trip by 4:00AM, since it's a long way up the northern part of the island, about 3 hours away, then another few minutes of boat ride to the Calauit Island where the Safari Park is located. The early trip is necessary to arrived there on time for the feeding of the animals.
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| Siete Pecados
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According to our friends, the place was nice, they enjoyed their hands-on feeding experience with the giraffes and live encounter with the zebras. It was evident they had so much fun in the island, as I saw their faces in their pictures, in full smiles but showing a little bit scared and giggling like they were tickled. It was amusing.
Since, we did not join them and at the start of this vacation, we wished to have a lazy day in the beach, that's what we did.
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| Siete Pecados
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In all the famous places we visited, we skipped the Siete Pecados, so before going for a lazy day, we requested our boatman to take us to Siete Pecados. The boat fee was Php 1,500 and this is for the whole day including cooking lunch for us. Of course, we passed by the market place to buy some big squid, pork and fish for grilling later. We also bought some soda/soft drinks and water. We have already requested Ms. Joy to prepare a cooked rice for us, we paid Php100 for the rice, uling and a 1.5L soft drink.
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| Siete Pecados
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So, our first stop for day 5 was Siete Pecados. We heard good and not so good comments in the place, but we went anyway. It turned out, it was the place we had the best experience and play with the fishes in the island. They said fish feeding has been disallowed in the island, since there was one tourist who was wounded by a swordfish. Well, we knew about it after we already gave a few sliced bread to and played with them.
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| Smith Beach |
The fishes were indeed very friendly, and I guess super hungry too, they would surround you and so our underwater cam got nice pictures under with or without our faces in it. It was so far, the best fish encounter experience ever. After playing with the fish, we swam around the place and awed with the corals underwater. Although I would say, best coral gardens we visited were in Samal Island, Camiguin and Puerto Galera.
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| Smith Beach
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After our Siete Pecados stopover, we passed by Calachuchi Beach to check if it's nice to spend the lazy day there. We did not get too close because we might pay another Php100 and we aren't sure yet if we were staying. Well, we decided to move on and went to Smith Beach and decided to start the lazy day in Coron. We arrived around 10AM in the island and stayed there until about 5PM in the afternoon. The sand was white, water was clear and wavy, we had so much fun swimming and playing with the water and of course, picture taking and enjoying each other's company.
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| Smith Beach
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In the middle of the day, it rained which offered a great time to swim, because the sun rays weren't too painful for our skin. We ate our lunch, rested for a bit and went back to the sea, sun and sand. We had quite a wonderful lazy day in Smith Beach, Coron.
Our lazy day ended but the memories linger.
We were tired, but we had the best day, so, when we reached GLC, we agreed to stay for dinner, cooked some rice and just buy some canned goods from a nearby store, consumed them graciously and then we called it a day...
Day 6/June 12: Downtown Food Trip
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| Centro Coron Restaurant |
Labsy and mine's Day 2 in Coron was more of familiarization of the town, but we didn't really get a chance to roam around town's food offering establishments. So on our supposedly last day before our flight date, we intended to do some food trip.
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| Ice Valley |
We started with brunch at Centro Coron, which is famous with their goat delicacies and miso soup. If I am to rate, the food we had were more expensive for their taste, but it compensated by the quantity of servings, which were more than we expected. The service was also okay, the crew were sensitive to our needs. Unfortunately, the turn-off of the place were the flies, big flies flying in front of us and around our food. The owner, who noticed us being very disturbed by the flies, approached us and told us that during rainy days, flies are also abundant in the area. So, after feeling full, we asked the crew to packed our leftovers, then we readily looked for a place to transfer, away from the flies.
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| Ice Valley
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Although it was raining then, we wanted to eat something cold, so we moved to a nearby location we noticed earlier, Ice Valley. We were so excited to order, since we thought of it like Ice Giant, an establishment in Davao, where getting sweet and cold delicious edibles is effortless. Well, with Ice Valley in Coron, we ate some ice, which have some fruits and chips on top. We initially thought that there would be some ice cream at the bottom, but, we were pretty much disappointed. :( But hey, it was a place that shielded us from the rain, the sun and the flies in that warm and wet fly-full afternoon, so hurray to Ice Valley still. ;)
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| Coron Sign |
After brunch and dessert, we went to visit San Agustin church again to pray and thanked God for a safe and fruitful stay in the island. On our way back to our temporary home, we passed by Coron Souvenir shop and bought some t-shirts, refrigerator magnets, key chains and cashew nuts (Coron's known product). Then we went home to rest and waited for the rain to stop.
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| Coron Sign
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When the rain finally stopped, we went out again and requested the tricycle we hailed to take us to the Coron version of Hollywood sign like near the PAG-ASA office. It was quite near from GLC so we reached the foot of the slope/hill in less than 3 minutes. We started to walk our way up until we reached the Coron sign and then looked for a perfect place for the camera to take our pictures from.
After taking some pictures and moving around the grassy-sloppy location, we started to walk our way back home just in time when the streets started to dark and the rain started to fall again.
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| Coron Sign
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After a little climb to the Coron sign, we freshened up and went out to look for some seafood for dinner. We went to another known restaurant named La Sirenetta and ask if they have available shrimps and crabs, unfortunately, they don't have anymore. They suggested a nearby restaurant Bistro Coron and so we went. We wanted to order food to go but their crew said, the only food allowed for take out are the pizzas. Since plastics are not allowed in Coron, they don't have proper container for the food unless we would bring one. So we ended up ordering a 16-inch pizza to go.
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| Bistro Coron |
After waiting for a few minutes, we had our pizza to take with us back to our lodging house. We still have some leftovers from our food earlier from Centro Coron, so we just cooked some rice (Did I mention we brought a little rice cooker? well, we did. For times like that, when we're too tired to stay in a restaurant and the weather wasn't cooperating, the rice cooker was handy.). So we had fresh cooked rice, some caldereta and soup leftovers and pizza for dessert and then we felt thankful to Coron...
Day 7/June13: Going Home
It was the day the we were suppose to go home to Davao City but some very unfortunate event happened. The weather wasn't cooperating, the airline sucked and we were too disappointed to describe the rest that happened. So for Day 7 and Day 8 happenings, please visit http://donandji.blogspot.com/2012/06/airline-worst-service.html.
Conclusion:
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| Mt. Tapyas |
The vacation ended with some hassles but we enjoyed Coron as much as we could. For those asking which nature adventure was better between our Puerto - El Nido and Coron getaway, there were highs and lows on both sides, but I appreciated more the Puerto - El Nido journey. But in general, I am more than glad and happy to have been to both sides of Palawan. The island is more than what the word amazing can make any of us imagine. So, grab those lazy butts, put some adventure spirit and get high with nature's wonders! Best high feeling ever! Believe me! Never fails.
Summary:
Boat Rentals - Php 1,500 and Php 3,000
Food during Island Hopping - Php 500-Php700 for 4 pax
Coron Edge dinner for 4 - Php1,010 (Sizzling mixed sea food, hot spicy squid, nosi goring and plain rice, sweet and sour lapu-lapu and bottomless iced tea)
Entrance Fees:
Malcapuya Island - Php200
Banana Island - Php200
Bulog Dos Island - Php50
Skeleton Shipwrek - Php100
Barracuda Lake - Php100
Beach 91 - Php100
Banol Beach - Php100
Smith Beach - Php100
Siete Pecados - Php100
Calachuchi Beach - Php100
Links:
Manila - Puerto - El Nido Adventure
1. http://donandji.blogspot.com/2011/03/manila-puerto-nido-01-manila-manila.html
2. http://donandji.blogspot.com/2011/03/manila-puerto-nido-02-birthday-prince.html
3. http://donandji.blogspot.com/2011/04/manila-puerto-nido-03-el-nido-palawan.html
4. http://donandji.blogspot.com/2011/04/manila-puerto-nido-04-4th-anniversary.html
Manila-Coron
1. http://donandji.blogspot.com/2012/07/2012-06-coron-palawan-vacay-part-i.html
2. http://donandji.blogspot.com/2012/06/airline-worst-service.html
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