MY TRIP: CORON, Palawan

SUNRISE IN CORON

After having slept for 6 hours on the tourist room that we just upgraded on ferry and 12 hours sailed with Superferry, finally we arrived in Coron. We were welcomed by 2 representatives from Darayonan who led us to our trycicles.

It only took 10 minutes to reach the hotel. We checked in and counted money which we found it quite confusing at that time L Anyway, everything, eventually, was solved. Our picture in front of our room

Minutes after finishing a home-cooking food rice, side-sun-up-egg, and tapa, we jumped into a tricycle. We had a-three-minute ride and arrived at Coron pier, next to it was a small traditional market. Since we joined the tour, we did not have to rent a boat. A quite big boat was already there waiting for us. While waiting for our friends, Feas and Yom who were buying sun-miguel, we

were using the time by taking doing our favorite things, “taking pictures” of course.

Some pictures on the way to kayangan lake

CORON TRIP MEMBERS :)

After that, we headed to Kayangan Lake, or sometimes referred to as the Blue Lagoon.

Before we could see it, we had to climb first. It had 150+ steps in a steep (based on the article I read) I did not know exactly if those were the right number. One thing for sure, I felt tired climbing it J. There are branch railings that I found it really helpful to steady myself. The way to Kayangan lake might be difficult but it is worthy when you see its beauty.

Reaching it after the climb, one is instantly ready to strip off your clothes and snorkeled into clear water. The water tasted a bit salty.

Depending on the sunlight, parts of the lake are stunningly blue and really clear, almost identical to the saltwater blue on the other side of the climb; therefore they lagoon was also known as the blue lagoon. Although the lake was deep, you could see some sharp stones stand under the blue-clear-water. It looked like rocky mountain under the see. Thus, we had to be careful if we would like to take a rest on one of the rocks because it might hurt your feet, hand or even tear your swimming suit. We tried to swim circling the lake but we only saw few "bule" just swan passing us and heading to the pier of the lake. Knowing there were only 5 of use trying to go around the lake, we decided to go back. Since I did not wear a life-jacket I swam a head.

After swimming in Kayangan lake :)

From Kayangan Lake we had lunch in 91 Beach. Our guide prepared some food which tasted quite nice after having a tiring swimming. Just like our ritual for every trip, taking picture as many as we can in every spot we found nice.

Here you go, one of the pictures oh yah I guess you all need to see this one too. This girl had attracted all the men and surprisingly she was willing to take pictures with every man of our group. (picture will be displayed later )

After lunch, we continued our trip to the twin lagoon. At first we did not know why it was called twin lagoon but then we realized it when we had to literally swim under some rocks to get to the second lagoon. Thus, the two lagoons were separated by a wall of rock. During low tide, there would be an opening at the base of the cliff which enabled swimmers to cross to the other lagoon.

Once again we had to be careful not to touch the stone when we passed the opening to go to another lagoon. Our guide said, there were animals on the rock and they might make our skin itchy or hurt. The second lagoon was surrounded by jagged limestone cliffs, crystal clear water in several hues of blue, the greenery were all amazingly beautiful as well as scary.

Moreover, we could not find any stones to hold on too when we were tired. The stone that finally we found after swimming for about half of the lagoon width was sharp and some of us felt something wrong with the place so we did not spend much time there.

The fourth place we visited was Siete Pecados. It was a cluster of seven small islands. “According to legend, seven sisters went swimming against their mother’s wishes. As a consequence they all drowned and afterwards, seven small islands sprouted from the sea” (darayonan ) We had a great snorkeling there. The corals are really beautiful. It looked like a colorful garden but of course this garden was under water J

The fifth place or the last place we went to was Maquinit Hot Springs. It had a temperature ranging from 38 to 41 degrees Celsius. If you opened Darayonan’s site you could read that Maquinit’s waters are very relaxing and therapeutical but It was just a big ugly pool. We thought it was not a real hot spring. We tried to look for where they put the gas or the tool that made the water hot. Inside the pool, algae grew on all walls. I personally did not like this place. However, we still took some pictures with big smiles.

Second day in Coron

We started our trip on Easter day by having a holy journey to Mount Tapyas at 5.30am, just like other holy journey, the task it is not easy especially for me. I just hate climbingL. We had to climb 700 steps to reach the top of the mountain; however, although it was difficult, I was so thankful to be able to see a magnificent view which I had never imagined before.

the cross on the top of the mountain. This cross could be seen when you arrived in Coron. Thus, we had seen it when our ferry arrived at Coron. Since we arrived in the morning so we were able to see the cross’ light. The cross would welcome you with its dim light from a distance.

Climbing down after seeing the view from the top and taking some pictures was not difficult as climbing up. Some pictures from Tapyas

This was what we could see from the top of the Tapyas :) what a wonderful scenery , made my Easter nicer and happier :)

After having our second breakfast in Darayonana hotel, we thought we were heading to the market first before playing water. However, we were wrong. Our guide brought us to Baraccuda lake. (the Baraccuda lake was behind that limestone-mountain) I got a very hard time climbing the sharp lime stones just to get to the lake. The supposed to be 10 minutes climb seemed to be the longest and terrifying moment of my life. Without any help from Rizki and other friends who kept cheering up ‘common, you can do it’, I might have dragged myself back to the boat and waited there all alone. Our picture when we had struggled climbing The lake itself was beautiful. We saw two divers swimming but we could see no barracuda, a big fish which according to some article lived there.

Similar to our first day in Coron, we had lunch on Bihol beach ( I hope it was the correct name I forgot :P), another white beach in Coron

After having lunch, our boat sailed and brought us to see the shipwreck. The shipwreck was scary. Rizki and Pi Pom were scared when they found out that they were swimming exactly above the shipwreck. The ship itself was as big as our boat so it should have been called a boatwreck instead of a shipwreck hhehehheh. Then we headed to coral garden from the shipwreck. There, we got another exciting snorkeling time. The corals were beautiful but when we looked to the left side of our boat we could see a very deep cliff (don’t know what to call it) under the water. I would not forget that I carried Nadia swimming to see the coral and found out that we swam toward Feas who was peeing that time (yuck). Oh yah Rizki and Pi Pom swam very fast to the boat after seeing on of our guides flushed the toilet.

Taken near the shipwreck

We closed our trip in Coron by shopping. There were no nice shops in Coron. We could find a quite big shop not far from our hotel. Oh yah we also shopped in a small shop in

front of our hotel.

After shopping, we took few pictures in front and inside our hotel.

Then we got our last dinner and then we headed to the port at 8 pm (too early). There was a blackout when we arrived at the port just like the day before too. We could not use the aircon since there was also a blackout.

HERE are some pictures that we took on the ferry and Coron :)