Cruising Coron

Departing the ferry from El Nido we arrive in Coron Town Proper on Busuanga Island, not Coron Island that’s the island opposite, but we are in the Palawan region that El Nido is also in. Confused? Imagine trying to plan this from the other side of the world! Anyway we are here now and we’ve found the right place this time. We’re slapped with a 400 pisos “environmental fee” in the ferry port, who knows where this money actually goes. It certainly doesn’t seem to go towards litter collection as they claim.

Leaving the ferry terminal we walk past a long line of tuk tuks, or chariots as they’re called out here. The locals seem perplexed that we have chosen to walk to our accommodation in the heat of the day, instead of taking the easier option they offer like 95% of our fellow passengers have taken. Our walk ends with a steep and long incline with Alex protesting “it’s not all the way up there is it?” Yes it is, time to work those leg muscles.

We arrive dripping with sweat at INA homestay and are shown to our room. It’s like walking into a freezer with the air con seemingly being on full blast all day. Although we’re quite peckish we decide to cool/wash off in the swimming pool first. Walking through the beautiful gardens of the homestay we’re viciously attacked by Lucy the tiny puppy the owners are raising. “Sorry she can be a little crazy” the workers say as we’re mauled by her tiny teeth and she tries to undo our shoelaces. Two glorious golden retrievers enter the fray and are more interested in strokes and cuddles than any violence.

The pool is 1.8m deep so I enter the only way I know how from all the scuba diving, and take a Giant Stride into the refreshing water.

We change into fresh clothes and head downhill into Coron Town for an explore and a bite to eat. We get dinner at Three Maria’s, local food is their speciality and I get the delicious Kare Kare pork in peanut sauce while Alex goes for a huge plate of noodles and meat intended for two people. We question if one of the ingredients in her dish is intestines or mushroom, luckily it’s the latter and it’s very tasty too. After dinner we have a wander around town and I spot a craft beer brew house opposite a nice looking Japanese restaurant, one for another night. We pass through the town’s sports center where locals are enjoying games of volleyball and basketball.

Seven Deadly Fins

The next morning we’re conscious our time in the Philippines is running out and Coron is our final stop. We must make the most of our time here! A morning of planning ensues and Alex asks Peter the homestay owner for some local tips. We take lunch at a roadside cafe and hire ourselves a scooter for the afternoon. It’s a 125CC engine, only a slight upgrade from James Theo in San Vicente, but it looks about twice as big, seems brand new and has rollbars too, I’m a bit nervous to drive it.

Our first destination is Bali Beach where we’ll rent a vessel to take us to the Siete Pecados (Seven Sins) snorkelling site. Another bumpy ride along something resembling a road and we arrive at our destination. I’m not sure which part of my driving triggers it but Alex decides now is the time to say we need our health insurance details handy in case we have an accident!

At Bali Beach, we speak to the owner who advises us it’s too windy to take a boat out so we will have do it the hard way and kayak there. We’re loaded up with paddles, an aqua bag, lifejackets, sponges to drain excess water and a spare snorkel and mask. We set off and battle against the wind and current to eventually reach a floating platform at the edge of Siete Pecados.

One of the blogs I read was very much bigging this place up and claimed that the snorkelling here was some of the best in the world. A big claim. Spot on too. It is incredible, even after all of the reefs we’ve seen while scuba diving, this reef, a mere stone’s throw away from the mainland, is teeming with life and so, so much to see. The first creature I spot is a chocolate chip starfish, a huge unusual looking thing at the bottom of the shallow water. I then spot another one nearby, then another, I reckon there were at least a dozen within 10 meters of where we parked the kayak.

We see too many fish to recount, constantly calling over to each other to come and look at something interesting we’ve spotted.

We leave the kayak bobbing about in the waves, hoping that Alex’s expert knots hold up and our belongings don’t float away. We pass across a very deep section of water, too deep to see the bottom or any life therein. Sadly at this point the only thing we can see in the water is the translucent shapes of various plastic wrappers and litter items floating and sinking towards the reefs.

At the other side we see many more fish species and one cheeky chap has the audacity to taste human flesh and leaves a mouth shaped love bite on my shin! We carefully dodge the painful looking sea spikes and spend well over an hour exploring the area. Unfortunately the underwater case steams up and we’re unable to get any good photos of the gorgeously colourful coral.

The knots have held up and we clamber back into the kayak. As we battle our way back to shore we’re grateful we didn’t try and reach the cave that would have meant a four hour round trip. I do most of the back breaking rowing while Alex plays with some sponges claiming we are sinking…

As we carry our kayak back up the beach we see some fellow tourists playing with one of the tiny puppies the owner is raising. He has eight fluffballs running around his estate and offers to sell some to us, we think he was only half joking.

We drive a few minutes down the road to reach the hot springs, another highly recommended local attraction. A luminous green snake slithers infront of our scooter as we enter the driveway, I hope there aren’t any bathing in the hot springs. The good news is there are no more snakes, the bad news is they really are ‘hot’ springs as the temperature reaches up to 41 degrees in some of the pools. It takes some getting used to, like slowly getting into a very hot bath. Luckily there is a ‘misting station’ nearby when we need a cool down. We hang around for a couple of hours taking dips in the pools and relaxing.

Alex desperately wants to stay and see the stars with me from the warm waters to fulfill a wish she’s had since we were in the Uyuni Salt Flats and she was too ill to join me in the hot springs under the night sky there. We wait until after sunset but we’re both getting a bit peckish and I’m wary of driving along the “road” after dark. We decide to call it and head home before the masses do the same, returning home for a super noodle meal and oats with ice cream for dessert. It’s not always glamorous!

Ocam’s Racer

With another “free day” on our hands before a diving day, we decide to go and see the Northern part of Busuanga Island based on Peter’s recommendations. We hire the same scooter as yesterday with the 125CC engine coming in useful on the long journey ahead. We take the Northern route towards the airport and after we leave Coron Town Proper we barely see a other soul on the road. The road is paved and apart from the odd crack in the cement or wandering stray dog it’s easy to drive around here. I even let Alex have a go on a scooter and she carefully scoots fifty meters down the road on her own and that’s enough for her. I’m happy to do the driving anyway, especially on days like today. We stop every so often to get some shade, sip some water or simply give our saddle sore backsides a rest on the two and a half hour drive to Ocam Ocam beach.

It’s well worth the long distance. There is a beautiful long beach lined with palms and very few people around. We take lunch at a restaurant overlooking the ocean then find a hammock and shady spot on the beach to chill out for the afternoon. Alex treats me to a fresh coconut and I feel like I’m in paradise.

As we’re about to leave, a Swedish man covered in tattoos and reeking of booze asks if we’ve been out to see the reef here. He then offers us paddle boards to take out to the reef (for a fee of course) and says we might see huge turtles or even dugongs which are essentially huge sea cows, similar to manatees. This is an offer Alex cannot refuse as she’s spotted these unusual mammals on several blogs but tours to see them are incredibly expensive. For the sake of 100 pisos (£1.70) we figure it’s worth a punt. We don’t fancy our chances on paddle boards so we just rent a snorkel and mask and a pair of life jackets. After the wonderful snorkelling at Siete Pecados yesterday our expectations are sky high, especially when the Swede says his friend believes it’s one of the best reefs in the world. High praise indeed… What follows is thirty minutes of stumbling, crawling, swimming, gargling sea water and rock dodging just to get out of the shallows… Around 200 meters from shore! We finally hit the reef and sure it’s nice but it’s not a scratch on Siete Pecados. Adding insult to injury the snorkel and mask we’ve hired are quite frankly, crap. Both of them leak no matter what we do and we’re both breathing, drinking and absorbing salt water in our mouths, noses and eyes. Grim. No sign of any sea cows or turtles for that matter.

While we recover, we notice the current has pushed us quite far away from where we’ve started. Even if the snorkelling gear is crap I’m very grateful for the life jackets as it’s an exhausting battle to swim against the current and get back to the shallows. I’m so worn out from the hard swimming that Alex gives me a lift home once we reach the shallows as she’s wearing shoes to walk over the rocky seabed. You win some you lose some I guess!

Back at shore the big Swede seems surprised we didn’t enjoy the experience and says we swam too far in the wrong direction… Ok. Alex asks if one of his Filipino companions can open up the coconut so we can eat the white flesh inside. They happily oblige and a young lad who has likely been drinking all day too hacks away with one hand on the coconut and a sharp machete in the other. How he didn’t chop his hand off I don’t know. To perk ourselves up Alex and I enjoy the tasty tough flesh of the coconut as a pick me up before the drive home. The local hacker tells us to “be careful” a dozen times before we board our trusty scooter. Hopefully it’s just the amount of booze he’s had but it doesn’t fill us with confidence!

We split the two and a half hour journey up by stopping at a viewpoint to see the beautiful sunset.

Then onto Winnie’s (again recommend by Peter) for dinner. We step into the dining area and it seems like we’re disturbing a peaceful evening for the hosts as they’re the only two people sat in there and ask how we knew about this place. The German owner, only wearing a towel for modesty, knows Peter well so welcomes us with the typical deadpan German humour. We trouble him for some delicious Thai food and make conversation with him while we eat dinner.

There’s still over an hour to go to get home and I’m flagging quite a lot by this point so Alex does a great job of keeping me awake and focused on the way home. I need it too as many of the local people drive without lights, pedestrians walk at the side of the road with no pavement in the pitch black and now and again there is a dog moonlighting as a speed bump. It’s a fascinating ride home with some highlights being the ever burning fires of weeds/garden waste illuminating the night sky and when there is nothing else around we briefly stop to admire the hundreds of stars twinkling in the sky above us.

Just before 9.30pm we arrive back at the homestay, an adventurous twelve hours on the roads is done. Straight to bed as we’re up early for another dive day tomorrow at 8.

Getting Wrecked

Time to dive and explore the depths once more. We meet our team at the Corto Dive Centre, Jan Jan our excitable guide for the day and a group of Russians (we think) make up our boat group for the day. Our first dive site is Barracuda Lake, an unusual diving spot famous for the water of the lake rather than the creatures that reside within. So what’s so interesting about the water? Well there is a cave connecting the lake to the sea. The sea water passes through a thermal source, similar to hot springs, to deliver a 38/40 degree payload of hot water into the lake! There is a transition zone where the two water temperatures meet called the thermocline and it creates a strange blurry layer, like water and oil.

We swim through a bunch of parked boats avoiding any serious injuries as boats zip by all around us. Climbing 20 steps up and back down with all of our scuba gear on is a challenge in the heat. For the first time, we’re diving without a wet suit on, I prefer but it does feel a bit weird and takes some getting used to.

At first everything is normal. The water is cold, we drop down. Then everything gets blurry. The water infront of out eyes turns to swirls and it starts heating up. There’s no way to capture this on a camera of course, the swirls are small are barely visible, like a magic eye painting. As we drop further below, the water clears as we settle into the warm water at the bottom. Particles of something, sand maybe, float in patterns in front of us, suspended in the water like being without gravity. Like the hot springs before, we adapt to the warmth, and it’s only as we move back up to the surface that we realise how warm that water was, and how cold this surface water is. Apparently there’s a ten degree difference, and you certainly feel it. It’s a novel experience.

The next stop is a Japanese shipwreck from World War Two as America sought revenge for Pearl Harbour. The Olympia Maru now sits at the bottom of the ocean floor, it’s beautiful and we’re lucky to be able to dive here, we must also remember sailors lost their lives during the surprise attack.

Our third and final dive is a British ship that was sold to Japan and also sunk in the same attack as the Olympia Maru.

In the evening we return to town and I get to try the craft beer house, run by two German divers who set it up during Covid, and we then go for dinner at the Japanese place afterwards. Both are fantastic.

Hopping & Hiking

Most of this day is spent on a boat stopping at more beautiful snorkelling spots and lovely beaches. I much prefer this island hopping tour to the one we did in El Nido. It feels less crowded and I am able to enjoy the areas a lot more without queuing up or bumping into other tourists while snorkelling. Curiously the majority of our group stays on the boat instead of snorkeling, swimming or exploring the gorgeous islands. Perhaps they can’t swim, perhaps they are just there for the views. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking here.

Kayangan Lagoon

For our final evening in the Philippines, we hike up to the giant Coron sign sitting above the town similar to the famous Hollywood sign in LA. As is now tradition, any sunset must be accompanied by rum and coke, so we purchase some from a shop in town and head up the steep hill. There is a huge line of gringos at the top all patiently waiting to see the sunset while a local guy with a guitar serenades us all.

We head to a place offering Filipino food for our last evening meal and I savour my last bottle of Red Horse beer.

Farewell Philipines

We realise in the morning that our ferry doesn’t leave until 6pm so we spend most of the day reading, planning and eating an entire roast chicken (plus dessert) to fill us up and as an ode to South American journeys past. I’ll let Alex describe the ferry experience on another post as this one is long enough.

Thanks for reading 😊

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Adventure – Scooting around the island at 50km/h (before it got too scary). Reading on pristine beaches. Hot springs in hot weather. Exploring the inside of a wreck!

Excitement – More incredible dives. Fantastic snorkelling. Coconut water and flesh.

Trauma – Oppressive heat or loud rattling air con, what a choice. Not so fantastic snorkelling at Ocam Ocam.