Coron Island Ultimate Tour

Day 2
Oct 20, 2012
Coron

We booked the Coron Island Ultimate Tour from the Calamianes Expeditions Ecotours, an organization that supports communities and environments thru sustainable tourism. It was nice to be able to support its cause just by booking one of its many tours.

With 6 other tourists in the boat (total of 12 in the boat), the tour first brought us to CYC island where everyone enjoyed the crystal clear water of the beach.

CYC Island

We then headed to Twin Peaks Reef and Coral Garden to snorkel. The underwater scenery was amazing with all the colorful fish and beautiful corals. 

It was around noon time when we reached Isla Bulungan. It was here where we ate our lunch which was included in the tour package. We were served grilled pork chops, grilled fish, seaweeds, and bananas.

 

Isla Bulungan

View from Isla Bulungan

We then went to see Kayangan Lake, which was judged to be the cleanest lake in the country. It was on the quick trek going to the lake where we got to see the most photographed view in Coron.

On the way to the lake...

a quick stop for the most photographed view in Coron

Kayangan Lake

Our last stop was at the part-warm and part-cold water of hidden lagoon.

It was just past 4 PM when the tour completed. We decided to head back to the hotel to freshen up, but only after eating halo-halo at Tita Esh eatery.  For dinner, we went to Kawayanan Grill for some seafood.

It was a very brief vacation, 1.5 day to be exact, and it felt like we only had a preview of Coron. I will definitely be back here to take the Sangat WWII Shipwreck tour (sounds exciting!) as well as Mangrove kayaking and nature trekking package.

Estimated expenses:
3496 PHP - round trip air fare
1800 PHP - accommodation(1800 PHP per room good for 2)
  300 PHP - airport transfer
  250 PHP - day tour
  150 PHP - Maniquit Hot Spring
  650 PHP - Island tour
1000 PHP - Food
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7646 PHP

Around Coron town

Day 1

Oct 19, 2012
Coron

Finally, after so many years of hearing people raved about Coron, I, with some of my long-time friends - Andy, Ching, Jezzer, Lee, and Melissa -  got to see and experience this little town at the north of Palawan.

We arrived at Busuanga at past 1 PM and headed directly to Islands View Inn where we would stay for 2 nights. Our hotel room had all the standard amenities but it was the nice hotel staff that  made the place highly recommendable.

After a quick lunch, we started the city tour. We were able to book the tour for only 250 PHP per head, cheaper than the other tour packages we have seen ( though it did not include yet the 150 PHP entrace fee to the hot spring, it was still cheaper). Our first stop was at the baywalk,which was surprisingly quiet and empty except for a few health-conscious kids doing sit-ups. There was a zipline at the bay area, but as I was with the least adventurous group of friends, we opted for the dirty ice cream.

Then, after a quick stopover at a souvenir shop, we climbed the 729 steps to Tapyas Hill Viewdeck for the best view of the sunset.

We then went to Maniquit Hot Spring which was about 30 minutes away from the town proper. Here, surrounded by mangrove trees and floating bamboo cottages, we relaxed for about an hour in the 40 degree (more or less) hot water which apparently came from a volcano located underground (!?!). This was exactly what we needed after the workout at Mt. Tapyas.

For dinner, we ate at Lolo Nonoy's food station where the food was good and really cheap. We ordered 5 pinoy dishes plus drinks and dessert and we only paid 1200 PHP for all 6 of us.