Palawan - Day 2: The bloody island hopping!

The second day has come! In a sweaty fashion way! We woke up at 7AM with sweaty shirts and not in the best possible smiling way. The reason was that the electricity in Coron only runs from 6PM to 12AM because of fuel shortage, the city is powered by big generators run by Diesel fuel which is the supply around the country is in crisis.

As I get myself ready for the day's activity, I put on my earphones and play the tunes of my favorite local artists, Champ Lui Pio and Rico Blanco. I waited for my turn to have my morning glory and the morning in Palawan is quiet and people are not in a rush which makes me feel relaxed.

My "Spanish omelette" Breakfast. The serving's too small though it only reached my esophagus.  

After my small breakfast at the hotel we hailed a tricycle and went to the office of the tour guides where we signed waivers that with whatever fatal happens to us, they are not responsible except of course if the injury is caused by their negligence. The waiver also included that whatever things we borrowed are damaged, we will pay for it.

Most of us didn't care about the "accident" issues in the waiver but rather on the equipment that we will borrow because if for example I break the goggles I borrowed, my wallet's gotta give PhP1000 ($50) for it! We all took a good look at our borrowed equipment before we went out to make sure that all was in good condition. After further discussions, off we go to the port!

I placed "UNO" (the name of my first  DSLR, a Nikon D40 bought in 2008) inside a waterproof plastic DSLR case specifically made for snorkeling. I bought it online and picked it up in the seller's house for PhP500($10).

As we were walking towards the port I was approached by a Japanese tourist and asked if where we were going, it looked like to me that he was trying to hitch a ride with our boat so that he can share with a smaller amount rather than rent a boat by himself. I couldn't give a specific answer because we were going to 9 different islands! So I just said "We're going to 9 different islands today" - and to my surprise he walked away and I think he was irritated with my answer, but what other answer could I give? I don't know the names of the islands!

Moving on to our first destination: SIETE PECADOS, Siete Picados means "Seven Islands" but it was more beautiful from below, the islands are surrounded by beautiful coral reefs and all sorts of fishes are around to play with.

JP under the sea

There were lots of corals and the current that morning was strong and my goggles kept moisturizing so I had to repeat the step of spitting on the lens while I was being taken away by the waves closer to the corals.

I kept a distance between me and the tall corals because if I hit the coral it might be broken or let's say it might be instantly turned into sand because of my large butt.

As I try to fight the current I saw a hell lot of sea urchins and if it hit my legs I would be in pain but I would still be alive, it's not that deadly but it's very very irritating to the skin. As I tried to swim away my foot hit something sharp and the next thing that was on my mind was "SEA URCHIN, SEA URCHIN, SEA URCHIN!!!" I looked at my foot and it was bleeding, fishes were swimming around my bloodied foot, it wasn't a sea urchin that hit me but I hit a coral, poor coral I'm sorry! (It wasn't damaged by the way).

I went up the boat and asked for the first aid kit and I paid attention to my foot. I found out that the index finger of my right foot (2nd from the left) had small gash wounds, it was deep and the bleeding was quite bad. It was also painful every time salt water touches the wound, but that didn't stop me. As soon as I closed the wound I was ready for the next destination!

Kayangan Lake

The next destination was the reason why I fell in Love with Palawan four years ago and until now, Kayangan Lake is the most beautiful lake that I've seen in my life and I saw quite a lot of lakes so far. The lake is only accessible via hiking 75 meters up and 75 meters down but no worries because of the man made steps. The vast open space and chilling waters of the lake is relaxing, the calm waters could even make you take a nap if you just float around. The water is a mix of salt and fresh water, it's called "Brackish Water".

Submerged Limestones

Just below the waters of Kayangan lake lies giant Limestones and to my assumption, it's still growing because it is untouched and undisturbed.

After Kayangan lake we went to the third destination which was the "Coral Garden". Our boat man said that if garden is not disturbed during the day,  Pawikans (Giant Sea Turtles) come in to feed and hang around.

I got so excited and I kept telling the guys to keep quiet. We went in and saw why it was called the Coral Garden, there were so many types of corals and although my foot was in pain while submerged in salt water, I kept in mind that I can deal with the pain just to see the Pawikan. But after almost an hour of quiet snorkeling not a single shell of a turtle is around. I would have been the happiest man that hour if I ever did see one.

Here's a video footage taken by Mikki at the Coral Garden:

At the 23rd second, Mark was hit by planktons which are irritating to the skin that causes rashes.

Rock formations that makes Coron extraordinary

After my disappointment of not seeing the Pawikan, we headed to "Twin Peaks", our fourth destination. It was another snorkeling area that has twin rocks, well not really that they are twins but a lot of similarities between the two.

Not all went snorkeled at twin peaks because the corals were the same as Siete Pecados and therefore the fishes were the same and yes, we were right and our tummies were growling like sea lions already so we headed to the island where we would have our packed lunch for the day.

We arrived at "Atwayan Beach" at high noon and the Sun at its fiercest! We quickly went into a Kubo and the boat men or "Bangkeros" brought us our packed lunch, the good thing is that the lunch comes with fresh fishes and a few kilos of extra rice, it's included to the tour we availed!

The packed lunch we had was rice, tomato and pork chop Liempo wrapped in banana leaves. The fish was cooked in the boat while we were touring the islands.

The food was so delicious especially when you're at the beach. There's one thing we all agreed upon, eating fish is best at lunch on the beach.

The food was so mouth-watering that I dropped using my spoon and fork and starting eating with my hands! After I started eating with my hands, the boys followed afterwards and ate with their own set of hands! We were enjoying our food when we saw the Japanese tourist arrived at the island and he was walking alone, I hate seeing people on their own (although I always would want to travel alone, weird huh?) I hope he wasn't agitated by seeing me.

I eat with my hands baby 'cause I'm Pinoy this way!

After that super whammed packed lunch made us ten pounds heavier, we proceeded to the sixth destination for the day, the "Skeleton Wreck".

According to www.coronwrecks.com:

"This wreck is the keel, ribs and stringers of a steel-hulled boat about 25 meters long. Location: Northwest corner of Coron Island. This wreck was beached with the bow a dozen meters from Coron Island. The stern points directly away from the island. The wreck slopes along the reef from 5 meters deep at the bow to 22 meters at the stern. A pass through on the starboard side of the hull at 14 meters allows you to swim from the inside of the boat out over the coral reef."

Here's a video of Miko reaching the wreck. Video by Mikki.

I didn't get to see the wreck for the second time (First was in 2007) because like Mark, I was also hit with the skin-irritating planktons on my right arm and I had itchy rashes all over me plus the painful wound on my foot. But still, it didn't stop me because it's all part of the travel!

The CYC Beach boasts of its Mangroves. I didn't go down because my hand was still itchy from the plankton attack. CYC is the 7th destination.

The Twin Lagoon!

The Twin Lagoon's entrance is like of the kingdoms of the movie "The Lord of the Rings". It was high tide so we used the stairs to go into the lagoon, if it's low tide one can just swim under the small opening through the Lagoon. The water here is brackish and cool.

What made this lagoon more interesting was this:

This is the military way of fixing a dislocated shoulder.

Mikki was the one who helped me put back my dislocated shoulder, read about it HERE. This time he was the one who had his shoulder dislocated as he tried to swim through the submerged entrance to the lagoon (just below the stairs is the entrance to the lagoon, it is visible and easy to access when it is low tide.) My brother helped him put back his shoulder. Mikki is like me who dislocated his shoulder a few years back, mine was in 2008.

As we were chasing sunlight we hurried to Barracuda Lake, for me it's the scarier lake. Scary because of its name, we all know that Barracudas can slice a human arm with one bite, and this deep brackish watered lake is named after it. The name of the lake can scare a person by just thinking about it.

While the sun was setting and we head back to the city, I wrote this little note:

"With the wind against us, I looked at the horizon and

the fire red dying Sun stirs with the enveloping sky.

What a sight to see, I can't help but appreciate

the wonder of my country".

Coron engulfed in darkness and illuminated by its habitants.

Palawan - Day 1: The return to the promised land

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock...RRRRRRIIIINNNNNGGGGGG!!! Blag! I fell off my bed as I hurriedly turned off my alarm clock, it was 6AM. It was the day I was waiting for, the day I couldn't miss, Febuary 13, 2011 reads on my calendar and I was excited like a rooster singing in the morning.

We took off for NAIA Terminal 3 where we met the others were already at. While going in, a Nun cut me in line and took a straight look at me like "I'm a woman of cloth, so back up!" and I was just like "Ok whatever go first by all means". We were 10 in the group and most of them were the ones I went with during my Semi-Solo trip to Boracay.

It was a beautiful morning when something went wrong, the check in counter lost the ID of one of our friends and they couldn't find it. I believe that the driver's license was lost in the conveyor belt, but we wouldn't want our day to be ruined by a license so we carried on and hopped in the airplane for a 45 minute ride to the place I fell in Love 4 years ago.

Coron's topside view

And after 40 minutes of butt aching seating and non-stop reminiscing of my first time to Coron, the island revealed itself below the clouds. My eyes went as big as a Tarsier and I was breathless for a while and the first thing I said to my seat mate was "OMG! Here I go again!".

It was the first time I saw Coron in Bird's Eye View because 4 years ago I came to Coron via Ferry and it was 5am when we arrived so we were a little sleepy and all that.

I didn't know that Coron had unshaved green Mountains and the terrain was like entering the island of Jurassic Park. Most in my group were first timers in Coron but it looked like I was the most excited, as we landed I was so anxious to get out the plane.

There's the group just right after alighting the plane.

The airport of Busuanga, Croron is a lot better than the port of Caticlan (Boracay), it's more calm and spacious. We were picked up by a van of which we paid PhP200($4) each, the bumpy dirt road going to the city was well, bumpy, but other than that the view is glowing with greenery and it looked like we were in New Zealand. The vast field of grass greets you and the sun kisses your face oh what a wonderful day it was.

Bridges from the Airport to the City looked like this.

Surprisingly we don't see much private vehicles around the City, most of the locals were commuters and the tricycle is the most popular transportation as the Jeepneys around town were used for delivery of goods. I kept my eyes wide open and my eyes were rotating at every possible angle, I didn't want to miss every single bit of it. 

The 30 minute ride to Coron City felt really like being in a jungle and my imaginations ran really wild even thinking that I might just see a monkey crossing the street or even better, seeing a wild Lion. the lush green and the neighboring houses span miles away from each other, it was just a different experience and I couldn't even describe how I felt traveling closer and closer to my destination.

Our room @ Darayonan, and you know where I slept? Of Course, at the floor :)

11:38AM - We checked in at Darayonan with its theme "A place like Home" which lives up to what they say because the front desk literally looks like a house that was converted to a hotel. Only me, my brother Tommy, his girlfriend Faith and JP were housed in Darayonan while the other six were a few streets away in a Austrian owned hotel named "Princess of Coron", Princess of Coron had no other rooms left so we stayed in Darayonan.

We walked around and asked around what restaurant to eat at to have our first meal in Coron, and after hearing the local's votes, it seems that we have a winner. We walked towards "Kawayanan Grill Station" for our lunch.

12:34 - The Sun is at its peak and it hurts my eyes and skin, I get irritated when the Sun's rays is too hot and my sensitive skin gets dark really fast. One thing that makes it worst was the power rotation happening in the city, electricity is only from 6PM-12AM. 

Big serving for one order.

I ordered myself the "Seafood Bihon" which really had nothing special in it, I was imagining real squid and prawn and other stuffs to be in my food but instead I found Fish Balls and Squid balls in it and a whole lot of vegetables which I thought to change the name of the food to "Vegetarian's SeaFood Bihon". 

The serving was too big so I decided to pass it around to 9 others and when it was returned to me I still couldn't even finish it, it was just that big that I was so full and could no longer bite.

Here's a little monkey in a store across where I stayed.

With our stomachs so full, we decided to head back to our headquarters to take a few hours of rest and to settle things out for we will were set to conquer the highest mountain around Coron.

I like the rural setting of the town, it's not noisy and people walk around and children playing around and those little things make me feel a little bit more at home when I see those simple things that these people feel safe, why shouldn't I? In fact, they were used to seeing tourists, both local and foreign.

4 years ago I didn't get a chance to talk with the locals because first I was young then, about 16 years old and second was that we were staying at a private resort across the waters of the town.

We had two hours of rest before we take on the first destination of our trip which was the hike to the top of Mt. Tapyas.

I wanted to take Sunset shots at the top of the Mountain but I wasn't able to because we were a little earlier than expected and we had to go to 3 destinations. The first one was a souvenir shop, well that was kind of awkward because no one really buys souvenir on the first day of their trip, well at least I don't buy until the last day.

3:35 - I put my foot on the first step of the hill, and the hike begins! It's not that hard to hike because there are already concrete steps and hand rails to guide you but what's hard was that sometimes the steps were steep and my big legs couldn't catch up with the others.

The steps to conquering Coron

Our phasing at first was fast because we were excited to see the view of Coron, as for me, the thought of being in Coron hasn't sank in my head yet, I thought that all of it was just a dream because four years ago I vowed to myself that I will be back, and here I am hiking the highest point in town.

Everything was fun when you're full of energy but while going up, 10, 20, 30 steps later my calf muscles started to hurt and I was feeling heavier and heavier at each lift of my foot.

100, 200 steps later, we were slowing down, taking rests every 20-30 steps and two young locals selling beverages were a little bit of laughing at us while they kept following us because they know that somewhere along the line we will buy from them.

300-500 steps we were dripping with sweat and I couldn't describe the fast beating of my heart, it was intense!

at 600-700 steps I was literally, literally going up like a dog, using bot my hands and feet to go up the hill.

A photo of me at around the 500 step mark.

As I saw the last flight of stairs, me and my brother made a dash for it, the last 24 steps and with the adrenaline pumped in my veins I jumped at each step skipping a step or two and finally!

                                                            - 5 O'clock in the afternoon -
FINALLY! I WAS ON TOP OF CORON! I CONQUERED THE HIGHEST POINT IN CORON! Although I lost the dash to the top. I just lay on the ground trying to catch all the oxygen that passes me, taking breaths as deep as the ocean floor and filling my lungs with fresh air, "oh it's been four long years my love" I said to myself.

That's all 10 of us and yes we all were happy to make it to the top.

So we went around the giant big cross and we saw the region and it was just amazing, I pointed to the first timers where we will do island hopping and things like that, we took a lot of pictures (of course, we wouldn't climb 724 steps for a picture or two) of ourselves.

I call my pose the "Jump-Write" shot :)

Going up was hard, but going down is harder with tired legs. My knees were shaking and I had to hold for the railings to support my legs, everyone was slow and everybody was kind of tired. Going down was peaceful, we were all quiet trying to concentrate of not hitting the last step with our faces.

AWESOME CORON

while I was at the top of Mt. Tapyas and was just staring at the awesome view of the hill and islets, I wrote a short poem for Mt. Tapyas:

"Climb thy steps, each painful step,

have courage and perseverance.

For at its highest peak,

Coron is yours for the taking."

My apologies dear readers.

First of all I want to apologize to my dear readers who have been waiting for my blog series "PALAWAN: THE LAST FRONTIER" travel last Febuary 13-16, it is due to my busy student life that I cannot find the right time and mindset to accomplish the said blog series. As a student and I know a lot of you will understand me that being a college student is time consuming especially for me as a Journalism major, I go to places and then write articles.

I am also been very busy with my thesis which takes two-thirds of my day researching and I get exhausted from it.

The blog series will be delayed and it might be continued when classes are over, I beg you to understand my situation as I don't want to present you a blog that has no heart in it. I've always wanted to present blogs that take you to the place while reading it.

Here is a photo of me in a class, yes there are only 3 of us studying Photojournalism.

This is an exhibit of our Photojournalism course, the photos you see at the right side are my works.

Again, I apologize for the delay but do not worry for I won't be away that long. Cheers!