Coron

We were up at half 4 this morning to get to the port for 5 and off on the ferry at 6. In typical Filipino fashion the boat was running a little late because the checking in process was entirely on paper, the security checks just a chap with a dog, and the boat itself pretty small, with very cold air con and an incredibly bad taste in films. The first one was about getting stuck in the sea with a massive shark (‘Into the Deep’ or something like that), just very inappropriate while on a boat, and definitely not a pg. The ride was pretty bad, but we just got our headphones in early, Amelia listening to her book and me some podcasts and both had a bit of intermittent sleep. It took about 3 and a half hours in total, 3 and a half not particularly pleasant hours. On arrival at Coron the standard flock of trike drivers vied for our trade, slightly more aggressively than elsewhere, and we ended up at our hostel by midday. It’s a lot smaller than the last one, still pretty nice, definitely less social/party (not complaining at all). But I think that’s a reflection of the town as a whole, it’s a lot smaller than El Nido. 

We had a quick explore for a restaurant, in which we later found we walked in the opposite direction to most of the nice restaurants, so ended up a Blue Moon, a sort of American style diner/pub which served an average tuna sandwich. This fuelled us up enough for the 724 steps which lead up Mount Tapyas, which has a stunning view across the island, others of the archipelago and to the horizon. It’s been seriously hot today so was a slightly (very) sweaty afternoon in which I was rushing between patches of shade. We met another traveller at the summit and had a bit of a chat, maybe we’ll see him at a New Years party, of which there doesn’t seem many going on, but it’s a pretty small place so to be expected. On the way down we got an ice cream and some baked goods for our breakfast tomorrow when we’re doing an island hopping tour, on which we’ll hopefully meet some people and find out where the New Years party is.

For dinner we visited a Mexican restaurant over the road from the hostel where we didn’t get served our nachos. Very disappointing. Other than that the food was fine, nothing to write home about (even though I literally am). Very tired we headed back to the hostel in preparation for the early start for the ‘Super Ultimate’ island hopping tour tomorrow. 

After a relatively prompt start (7-7:30 pickup, leaving themselves a long grace period there) we got an unnecessary air conditioned bus over to the boat (less than a 10 minute walk away), which was a small, thin, 16 person boat with bamboo outriders for stability. The rest of the group were nice enough, not as great as the group we had at Kawasan Falls, and it did include a very questionable aussie (older) man and filipino (very young looking) girl couple (very creepy when he kept calling her baby). Our first port of call was the Seite Pecados, which translates to seven sins (seven limestone islands surrounding a reef, said that they sinned so they were expelled from the main insland). I snorkelled, Amelia did not, she’s still feeling grotty and doesn’t like snorkelling at the best of times anyway. The coral there is dying slightly, and is a lot less vivid than at Moalboal however was still very pretty with loads of colourful fish. After this we headed over to Kayangan Lake, which is on the neighbouring Coron Island (weirdly Coron town isn’t actually on Coron Island but on Busuanga Island). It’s absolutely stunning, but there was a shedload of boats there which spoilt it slightly. After climbing between boats to get to the jetty we walked up a staircase to a viewpoint. Here we waited an age in a queue to take a selfie at the viewpoint which really wasn’t necessary. There’s a girl in our group who was incredibly annoying and insisted on hundreds of photos at every opportunity. The definition of ‘extra’. After this we headed down to the lake itself where we went for a swim in the incredibly blue water. Everywhere insists upon the wearing of lifejackets so we literally bobbed around in the lake for a while before being called back to shore and onto our next stop. 

Lunch was at Beach 91, a very pretty spot with a decent buffet and free to use sea kayaks, which we used after lunching. After here was a 2 minute boat ride over to a shipwreck that can be snorkelled. You really can’t see much of it to be honest, definitely more a dive spot, we couldn’t even blame the weather as it was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for visibility. From here we swam around one of the many tiny islands to see a shoal of fish. Nowhere near as impressive as the sardine run but still very cool. From here we went to an island which was essentially entirely beach. It was surrounded by other boats and nobody was particularly bothered with going to shore when it was so busy so, after picking up some beers from the ‘floating 7-Eleven (chap on a kayak with a cooler box) we headed over to Barracuda Lake (we were also way later than we should have been after waiting for ages for selfies at Kayangan Lake). 

Barracuda Lake is similar to Kayangan Lake with less people, less selfies and a shorter walk. It’s a very popular dive site here, but there’s literally no life in the lake, just a very clear view down to a lot of rocks. It’s popular for its thermocline, which is when different levels of the lake are different temperatures. It may be great to experience but not stunning to look at. After here we headed over twin lagoon, a lagoon which you can only access by swimming through a tunnel. Again very cool. Again bobbing around in our lifejackets. With that the tour was at an end. A fascinating day out, and an incredibly novel way of spending New Year’s Eve. We headed back to the hostel for a relaxing hour or so before going over to the Spanish deli we were recommended on the first day here. We both got very tasty pizzas, however they didn’t have any Prosecco, despite being a wine bar. Slightly disappointing. They also had no wine list, instead you had to walk around and choose a bottle from the displays on shelves, which got increasingly more difficult as the place got busier and busier. Just have a wine list, makes life a lot easier. After dinner we headed over to the Hop Hostel rooftop bar which overlooks the whole of the town to watch the fireworks. We just about managed to make it to midnight before hurrying home and back to bed. Midnight is very late.

Our first day of 2020 was a relaxing one. We didn’t really do anything during the day. We just got up late, had some breakfast, had some lunch, I went for a bit of a wander around, then hiked up Mount Tapyas again to see the first sunset of 2020, a very pleasant experience with absolutely stunning views. 

The 2nd was a much more action packed day. Our intention was to do a hike up to the highest point of the island, a Mount Tundalara (or Dalara, never actually found out which). We had to get a trike over to the start of it, which from searching online I wasn’t really the wiser, therefore I just asked for ‘the Mount Tundalara (Dalara) hike’, and we ended up at the start. I had a set of instructions I’d found on a blog but actually finding the start of the trail was still tricky. It’s not signposted and the blog post said ‘after the bridge and blue sign, off to the right’. For one the bridge was actually quite difficult to make out as there was a load of grass growing on it, and the actual trailhead pretty obscure. We went wrong twice (too far then not far enough) but on our third attempt we had great success. The trail was difficult, first traversing through scary rainforest (I had to go first to ward away the terrifying spiders webs, of which there was a lot, I used my hat as a sweeping tool to ward away the webs but still walked through about 20 on the way up). Next was a steep section through a bamboo forest, which we just knew was going to be very tricky on the way back down. Following this the trees stopped and it was a very hot and sweaty climb to the summit with no shadow cover. I raced ahead to the top while Amelia had a slight asthma attack, chivalry is not dead, where there was a slightly bemused security guard at the relay station (big mast with satellite dishes) atop the summit. It was slightly odd, just loads of equipment in certain levels of decay littered around the, presumably, fully functional tower and a very noisy generator powering it all. I did a circuit to take some photos (average at best) before Amelia made it up in full health (almost). After a bit of time recuperating in the shade under the watchful eye of the security guard, which must be the most boring job in the world albeit with an incredible view, we headed back down. 

We knew it was going to be difficult. A combination of being very steep and a very gravelly path meant that we slipped around a lot. Amelia had a few hard falls onto her bum (for full transparency I also had a half fall onto my hand which caused a slight scratch), the first of which resulted in her leggings splitting at an unfortunate place. I didn’t tell her about it to not make her too self conscious/fear they would break more but she eventually realised and was suitably horrified. There was nothing for it but to carry on though so we eventually made it back to the hostel at mid afternoon, very much in need of showers and refreshment. 

Our evening activity was a boat trip to a floating restaurant, which was delightful and very fortunate to be a buffet as I was starving so ate quite a lot. Then over to the mangroves to see trees filled with fireflies. Apparently when you make more noise the fireflies shine brighter, so the guide got us to clap loudly every time we approached them. I think he was just having us on and wanted us to applaud the very impressive sight the flies make, it’s basically looks like a Christmas tree, if the tree was a mangrove and the lights all the same colour. We were also given a stick to wiggle around in the water which lit up the plankton providing almost spark like lights in the sea. Very beautiful and unexpected. A very satisfying and beautiful evening, and our last on Coron.