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Day 3 - Amazing Corals and WWII Ship Wreck

12/4/2010

Calumbuyan, Coral Garden, Ship Wreck

Our 3rd and last day was indulging into the salt walter, hehehee. We should have started our tour by 8am but we asked our tour guide, Stephanie to move it around 10am because 3 of our companions are not feeling well, they took their medicine after breakfast and have their rest. We are all ready by 10am but unfortunately, Khibong didn’t make it, he had flu so he decided to stay and spend the whole day resting.

Our first stop is Calumbuyan Island, which is about 1.5hrs from town boat dock, as we go along to Calumbuyan we saw a huge area of Pearl Farm but we are not allowed to go near from it because its private. Calumbuyan is a relaxing place; they have a wide area for visitors. Tables are shed by the trees, so it is really relaxing and a place you can enjoy the water. It is where you can see a lot of various fishes and different sizes, great corals not far away from the shore where even kids will enjoy their snorkeling adventure. We had pusit, grilled pork, vegetable and banana for lunch. You can relax yourself by staying at their hammocks. We stayed for an hour only at Calumbuyan because we wanted to go to Maquinit hot spring after day tour, so we are maximizing our time for each destination but too bad, we didn't make it..

15 to 20 minutes ride from Calumbuyan is Coral Garden. The name itself explained what place it is. Big Corals, silent waters, sea urchins and a little under water current, that’s Coral Garden. You can pass by a part of the Pearl Farm upon approaching the Area of Coral Garden. It is here that you will be amazed of the big corals it is really nice to look at. Sinubukan ni jane ang mamingwit sa site na ito, hehehehee. She borrowed the fishing gear from the boat man but too bad wala siyang nakuha kahit isa,LoL! Try harder tagjane! i know nag enjoy ka naman. =)

Not far from Coral garden site is the Lusong gunboat shipwreck. It's one of the Japanese ship that sank during WWII, yes! as in World War II and it is still there, according to our guide it has a total of 13 ships around Coron bay. We did enjoy our snorkeling moments here because there are tons of fishes to swim with, just feed them and surely they'll come on your way. Divers love to have their scuba at any of the shipwreck, where in they can go inside and have their adventure in the whole ship, exciting! and talking about jane's pamimingwit?? Finally she got 2! oh yeah! heheheee, super saya nung nakakuha na siya, at last! nice job! she even gave it nalang to the boatman para may maiuwing ulam, uyyy! ang bait naman.. hehehee.

The original plan was to go to Maquinit Hot Spring to refresh ourselves, but then when we arrived at the lodge, the boys decided not to dahil pagod na daw sila at hapon na,(huhuhuu, so bad i was expecting it pa naman). But it's still okay because we refreshed ourselves, us the ladies (me, Gina and Jane) we refreshed and we chilled ourselves with a "Sex on the beach" cocktail drink served by the lady at the mini bar of Darayonan. We were just so curious about the drink's name that's why we tried it, hehehehe. Cute name isn't it? LoL!
We slept early, early as after Survivor Philippines, kasi sobrang adik yung mga kasamahan ko sa palabas na yan hehehee, We slept early because our flight back to Manila is the next day.
To Sum it all ,my Coron Experience was a Blast! --- SUper saya, Super pagod, Super Amazing. I should say Coron is truly Blessed place with amazing nature with underwater adventure.

How to get there :
- Manila to Coron flight is everyday , once a day by Cebu Pacific, Air Philippines and Zest Air.

Where to stay :
- There are lots of lodges and hotels in Coron downtown, you can visit www.darayonan.com

What to Eat :
- Try marinated danggit, not daeng or dried fish ha, marinated lang siya.. so yummy. you gotta try it. If you're staying at darayonan asked it for breakfast. But i guess it is available in the public market. (i forgot what is the native name of it, LoLz!)

What to bring:
- Repellant Lotion, Aqua shoes (better than slipper because of the sea urchins), Sun block.

Pasulubong:
- of course, Daeng! dried Danggit and Lapu-Lapu are available in minimal costs. I would suggest buy dried fish at the port, just say "manong, sa panatalan po".

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Discovering Wildlife - Coron, Palawan II

12/1/2010

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Day 2 - Safari Experience and a touch of Water.

Caluit Sunrise

Our 2nd day was full of excitement. We were informed a night before that we'll gonna leave Coron early morning, early as 3:30am. Then I set my alarm at 3:15, so that i'll have 15minutes to prepare myself. Yes! tumunog alarm ko, but I still feel like sleeping, Lolz!,, di kami nagising ni Gina (whom i shared a room) kung di kami ginising ni Willy (my bro-in-law).. we got ourselves ready at around 3:45am, then our Tour guide for the day, Stephanie, asked "Maam, di po ba kayo ba ininform na maaga po ang alis natin?" at dun nahiya na akong sumagot,hehehee, kasi kung di lang ako natulog ulit when my alarm rang sana on time kami hehehee..

Stop Over 1 - Calauit Island

Domesticated Calamian Deer

Coron Town to Calauit Island is about 2-3hrs travel by Van, It was arranged by Darayonan since we get our whole itinerary from them in package, meals included. We arrived at the boat dock at around 6:30am and we had a boat transfer going to Calauit Island. We witness a great surise in the safari island. After we docked, the Island attendant (sorry but I forgot his name) handed us a registration sheet for the whole group. Then the tour started. When going inside we saw group of Calamian Deers, there are more or least 900 deers roaming around the island. You can easily identify which one is a male and female because males has horns while female doesn't have. Then we saw group of Giraffes and Zebras! WOW! as we approached the gazebo area to have our breakfast, Giraffes are walking on our way, it seems they knew they have visitors and one way of welcoming us is by walking through us.

Giraffe Lovers

Giraffes are seems to be so friendly. After our breakfast, Our guide gave us a brief explanation about Caluit Island, how it all begun and how many species it has. He also gave us orientation of the behavior and characteristics of Giraffes. Now, our Safari truck is ready. It will be used for the whole tour, hence, we might get hurt or kicked by the wild animals, lol. Our guide get some leaves from the barn and we started to feed the giraffes while us on the truck. We had a great experience with them, feeding them, touching them, caressing them. Then we knew, they have names! oh yeah! , I can name few, there is Mylene called to be their "queen or star" then there is Athena, and Jerry.

eating zebras

We don't have the chance to get more closer with the zebras because we are afraid that they would give us a loving side kick.LoL! We just view them few steps from us. They are so cute and adorable, i love seeing them in group, super cute. They are smaller then the ordinary horse, they are some kind of a pony in size, but that stripes made them so nice to look at, all they eat are grasses but sometimes they take antibiotics when they get sick. I forgot how many zebras are there, but I guess it's more than 20 or 30. They also have this rivalry characteristics, when two zebra men are fighting for one zebra lady. uyyyy! kahit pala hayop may rivalry din, hehehhee.. Cute!.

Civet Cat

Caluit also have cage animals such as, Civet Cat, Turtle, Porcupine, Wild Pig and Crocodile, too bad their bearcat died due to loneliness when the male bearcat eaten by its prey, phyton. It's the Civet Cat that is really interesting, because according to the guide it has the capacity to hypnotize his prey and It can produce first class coffee called Alamid Coffee (if im not mistaken, as far as my memory is concerned, hahahaha) from it's shit or waste or whatever you call it. hehehehe

Stop Over 2 - North Cay

After Caluit, Our next destination was North Cay; it is a new proposed itinerary of Darayonan. Since I already have read so much reviews of the North Cay, I got so really excited. We drove down to Salvacion Town and we have to transfer a boat at the dock (all our transfers are already arranged by Darayonan). It took 30-40 minutes boat ride to North Cay, but the long wait is much rewarded with clear and pristine waters, tingnan mo lang yung dagat eh parang ang sarap ng maligo. North Cay should I say the best beach that we’ve visited so far, with a long stretch white beach and a fine sand that you will surely enjoy plus astonishing corals and fishes, I mean really lots of fishes. It is here too that we had a close encounter with the clown fish or better known as NEMO, yeyy! , We don’t bring any goggles, Good thing there were goggles for rent in the Island, there are cottages too, for you to hide from the heat of the sun. We had our lunch there, again prepared by our hosts, Darayonan. We had lato (seeweeds), grilled fish and adobo? (lolz, I forgot waaaaa!!), but one thing I didn’t forgot we had a full and tasty lunch (hehehe). We spent an hour in North Cay and we did really had a great time snorkeling.

Stop Over 3 - Maltatayuk Island

Our last stop was Maltatayuk Island, we supposed should have South Cay but we chose Maltatayuk instead. North Cay, South Cay and Maltatayuk is owned by one person, and they are about 5 minutes boat ride from each other, But I should say, North Cay is the best among them. Maltatayuk has no cottage, and you can just simply swim around, I don’t know if there are corals but just near the shore are sands and some stones. We just stayed Maltatayuk about 15-20 minutes, I guess because we already much time for snorkeling at North Cay that’s why we spent more time soaking and swimming at Maltatayuk. We ended our day tour with sleeping the whole way back to Coron, hehehehee. To sum it all, we had a great, great and super great time.