Two Backpacks One Couple

El Nido was a beach sunset paradise lover’s dream. After one week we were ready for our next, more action packed, destination: Coron. Our ferry ticket got canceled at the last minute due to over booking so we ended up booking a flight instead. The airport was in the jungle and flying over the islands in Palawan was breathtaking.

I had to promise Nick I would give him the window seat on the next flight.

Nick and I stayed in a bedroom at someone’s house that they converted into a small homestay with about 4 rooms rented out at a time. It was a 15 minute walk away from downtown, on the top of a hill overlooking the ocean. It was amazing for early mornings and sunsets. One night there were a lot of termites in our room which I did not love. Another night there were a ton of bees. This may or may not have led to me accidentally getting Nick stung when I was trying to kill one. The house was indoor/outdoor which is why there were so many bugs.

A dinner highlight was the seafood platter from Kawayanan Grill Station. It included grilled fish, butter garlic crab, grilled squid, butter garlic prawns, grilled mud clams, lato salad, and garlic kangkong. Everything was so yummy. Otherwise all the food we had in Coron was just okay. Our dive boats and island hopping tours always served us amazing lunches, though. We also saw a dog downtown with eyebrows drawn on by some kids; he was very adorable.

The dugong was healthy and hungry. We got to watch him eat for 20 minutes, keeping a nice distance so as not to scare him. He swam, ate, rolled in the sand, and surfaced a few times to breath. Our dive guide told us he rolled around to remove the sucker fish from his body as they can be itchy. We were sad to have to say goodbye but there were strict rules which all divers must abide by such as proximity to the dugong and how long we were allowed to dive near them. We are happy they take that so seriously, though. We were told the north side of the island has around 40 dugongs.

Our next dive stop was an island nearby where we did another two dives. On these dives we saw a sea turtle grazing, puffer fish, amazing reef, mantis shrimp, electric clam, two jaw fish, a lot of clown fish, and two of the biggest sea turtles we’ve ever seen. Nick and I were so excited about the mantis shrimp, we didn’t even know they were possible to see here. The electric clam was cool; it had neon red blinking lights inside of it. A lot of sea creatures seem fake the first time seeing them, and the electric clam is definitely one of those. The reef was the best we’ve ever seen, it had so many layers of hard and soft coral, so much to look at in every nook and cranny.

The second full day in Coron was another 3-dive day, this time from a dive shop in town. We did Akitsushima (Japanese sea plane tender wreck), Olympia Maru (cargo wreck), and Malpadon South (reef dive). Coron is famous for its wreck dives and they did not disappoint. Both wrecks were amazing to swim through with so much to see inside and out such as the engines and weapons of the vessels.

The reef dive was also nice and we saw sea turtles, another mantis shrimp, a mystery fish that looked like a sea horse, and more clown fish. Coron, Philippines must be the #1 place to see clown fish because we saw them on every snorkel and every dive. There are tons of different sea anemone and clown fish here.

A highlight was on the drive back to the dive shop the dive guide sat on the front bumper of the van behind us smoking his cigarette.

At the dive shop they gave us rum and juice which was so strong I couldn’t drink mine. The other divers really enjoyed them though.

Our third day in Coron was an island hopping tour, which was a nice break from all of our scuba diving. We did the Island Escapade Tour which went to Malcapuya Island, Ditaytayan Island and Bulog Dos Island. The snorkeling at each island was amazing with a ton of coral and fish. I did accidentally kick a hard coral at a place where it was shallow. I felt horrible about that as I know how long it takes for them to grow. Luckily the coral was mostly unharmed, but my foot did get scratched up all up the front.

The tour served us an amazing lunch which even included crab. Nick and I enjoyed walking the white sand beaches, snorkeling, and relaxing at each stop. Everyone on the boat was nice and interesting to talk with. This was good because the tour required a lot of boating from place to place. The one place I thought was over rated was the sand bar. It was super small and had so many people on it we couldn’t really enjoy it. We wondered why this place was THE place to go when we drove past so many others just like it that were empty. We had some grilled pork for dinner from Inasal in town afterwards followed by some mango smoothies.

Day 4 was another scuba diving day with our 3rd dive center. It was fun getting to try with different ones to compare; there are a lot to choose from in Coron. Our first dive was at Cathedral Cave. This was our first time cave diving and it was quite cool. We had to descend into a relatively small crevice. There was just enough room for us to go down without taking off our gear but not enough for us to spread out our arms. Once we were down there, there was a low tunnel we swam through in order to get inside the larger cavern.

The larger opening was a cenote, with a hole in the ceiling of the cave to the surface about 1m x 1m which allowed sunlight to pour in. The divers all got to surface inside to see how glittery the walls were. They all looked like they had glitter put on them. After descending again we went one by one into a dark cave where we could only see with our torches. My mask was fogging up really bad so I did not see all the shrimps in there, but according to Nick there were a lot.

After the cave dive we did a barge wreck and then the Coron reef. The barge wreck was fine but along the reef afterwards we saw our first cuttlefish, which was cute and shy. They look like fat squids. There were also white and black slugs I found on a purple hard coral. Nick hung out with a large jellyfish in the open water that swam in slow motion.

Our final day in Coron was spent island hopping since we would be flying the next day (no more scuba diving for us). We did the Super Ultimate Tour which took us to Kayangan Lake, Green Lagoon, Barracuda Lake, Beach 91, Balinsasayaw Reef, Twin Lagoons, and Twin Peaks Coral Garden. Luckily these stops were all extremely close to the town, which meant less boat driving time than our first island hopping tour and more time for activities. We rented a kayak for the day as well, which was great as the boat took it around for us.

The view after climbing all the stairs at Kayangan Lake is gorgeous (that is after waiting 30 minutes in line). We saw cliffs, the walkway, and the ombre water color. The lake itself was underwhelming, though. Swimming is only allowed in a small roped off area, life jackets are mandatory, and there are so many people in there we couldn’t really swim that easily. There is nothing to look at under the water, either. We were definitely confused why it was a stop on everyone’s tour.

Nick and I hopped in our kayaks and paddled ourselves to the next stop, which was the Green Lagoon right next door. This was stunning. The water was green/turquoise with steep cliffs around.

There was even a small mangrove area that the kayaks fit through perfectly. When we entered it was calm and tranquil, but when we tried to leave everyone got the memo it was nice in there and there was a kayak pile up. One kayak even sank with a family in it.

Beach 91 was our lunch stop. The beach itself was so tiny we laughed a lot about it. We are not convinced this was actually the right place. Seemed more like they built a bunch of picnic areas on several cliff sides for the tours. Lunch was delicious, as usual, and afterwards we kayaked around the nearby island. We even saw a small Chinese ship wreck.

Balinsasayaw Reef was nice, especially because our free dive guide hung out with us the whole time and showed us some neat things. He showed us some clown fish, giant clams (bigger than watermelons), and a sea turtle. It was super exhausting, though, because he had long flippers and Nick and I had none. I tried my best to keep up but that was the biggest snorkel workout of my life.

Twin lagoon was another place we felt looked similar to Kayangan Lake. There are two lagoons surrounded by steep cliffs, a classic in Palawan. We paddled into the first lagoon area and parked our kayak in between two rocks to take a swim. There were lots of fish and we enjoyed a swim in the shade after all the sun we’d gotten throughout the day.

To get from that area back to the boat through the second lagoon we could take stairs over a cliff, or we could paddle under a small tunnel. We opted for the tunnel as it sounded cool! The tide was a bit high and it was so difficult. Luckily there was a guide there to help push kayaks through as we had to lay down backwards fully to not hit our heads. It was total chaos by the tunnel; everyone wanted to go in from both directions. Kayaks were not waiting their turn, swimmers were everywhere, and it was overwhelming.

After the tunnel chaos we returned our kayak to the boat and went for a swim. The water was a dark navy and so deep we could not see the bottom. People from our boat took turns jumping from the bow of the boat into the water. Nick did a backflip and a ginger guy did 5 belly flops. It looked like it hurt a lot. It was hard to tell if it was on purpose or not as each jump looked like it was an attempt at something else.

On the way to the last stop we got deep fried crepe covered bananas with brown sugar. These snacks are so mouth watering, I dream about them still. Twin Peaks Coral Garden was a wonderful snorkel spot. There are also dive boats that come there, but our boat was there at 5:30pm because we were behind schedule so we had it all to ourselves. The place has so much coral! We saw strange jelly fish looking things, clown fish, and more. It was a lovely way to end our time in Coron.