A Pinay's Way to Conquer the World: Coron's Waterworld: Coron Island Hopping Tour

The true peace of God begins at any spot a thousand miles from the nearest land.
~Joseph Conrad

CORON ISLAND TOUR (TOUR B-1)
Destinations: Kayangan Lake, Twin Peaks Reef, Twin Lagoons, CYC Island, Atwayan Beach, Coral Gardens (Php650/person)
Additional Destination: Banol Beach (Php100/person)

A morning view of Coron sea.

My roommates and I were always the one to get up early. So we were always leeching on the free coffee and watching the sun rise while waiting for our breakfast to get done.

We were so excited to begin our tour that we forgot that we were to meet our tour guide in the port so we walked all the way back to the Galeri. Good thing May and Al were already up at 6am or we wouldn’t be able to know which boat was ours.

Captain Benjie and his assistant Rommel were our tour guides. He showed us where our tour would bring us today and also suggested some other places we could go if we wanted the best sunset view in Coron.

Capt. Benjie showing our day's itinerary.

Rommel steering our boat away from the dock.

The islands of Coron are owned by indigenous families so one has to pay a fee to be able to stay in an island. The tour package we availed at the Galeri already included the fees for the islands and for the boatmen/tour guides. If, according to Capt. Benjie, we wanted to go to an island or beach that was not included in our package, we would only have to pay P100 per head to the local guarding the place.

Our first stop was the cleanest lake in the country: Kayangan Lake.

To reach the lake, we hiked our way up one of the mountains surrounding it. It was not a long hike, took us about 20 minutes including a short stop at the middle for some photo shoot opportunity.

And the trek begins!


My friend posing for a photo shoot a.k.a. taking a break from the trek.

After a 10-15 minutes, we finally saw the lake.


Kayangan Lake.

I personally can claim that Kayangan is indeed the cleanest lake in the country. Although the bamboo-made bridge connecting the hiking path to one side of the lake was littered with orange vests and tourists who were too afraid to jump in, the lake itself was pristine: blue water that turned white whenever the sun hit it. We could see the floor underneath the lake, making it look shallow. But do not be fooled! The lake is deep and, unless you are very confident in your swimming skills and endurance, don’t even try to jump in without a life vest.

Capt. Benjie and Rommel helped us into our vest. The former joined us as soon as we jumped into the lake then he guided us to the farthest part where we got the chance to take underwater shots.

The stones are sharp so we had to be very careful where you step. We were able to take off our vest because Capt. Benjie never left our side. He even pulled us back to the bamboo bridge when it was time to return (it was hard to move with the life vest on). We stayed for about one hour there then moved on to the Twin Lagoon.

True to its name, there were two lagoons. Al earlier explained to us that we would later learn of thermocline—the sudden change of temperature because of the mixture of fresh and salt water.

Putting it in layman’s term, he said it would feel like you peed your pants.

Under the passage we go.

During low tide, swimmers can go to the inner lagoon by going under the small gap under the mountain enclosing one of the lagoon. On high tide, swimmers can still go under the small gap but they have to hold their breath and dive lower—the ceiling of the gap is filled with sharp stones. Another option is to climb the man-made platform in the middle of the peaks and either excitedly jump into the lagoon or calmly climb down from the platform.

We chose to go under the gap mainly because we were too lazy to climb all the way up. In the lagoon, some of us swam to the farthest side. They claimed there was a small hut and a bench there and it was very relaxing. Me and the others stayed behind for a photo op.

While floating our time away and relaxing in the "sometimes-warm-sometimes-cold" water of the lagoon, a large eagle flew past us and encircled once before disappearing into the trees. Unfortunately, the camera we had was not fast enough to catch it on photo.

Passing islands upon islands, we sailed our way to Atwayan beach where we ate our seafood lunch. Aside from the national side dish—enseladang lato—we had a huge grilled fish and some bananas.

We tried taking more underwater photos and some jump shots but ultimately failed so we packed up and moved on.

Our next stop was in the middle of the ocean.

Our boat stopped and Rommel tied it down to a buoy then asks us to put on our vests. We thought we were going to swim to the shore but that was the last thing he said we should do. The shore was filled with sea urchins and sharp rocks. So we put on our vests and our snorkeling gears, and jumped into the open ocean to see one of Coron’s pride: its underwater forest.

Violet, white, blue, yellow, pink, and even black—the corals were as techni-colored as a hippie’s shirt. There were a lot of fishes as well—so many Dories and so many Nemos. The only con to this adventure was the waves that made it difficult to swim where we wanted to go. Rommel accompanied us this time and he dove and swam underneath us like a merman. He pointed to use corrals that were worth pointing at and pulled us back to the boat when the waves were becoming too much to handle.

Our next stop was the CYC Island.

It was a free admission beach, meaning there was a lot of people. The beach itself was not that great. The sand was rough and the water was a bit hazy (probably because there were too many people, the sand wouldn't settle down). Since our underwater shots were all doomed to fail, we just enjoyed using the kayak boat which came with our tour boat.

At exactly 4pm, we made our way to Banol beach. It was not in our itinerary but Capt. Benjie recommended this beach for its great sunset view. The beach was empty save for the local guarding the place. The first thing we saw was the white sand then the white calachuchi tree drooling its flowers to the water.

Here, we took pictures until the sun disappeared behind the mountains.

We love Coron!

On our way back, our boat took the darker, quieter route among the mangroves because the waves were becoming stronger. It was so dark that we didn’t stop talking for fear that one of us would fall to the sea unnoticed. The boat docked in front of Seadive so all we had to do was thank the guides and walk back to our rooms to change.

Here are some more photos we took on our first island hopping day: