Cruisin' in Coron

I met Lea when I was in a solo trip in Bratislava in June 2016. Since then, we’d see each other every so often. Our next meet up was two months later when she came over to the Philippines. I showed her around Manila for a day, then we headed to La Union with a few of my high school friends.

I promised to see her later that year in Europe. I was not able to realize that promise because I was too caught up with school. I did attempt several times to spend a weekend with her at her hometown in Hanover but life got in the way.

Early this year, I was set to leave Europe for good sometime in July 2017. Knowing this, she booked a last-minute bus ride to Paris to see me for an entire day. She promised to come and visit me in the Philippines this year.

She didn’t fail me. Lea flew in last Friday to Manila from Singapore. I met her at the domestic airport early that afternoon. We were bumped into an earlier flight. We were set to go to the island of Coron in Palawan!

The last time she was around, I did take her to a beach. She did have fun surfing – her first time. This time, since she has always been so kind to come and see me where I was in this planet, I thought of organizing a trip to beaches she has been longing to see. I was battling whether to take her to El Nido or Coron but chose the latter, eventually.

So there we were, about to board the plane at 1pm when she grabbed hold of my hand and exclaimed: “Leni, are we seriously taking that old plane from after the war?”

We were flying via SkyJet, a smaller plane for our 35-minute, 200-km flight. It was my first time to fly SkyJet, too. Other carriers to Coron from Manila are Cebu Pacific, Philippine Airlines and Air Juan. I chose Skyjet because it was the cheapest option I could find for our travel dates (around 6,000 PHP, two-way).

“Yeah, what’s wrong?” I asked because I was sincerely confused what she was fussing about.

“I mean really, I’ve never seen such a plane in my entire life. It looks like an old Russian plane.” She went on to say.

“Well, okay. But we’ll be fine. Don’t worry.” I continue to reassure her.

Suffice it to say, all throughout our flight, she grabbed hold of my hand as I was trying to calm her down to the best of my efforts. Adding to her anxiousness about flying is the fact that this is an old obsolete plane, by European standards. I told her to trust our pilots and our planes. They might not be of European standards but they still work perfectly well. Why would we need a bigger plane for short flights like this? That would’ve cost more. That reasoning helped calm her down a bit. Still, she insisted to speak to the captain to learn more about the plane. She would be given that opportunity when we landed.

She was on a high when we got off the plane: first time entering the cockpit, albeit the plane being a small one. Her first time sitting on the pilot’s chair, too! Plus a selfie and a friend request from both the pilot and co-pilot. Our trip was off to a good start.

After baggage claim, we headed for the van that would take us to our hotel. I booked us in Ecolodge at Calle Real, in the heart of the city center, as recommended by a friend. It cost the two of us less than 4,000 PHP for two nights for a room with a twin-bed, breakfast included. Not too bad for its price but you really can’t expect much. The Wifi wasn’t working for both days and is only available in the lobby. Good thing Lea got a Globe sim card at the airport. Globe’s 4G works perfectly well, Smart’s 4G a little less.

I would’ve wanted to take advantage of the time we have in the afternoon to see the most we could in Coron island such as the waterfalls and the hot spring. However, we were both exhausted – her from her previous trip, and I, from work and from battling with cough and colds. Our first day was then spent into settling down and preparing ourselves for what was in store for the next day.

Before the day ended, I booked us a private boat with a tour guide and lunch for the following day. This only cost us 3,300 PHP (entrance to the islands/spots not yet included, but to get ahead of myself, entrance to our chosen destinations was at 900 PHP: 100-200 PHP per spot). I have not decided on the itinerary, though and thought I might leave it to the tour guide instead.

Over breakfast the following day, one of the hotel staff who was assisting us at the restaurant chatted me up and suggested which areas we may visit. I listened to his advice and showed the itinerary he had arranged for us to our guide. Our tour guide and bankero agreed it was a good itinerary and planned out in which order we would visit the spots. After logging out from the coast guard we went to our first stop:  siete pintados.

We went around snorkeling through the seven small islands and enjoyed the view from underwater of the diverse species: from corals to fishes… Lea swam like a mermaid, I was pulled by our guide with my lifejacket and snorkeling gear on. I wish I knew how to swim…

Next stop was Kayangan Lake. We had to climb 150 steps, took a good look of the clear blue ocean from the viewing deck before climbing back down 150 steps to the lake. One word: magnifique.

Lea was kind enough to teach me how to swim in this deep, deep lake, to no avail. When we were about to get off the water, I had a hard time pulling myself up to shore that it required the help of five people to get me up. How embarrassing but thank you, kind-hearted people, both local and foreigners! Instead of judging me, you helped me up! Now that’s bayanihan!

A quick stop to an old Japanese vessel was our third destination: Skeleton Wreck. We didn’t spend too much time there for a couple of reasons: there were too many people (I could just imagine how it would have been during peak season) and we could only see one part of the boat (the tail is way down under). There were a whole bunch of schools of fishes, though!

Half past 11, we headed for Banol Beach, by its nipa huts to munch on a huge tuna, grilled pork (liempo), seaweed ensalada served with, what else, rice – of course, prepared by our guide, Loloy and our boatman, Gibson. After an hour, we set sail for our next stop.

At CYC Public Beach, the only spot where entrance was free, Lea found her sea star (/starfish) and bothered me (haha) in the middle of my siesta to take a photo of her with it. After she checked that item off from her bucket list, she joined me for a nap under the shade. We had mango ice candy (10 PHP) when we woke up about an hour later before heading back to the ocean.

As if the myriad of corals and sea creatures we have already encountered the entire morning wasn’t enough, Kuya Loloy and Kuya Gibson took us to the Coral Garden, where we went snorkeling again. You can never get tired of that view. Too bad we were not properly equipped with the right photography gear, but it didn’t matter. I have the best image imprinted in my brain.

The last stop was at Twin Lagoon. It was just an awesome spot to see and experience. We couldn’t take our phone cameras further but, my God, if you do a quick Google Image search, yes, it is that beautiful and much, much more in real life!

As much as we would like to see more and spend more time lusting on these magnificent views, we were both suffering from a massive headache that we decided to go back to our hotel and call it a day.

Despite the sunburns, the headaches, the expensive food and drinks, and the delayed flight back to Manila, I would say it was all worth it to see such beauty. I am speechless and at awe. I’m happy I get to spend it with Lea; to show her how beautiful our country could be amidst the inconvenience of travelling around the Philippines and the absence of comfort we’re used to in our daily lives.