Coron

Coron, and Palawan really, are anomalies.  In Puerto Princesa I saw the kind of tourism industry that I recognize from all the tourism countries that I have visited.  You sign up for a tour with someone who is filling up a boat or a bus or a van.  Then a whole bunch of you get in that vehicle and head off for a fabulous adventure (sometimes it's not exactly the case), after which you are deposited at your accommodation with a bunch of great memories.  I have seen it dozens of times in dozens of places.  And then I got to El Nido.  There they had people setting up tours.  But if there weren't enough to fill the boat, well, that was okay.  We went anyway.  In the same boat as originally planned.  With the same amount of food as originally planned.  That was refreshing.

And then I arrived in Coron.  I had trouble even getting on a tour of the nearby sights initially.  The place I was staying suggested that a local tour company might be running a tour the next day, but maybe not.  Huh?  That doesn't sound like a tourist area.  If there were interested people, wouldn't they jump at the chance?  Apparently not.  I went to check in another place, the main place in the area, the dive shop.  The woman there told me she could arrange a boat.  I could tell him where to take me.  And it would be better to get some more people because we could share the boat cost and it would be cheaper for me.  Hmmm... How would I find the others to share?  I wondered.  Oh, no problem, I could just ask around, I was told.  I was new in the area, I didn't know anyone, and I didn't even really know what there was that I would want to see as I had decided on the spur of the moment to go there, and I was being given the means to make a do-it-yourself tour.  I didn't really go for it. 

So I walked out onto the street and a guy in a booth called me over and asked if I wanted to see the sights the next day.  Aha!!!  Here was the tourism I was used to.  I agreed and signed up.  It sounded good and was to include 8 stops.  Their brochure said that there was a minimum of 5 for the tour to proceed, but I figured there was no problem.  The guy said it was all set.

I duly showed up the next morning and then one other guy showed up.  And off we went.  The guy from the tour stand took us to the wharf, looked about, found a boat, called the pilot over and asked him to take us around.  He handed the boatman our lunch stuff and then left us to do our thing.  Hmmm...  It was seeming a lot like El Nido again.  Which was nice.  But it was loads different than I was used in the tourist experiences I have had up to now.

The boatman took us across to his home village (I presume), to pick up the boat captain.  I guess the captain sent his son (I presume it was the son) to troll for a fare for the day, and then to come back and get him when he was successful.  It's really an interesting system here!!

And how was it?  It was amazing.  Coron, the town is not much.  It's just a dirty little place, really, and centered around the main reason it seems to exist on the tourist circuit.  That is diving.  So the Sea Dive Resort on the waterfront is the main operator, it seems.  And then there are the usual sorts of places that go with the main tourist outfits, the travel offices and little snack shops and restaurants.  And then there are the people that go with it.

But once you get out on one of the sightseeing deals to Coron Island, across the strait, it's a different ballgame.  There are coral reefs and lagoons.  There are strange island lakes and brackish waters, thermoclines and tiny beaches.  It's quite a neat place to explore, and all so close it's easy to do in one day.  We set off to a snorkeling place over a coral reef.  I can't show the reef as I don't have an underwater camera (something I am thinking about remedying), but here is a shot of all the boats with people who were snorkeling in the area.

After snorkeling for a while, it was off to the twin lagoons.  There are two lagoons side by side, but separated by a small rock ridge.  We went into one lagoon with the boat, to the entrance for the other lagoon, where we swam and experienced the thermoclines.  People could either swim through, or climb over on the ladder.  On the other side, while swimming you could see the different layers of water.  The different layers of water make it really blurry to see.  Initially I thought it was my mask, but then I saw a relatively undisturbed patch and clearly saw the layers.  It was quite fascinating.  Equally fascinating was the changing water temperature.  The lagoon has seawater on the bottom, the is cool.  On top, coming from the island (that I think is geothermal, possibly even a volcano), is warm water, that gets hot at times.  That is fresh water.  The different types of water and temperatures makes for a strange swimming experience, as the layers stir together, and you go from hot/warm water to cold and back again.

After that it was off to one of two lakes that exist on the island.  It is hard to even tell they are there when you arrive at them.  This was the entrance to Barracuda Lake.  One account of the lake, that was related to me by my boatmate, is that the top layer of the lake is fresh water.  As you descend, you encounter a layer of hot, almost scalding water that is swirling.  Underneath that is seawater that has some entrance way down under the surface.  I don't know about any of that.  I only know that we had the lake to ourselves for the hour we were there, and it was quite beautiful.

Next it was off to lunch.  We were shown one area by the boatmen, but there were lots of people.  We must have wrinkled our noses, for they didn't even bat an eye before heading to another, deserted beach, where the younger guy told us, "This is good, noone there."  We heartily agreed.  And I think it was an even more picturesque spot.  And did we eat heartily.  Grilled fish, boiled crab, rice, rice, and rice, and mango and banana for desert.  It was wonderful.  We spent an hour or more there as well.  My tourmate and I discussed travel experiences.  He told me the best times to visit his home country of India.  I told him about some places he will visit in the near future.  It was really pleasant.

Next we went to another inland lake, Kayangan Lake.  The lake itself was much like Barracuda Lake, but it wasn't deserted.  There were lots of giggling, chattering visitors shattering the tranquillity.  We didn't stay for long.  And we climbed up to the ridge where we were afforded the sight of the day, the bay entrance to the Lake.  I would have considered the day successful if this is the only thing I had been able to see.  It is an amazing sight.  And lest you think that I simply went to some website and took this photo to put here, I am including a rare shot of me in a photo with something picturesque.  (I generally think my ugly mug ruins the ambience, but there are times when you just have to have a shot yourself at a place.  This is one of them)

Yet this still wasn't the end of the day.  We had a visit to a final snorkeling spot, which was badly damaged in some dynamiting insanity to get fish (or so I imagine), but is recovering.  And then we visited a small beach before heading back to the town of Coron.  I think the little beach is probably quite nice, but by the time we got there, the day was getting old and the wind was up.  We spent only a few moments before getting on back to town.  But it was long enough to get a snap of our boatmen, who waited patiently for us all day, and chaperoned up about.  It was a lovely day.