So we woke up early, waited for our hotel pick-up, but turns out the tour agency we'd booked our day trip with was just across the road from our hotel! So we hired out our snorkel gear and paid for the tour (it was 700 pesos (about £10) for a whole day including food!)
We were then taken to our Bangka boat (small, wooden, canoe-like boat with wooden poles either side to balance it out on the water) and we set sail. We were with a Filipino couple and two Filipino girls who were friends, all on holiday for a bit. We first visited the two peaks for some snorkelling, we stayed there for around an hour. The corals were so shallow and many times I panicked as I feared I would scrape myself on them, but I saw some amazing bright blue fish, another fish who kept attacking my mask and some rainbow fish which were beautiful. I also saw bright green and purple corals. About half an hour in I saw a whole swarm of jellyfish so I decided to get out and sit on the boat, taking in the scenery and soaking up some sun before everyone else got back to the boat. I could hear Laura screaming from miles away, so I guessed they had spotted some jellyfish too!
We then moved on to Kayangan Lake which was a hard climb up and over a mountain and when you reached it, was a beautiful crystal blue lagoon. We snorkelled and swam here for about an hour, it was surrounded by limestone karsts and when snorkelling around the edges it looked like a beautiful underwater castle, with little hidden caves you could peek into. Once we were tired of swimming we just sat on the wooden deck for a bit sunbathing. Then climbed up to the top to get back but via the viewpoint out over the cove where all the boats parked which was magnificent, the view and colour of the cove was amazing (see below). So we took a few pictures here and admired the scenery and then headed back to the boat, where we set out to Banol beach where we had lunch.
Lunch was freshly baked parrot fish, with rice, fried pork strips, seaweed salad and fresh banana's. You also had vinegar and soya sauce with tomatoes and onions in to dip everything in or to pour over your rice. The Filipino's apparently love bland food but with soya sauce and vinegar as dips to make it interesting. So we stayed here for another hour after lunch, swam, sunbathed. I found a tiny secluded little cove for a bit of alone time just to chill, sunbathe and take some photo's. I also got chatting to the two Filipino girls for a bit which was nice.
Then after lunch we went to another beach which was absolutely stunning - as always! Crystal clear blue water, white sand beach, little water trees dotted around the island and we had it all to ourselves bar a family (huge family) of Filipino's. I was approached by one who wanted her picture taken with me so she could show her daughter on facebook she'd made a 'white friend' lol. We chatted and she told me she was from Mindoro but now lived in Palawan and all her friends and family had come away to celebrate her neighbours 50th birthday - nice birthday party eh?
It was then near the end of the day and so we headed towards another place to snorkel but we were all too tired by this point so we went to the twin lagoons which we were more interested in, snorkelled a bit there but it was quite oily from the boats so we couldn't see much. Then we took a slow ride back to shore.
The day had been amazing and we decided to top it all off we'd head to Sea Dive Bar for some beers and to watch the sunset. Then went back, freshened up and went back to Sea Dive Resort for some food - which was good but a little too expensive for what it was.
It was Laura's birthday tomorrow so they were headed off to a 5* resort for a couple of days before they did some scuba diving. So it would be our last night together til Friday. So in the morning I would have to get up early to accomodation search and try to find a few bits for Laura for her birthday. After today we were pretty knackered so we just called it an early night, plus with the blackouts and the small town mentality of Coron, it wasn't really a 'party' place. So it was all we could really do - sleep!
We were then taken to our Bangka boat (small, wooden, canoe-like boat with wooden poles either side to balance it out on the water) and we set sail. We were with a Filipino couple and two Filipino girls who were friends, all on holiday for a bit. We first visited the two peaks for some snorkelling, we stayed there for around an hour. The corals were so shallow and many times I panicked as I feared I would scrape myself on them, but I saw some amazing bright blue fish, another fish who kept attacking my mask and some rainbow fish which were beautiful. I also saw bright green and purple corals. About half an hour in I saw a whole swarm of jellyfish so I decided to get out and sit on the boat, taking in the scenery and soaking up some sun before everyone else got back to the boat. I could hear Laura screaming from miles away, so I guessed they had spotted some jellyfish too!
We then moved on to Kayangan Lake which was a hard climb up and over a mountain and when you reached it, was a beautiful crystal blue lagoon. We snorkelled and swam here for about an hour, it was surrounded by limestone karsts and when snorkelling around the edges it looked like a beautiful underwater castle, with little hidden caves you could peek into. Once we were tired of swimming we just sat on the wooden deck for a bit sunbathing. Then climbed up to the top to get back but via the viewpoint out over the cove where all the boats parked which was magnificent, the view and colour of the cove was amazing (see below). So we took a few pictures here and admired the scenery and then headed back to the boat, where we set out to Banol beach where we had lunch.
Lunch was freshly baked parrot fish, with rice, fried pork strips, seaweed salad and fresh banana's. You also had vinegar and soya sauce with tomatoes and onions in to dip everything in or to pour over your rice. The Filipino's apparently love bland food but with soya sauce and vinegar as dips to make it interesting. So we stayed here for another hour after lunch, swam, sunbathed. I found a tiny secluded little cove for a bit of alone time just to chill, sunbathe and take some photo's. I also got chatting to the two Filipino girls for a bit which was nice.
Then after lunch we went to another beach which was absolutely stunning - as always! Crystal clear blue water, white sand beach, little water trees dotted around the island and we had it all to ourselves bar a family (huge family) of Filipino's. I was approached by one who wanted her picture taken with me so she could show her daughter on facebook she'd made a 'white friend' lol. We chatted and she told me she was from Mindoro but now lived in Palawan and all her friends and family had come away to celebrate her neighbours 50th birthday - nice birthday party eh?
It was then near the end of the day and so we headed towards another place to snorkel but we were all too tired by this point so we went to the twin lagoons which we were more interested in, snorkelled a bit there but it was quite oily from the boats so we couldn't see much. Then we took a slow ride back to shore.
The day had been amazing and we decided to top it all off we'd head to Sea Dive Bar for some beers and to watch the sunset. Then went back, freshened up and went back to Sea Dive Resort for some food - which was good but a little too expensive for what it was.It was Laura's birthday tomorrow so they were headed off to a 5* resort for a couple of days before they did some scuba diving. So it would be our last night together til Friday. So in the morning I would have to get up early to accomodation search and try to find a few bits for Laura for her birthday. After today we were pretty knackered so we just called it an early night, plus with the blackouts and the small town mentality of Coron, it wasn't really a 'party' place. So it was all we could really do - sleep!
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