Palawan: Coron - Island Hopping Tour "B"

We booked the island hopping Tour B today (with Mommita) and woke up early for the port, it’s only a few minutes walk down the road to the bay from Mommita’s Place. But we were taken there by a tricycle, included in the PHP750 cost of the tour. There were only 3 of us on the boat, but that did not last long, 3 more joined in the last minute, 2 guys from France, a Chinese, and 3 of us locals.

The boat cruised to our first destination – Barracuda Lake – named after, you’ve guessed it right, the barracuda fish. Our guide told us that there are a couple of barracuda lurking under the waters here. Do they bite? The clear dark blue waters of the lake is deep, it is on the other side from the light blue waters where we moored our boat near a wooden platform, we have to walk through a well-constructed wooden stairs up and down to the lake. We were the only boat there until a group of divers came.

Barracuda Lake is nice, a bit mysterious, using the snorkeling gadget we rented from the boats staff, I could see the deep cave-in down below me while I’m floating with the life vest also provided on the boat. I don’t know but I’m always afraid of deep waters, or even shallow ones. I feel like some creature will just snap me from the surface to down there. Hah, this is what I get from watching too many scary movies.

The green limestone mountains created a nice backdrop on the dark blue if somewhat creepy lake. This is the first time I went into the waters after a long long while, so it quite scare the hell out of me. And I have a self-inflicted phobia with large body of waters.

We left onto our next stop – Skeleton Wreck – named after the fishing boat which sank under the belly of the ocean. We moored exactly on top of the spot. We enjoyed snorkeling here because of too many colourful fishes and then the scuba divers are below us under the waters surveying the remain of the sunken ship. I almost stepped into one. Beautiful scene under the waters!

Third stop was a nice sandy beach called - Bulungan Beach – the boats people grilled our food here that consist of huge fish, pork chops, some seaweed and eggplant salad, rice, and fresh bananas. Sumptuous! We filled up our hungry stomach like all boat tours provide. Swam a bit to burn those calories.

Next stop, a nice clear lake surrounded by limestone mountains called – Sunset Lake. There are portions of the lake that were shallow and further down near the mountains it gets really deep. That was the last stop and it’s still early, the two French guys are up for an additional stop the nearest one that our guide could think of is the Twin Lake. That was allowed for an additional fee of 150 pesos.

As the name suggests, the Twin Lake are two lakes divided by cave in between. The water at the lake where we parked somehow smelt of crude oil, it doesn’t look really crystal clear compared to where we’ve been but the scenery here is breath-taking. Half of the people on the boat went down but I preferred to stay and waited for them at the boat, and they came back in about half an hour.

We sailed back to Coron finally. Most of the lakes, coves and beaches on the tour itinerary are grouped together in such a way that it’s easy for the boat to navigate, near each other almost.

TIP: Rent a snorkeling gear if you don’t have one, you’ll regret it later if you don’t. But, don’t lose it, otherwise, you’ll be paying PHP 1,500 which is the cost of a new one.