wandersoles: coron wrecks!

not a bad plan b for our failed tubbataha trip.

after organizing our messed up lives and successfully negotiating with expedition fleet to refund/rebook/reimburse our Tubbataha expense, we scrambled to salvage what was left of our supposed to be 8-day live aboard trip. since everybody had their hearts set on diving, we figured the next best thing and next best place to go would be to palawan, specifically coron for their wrecks and it did not disappoint.

after the Tubbataha fiasco, you would think that fate would cut us some slack and allow us a bit of respite from the roller coaster of emotions and energy-draining, amazing race-like running around from here to there, but no. the journey to coron was fraught with drama, flight rebooking and an almost cancellation -- through it all we persevered and were rewarded with the sweetest of all victories when we finally reached our destination: coron!

since the first goal was finally achieved, there was only one thing in everybody's minds...diving!

we started our coron dive adventure with an unusual and interesting dive at the freshwater barracuda lake.

to get to the dive site, we had to swim to shore and do a 10-15 minute climb over the limestone mountain in full scuba gear! (good thing there were locals who were around to carry the our tanks and all for a minimal fee).

the climb (even without scuba gear) was difficult but the view was spectacular and the dive site even more so.

the lake got its name from the lone barracuda that had taken residence in this stunning paradise, although we were not able to get a glimpse of it during our dive. we were forewarned that the temperatures in the lake can get really hot so we discarded our wetsuits and dove in our swimsuits and boardshorts. diving barracuda lake was a totally awesome experience, the landscape was distinctively palawan, there none of the reefs teeming with corals and fishes, here you see limestones and lots of tiny shells, mud-like sulfur sand instead of the regular white sand and the warm water was quite enjoyable but the deeper we went, the hotter it got. no pun intended, but for our first coron dive, that was way cool!

the first dive set the bar for the rest of our dives in coron, we conquered and explored 6 of the 24 or so japanese supply ships which sunk around the calamian islands - akitsushima, olympia maru, irako, tangat, east tangat, taeie maru - plus the beautiful reefs in cyc.

sea dive, our dive operator is also worth noting, aside from the good rates and service they gave us, they have really big and beautiful dive boats.

we ended our last dive day with a visit to cyc, an uninhabited island with a wide expanse of white beach where we just relaxed and chilled while waiting for the sun to set.

it was a blissful 5 days of diving, but there are a lot of other things to in the area - like head on to el nido or go camping in some remote island, the only time we got to go around town was at night and there was not much to see or do, the locals and most of the shops close at around 9 pm.

there aren't really any notable restaurants or bars to go to and the best bet that you have for a good meal is to buy from the market and have it cooked. We were lucky to have stayed in the WG Sea Lodge whose kitchen offers to cook anything you buy from the market for a fee, not bad since the seafood (crabs, shrimps, crabs!!!), veggies and fruits were way cheap. we feasted on fresh seafood every night.