Coron, Palawan, Philippines
We arrived in Coron 2 days ago. 2 things, we are both feeling under the weather, and the island only has 3G to LTE data for everyone here. There is no landline internet so consequently the internet is a bit unreliable. Typical for Philippine standards. Back to number one, it sucks to have a rotten cold and cough but cold pills are available here and we are not the only ones we hear coughing.
We flew into Busuanga airport. It was reminiscent of some of the smaller PH airports we flew into a number of years ago. Very small and the luggage was brought over and the worker carried it in and set it on a raised platform where we could retrieve it. Once we had our luggage it was out to the parking lot where based on where you are staying they assign you to a 12 passenger van. Once loaded with people and luggage, there was even luggage strapped to the roof, we were off. It was a 30 – 45 minute drive to Coron town and Pirates Dive Centre where we are staying. Paul, the owner, was frantically putting the finishing touches on the little bungalow we are staying in. We are the first guests to use it! They have tree house room that they just finished construction of as well. It is built in a massive tree set back a little on the property. It is quite unique. They have also built a small tavern and dive shop at the front of the property on the street. They have done a nice job so far and were busy buying plants to landscape around our finished bungalow. There are more bungalows under construction and also a swimming pool so once completed it will be very nice.
We got settled and had a beer and visit with Paul. We then headed off to find a restaurant for supper. We ate at Trattoria Altrove. It’s a popular spot and we actually had to wait about 15 minutes to get seated. From there we found a small shop where we bought almond milk, cornflakes, some little bowls and spoon. We brought them back and put them in the bar fridge. Then it was off to bed as neither of us felt great.
Sunday morning we had our cereal for breakfast, found the coffee and made some too. We ended up back in our room after breakfast and lay down for a bit as we still felt crappy. Linda slept until almost noon. We got up and visited with Paul for awhile and then walked into town to explore a bit and had lunch at Buzz Express. Coron town is not the most attractive town, it’s got lots of windy streets that go up and down in elevation. There is concrete on some streets and a mix of dirt and rocks on others. Most everything is covered in a layer of dirt. We did note there are a number of car washes, ie: a garden hose and manpower. We ended up buying a couple of beach towels as we never packed any for the trip and Paul hasn’t bought any for guest use yet. We lay around for a bit and after dark caught a trike to the La Sirenetta restaurant. Don’t think we’d have ever found it if the trike driver hadn’t stopped on the right street and pointed and told us to walk down the little street to the restaurant. It is actually out over the water and you walk over a rickety plank pier to get there. You wouldn’t want to have too many drinks and walk across it as it is very uneven and the boards are all different shapes and sizes. The meal and view was great.
Monday we managed to get organized enough to have an electric trike pick us up to take us to Cabo Beach which is a 35 minute drive out of town. The trike has 2 batteries, part way into our trip the driver explained the battery was low and he had to stop and switch the plug over to the second battery. We then started to worry if we’d have enough “juice” to get there and home, he seemed to thing we would. However, then we got lost! We went miles down this rough, dirt road. Gary finally said think we are going the wrong way and showed him the map on his phone, he said no we need to keep going. He finally asked several motorbikes going by and they all told him we’d gone too far. We finally turned around and bumped down the road to get back to the correct turnoff. We finally arrived at the beach. We had to pay an entrance fee of 50 PHP each. The beach was ok. They had little bamboo huts with tables you could sit in and have a picnic if you wanted or sit in the shade. The beach had trees along the edge but there wasn’t much shade. We did go for a swim and the water was considerably warmer than in Boracay. They even had two guys raking along the water’s edge and picking up all the garbage so that was nice to see. We hung out at the beach for a few hours and then took the trike back. We did make it to town and stopped at the battery shop on the edge of town where he exchanged his two batteries for newly charged ones. Once back at our accommodations we had a nice cold beer to wash the dust out of our throats! We showered and walked into town. Picked up a mango smoothie on our walk and ended up back at La Sirenetta for supper. Gary had fish and chips which he really enjoyed and Linda had ginger chicken. The portions here are plentiful! We walked back home and showered again to get off the bug spray and dust. We have use bug spray here as there is a risk on Dengue fever and also Malaria. Linda did get one or 2 bites, but there are not many mosquitos due to the very dry conditions.
We haven’t booked a day trip yet, we’ll likely book one for Wednesday and hope we are both feeling better. Doesn’t look like Gary will improve enough/fast enough to dive which is disappointing. Hopefully we will shake this bug soon!
