July 6, 2017

The best part about visiting Palawan (El Nido and Coron) is that their tours are already organized into groups, depending on the sights that you want to visit. You can just choose which tour you want and you can already see a lot of sights in one day.

On our first day, we booked the Coron Island Ultimate Tour though our hotel’s recommended agency on the day that we arrived. We paid Php 1,500 per person and it already includes lunch and transportation to the pier from our hotel, vice versa. I actually also inquired about private speed boat rentals before our trip but it costs Php 6,000 to rent a speed boat for a day. We chose to spend more on our hotel than our tour so we just went with the group tour. After breakfast, we had to wait for our van to pick us up. They picked us up at around 9 in the morning.

This was our bangka. It was quite big and we were a group of around 20 but touring with the group actually made it more enjoyable. Our tour guide was really funny and he was super accommodating too. He knows how to take photos in the right spots and he also directs our poses as well. lol

He actually made us climb to the top of our bangka just to take this photo. lol

And we are off to our first stop – Siete Pecados. It’s called Siete Pecados because it’s made up of seven small islands. It was a great place to snorkel.

We’re here!!

If you’re coming to Coron, don’t forget to bring your snorkeling gear! We did a lot of snorkeling in this trip so you’ll be able to save if you bring your own gear.

I also rented beach shoes because I was afraid I’d step into one of these. We were instructed to not get to close to the seabed because there might be stonefish or sea urchin. Look at how many they are..

Beach bod :b

The next stop of the tour was also highlight of this tour, which is the Kayangan Lake. It was definitely an amazing sight to see.

But before you reach the lake, you will need to do a tiring walk up to see the view for 163 steps, and down again for 204 steps to reach the lake.

They also have a lot of rules to follow before entering the lake. Someone actually died in the lake because they were swimming without life jackets that’s why they strictly implemented the No Life Jacket, No Entry policy.

We walked the 163 steps to the top and before we got to the top, we were already welcomed with this view.

We had to line up to take a photo of the incredible view. This was the downside to going on tour groups because all the groups usually have the same schedule and so almost everyone will be at the same spot at the same time.

But this view is definitely worth the wait (and the 1million steps). lol

Our tour guide, being the experienced guide that he was, went inside the cave to take this amazing framed photo of us. lol

After taking photos, we went down again on the other side to swim at the lake. We were always reminded to wear our life vests so I felt really safe there. We swam to the edge of the lake, far from all the other tourists.

Our next stop was another beautiful lake, the Barracuda Lake. It wasn’t actually called that until a barracuda was spotted in the lake by some divers. This lake is actually very deep. Vim jumped from our bangka and we swam to the entrance of the lake. If you don’t know how to swim, don’t fret because the tour guides will just pull and swim you to the entrance.

This was the entrance to the lake.

The water was super clear. And it’s freshwater so I was able to open my eyes underwater. I actually haven’t tried opening my eyes underwater evar so it felt amazing that I could do this without hurting my eyes.

Everyone was already hungry after all the swimming that we did. We then stopped at Banol Beach to have lunch. We had a feast of Filipino dishes. They served us with fish, sinugbang baboy (grilled pork), lato, eggplant, cucumber and fresh fruits.

This is me and my bloated tummy after lunch. :b

After lunch, our bangka was parked at the center of the sea and we were given time to snorkel at the Coral Garden. I think I was too full and too sleepy to snorkel so I just took photos instead. lol :b

Our second to the last stop was the Skeleton Wreck. It was definitely my favorite part of the tour! It was like we were in a life size aquarium and we were swarmed with a million fishes. I didn’t take a lot of photos because I was just enjoying the moment. Plus my boyfriend set the GoPro in Video + Photo mode and all the photos were either blurry or isn’t facing us. lol

After the Skeleton Wreck, we went to our last stop, which is the Twin Lagoon. While on the way, they served us with snacks. We had puto cheese!

Almost there! 🙂

We kayaked our way to the Twin Lagoon while the other people in our group were pulled by out tour guide.

The twin lagoon was amazing. We had a lot of fun kayaking there and I don’t think I’ve been to a place similar to this in my entire life.

It really felt like I was at a Jurrasic movie.

That was our last stop for the day and we were beyond impressed at the whole tour. Our tour guides were funny and really accommodating and they really understood our needs. They always offer to take photos and they never failed to make us feel unsafe in any way.

After a tiring day, we just relaxed at the roof deck of our hotel, ate dinner at the Hunt and called it a night.

<3theadventuresoftingting