This is part 4 of the series I'm writing for our Coron trip. You may check the other posts here:
CORONicles Day 1: Touchdown Coron
CORONicles Day 2: Coron Island Loop Tour
CORONicles Day 3: Malcapuya Loop Tour
CORONicles Day 5: Wrap Up and Post-Travel Accounting
CORONicles Day 1: Touchdown Coron
CORONicles Day 2: Coron Island Loop Tour
CORONicles Day 3: Malcapuya Loop Tour
CORONicles Day 5: Wrap Up and Post-Travel Accounting
June 02, 2012, Saturday
07:00AM
It was raining. Hard. Like thunderstorms and lightning. Cats and dogs. Chickens and eggs. Wait, whuuuut? At least you get the point, it was not the best time to go island hopping.
This morning Ms. Gigi told us to wait for the rain to stop before we head to the wharf. Calumbuyan is far from Coron town, more or less 2 hours by boat. It would be too dangerous for us to continue the tour with this kind of weather, especially that we had a 2 year-old kid in the group. I was begging Papa Jesus to stop the rain so we could go to Calumbuyan. After two days in the sea, we still hadn't had enough. We wanted moooooaaar.
It was raining. Hard. Like thunderstorms and lightning. Cats and dogs. Chickens and eggs. Wait, whuuuut? At least you get the point, it was not the best time to go island hopping.
This morning Ms. Gigi told us to wait for the rain to stop before we head to the wharf. Calumbuyan is far from Coron town, more or less 2 hours by boat. It would be too dangerous for us to continue the tour with this kind of weather, especially that we had a 2 year-old kid in the group. I was begging Papa Jesus to stop the rain so we could go to Calumbuyan. After two days in the sea, we still hadn't had enough. We wanted moooooaaar.
08:00AM
But the damn storm wouldn't even let us go out of the resort. As in heavy downpour. Satellite pic of the Philippines below courtesy of PAGASA. Can I just say, 'nuff said? :|
But the damn storm wouldn't even let us go out of the resort. As in heavy downpour. Satellite pic of the Philippines below courtesy of PAGASA. Can I just say, 'nuff said? :|
09:00AM
The rain stopped, like finally. I thought it was going to be forever. Who would want to get stuck in a resort the whole day when the most beautiful islands are just around the corner? Not us! I asked Ms. Gigi if we could still go to Calumbuyan.
And her reply?
"Ma'am Cath, kahit wala na ulan, malakas pa rin alon lalo na papuntang Calumbuyan. Open sea kasi siya. So instead na dun kayo, sa Atwayan Beach na lang kayo, malapit lang siya at mas safe puntahan." In English, "No, baby." In Russian, "Nyet." In my own languange, "Fuck, fuckity, fuck."
Atwayan Beach? Where the hell is that? Would that match the awesomeness of the Calumbuyan Loop tour? But we had no choice because we didn't want to sacrifice our precious lives over some place we could actually go back to under a better weather, say summer?
So we headed to Atwayan Beach somewhere in Coron Island. It was one hell of a ride, I tell you. When we arrived at the wharf, it was only drizzling. But on our way to the beach, it suddenly poured. Why, oh, why?
Finally, after what seemed like eternity, we reached Atwayan Beach. My reaction? Meh. We've seen better. Banol Beach was so much better. Calumbuyan would have been better-er and awesome-r. But we have got no choice. We've seen all the other sites around Coron Island. Malcapuya and Calumbuyan are too far and dangerous to go to under this kind of weather. So you know what they say, just enjoy the music, I mean, the place! Personally, as much as I wanted to swim and snorkel, I just couldn't. The jellyfish decided to have a field trip in Atwayan Beach that day and I would not dare swim with them. I've been "hugged" by a jellyfish before and it's not exactly an experience I'd like to repeat.
But Toto, Kert and Ate Pong, being the optimists that they are, saw an opportunity to enjoy the damn beach. They decided to catch the jellyfish using plastic cups and put them in the Frisbee disc so Yenyen can "interact" with them; you know, poking and seeing if they could survive without water. Kids, tsktsk.
Gloomy weather, jellyfish, not-so-swimmable waters, what could be worse right? Oh right, a group of fifty people having their company outing ala amazing race style who looked at us in disgust all throughout our stay there just because they thought they owned the whole stretch of beach. Uhm, hello? You the owner of Atwayan? Did ya rent the whole place like what Kris Aquino did when she went to Banol Beach? No? Then how about you fuck off? (Excuse me for the words and for being bitchy hihi)
After people-watching, we decided to eat our lunch. Thank goodness for the sumptuous grilled pork and crabs! They were the lifesavers of the trip. And of course a bottle of Coke ♥
The rain stopped, like finally. I thought it was going to be forever. Who would want to get stuck in a resort the whole day when the most beautiful islands are just around the corner? Not us! I asked Ms. Gigi if we could still go to Calumbuyan.
And her reply?
"Ma'am Cath, kahit wala na ulan, malakas pa rin alon lalo na papuntang Calumbuyan. Open sea kasi siya. So instead na dun kayo, sa Atwayan Beach na lang kayo, malapit lang siya at mas safe puntahan." In English, "No, baby." In Russian, "Nyet." In my own languange, "Fuck, fuckity, fuck."
Atwayan Beach? Where the hell is that? Would that match the awesomeness of the Calumbuyan Loop tour? But we had no choice because we didn't want to sacrifice our precious lives over some place we could actually go back to under a better weather, say summer?
So we headed to Atwayan Beach somewhere in Coron Island. It was one hell of a ride, I tell you. When we arrived at the wharf, it was only drizzling. But on our way to the beach, it suddenly poured. Why, oh, why?
Finally, after what seemed like eternity, we reached Atwayan Beach. My reaction? Meh. We've seen better. Banol Beach was so much better. Calumbuyan would have been better-er and awesome-r. But we have got no choice. We've seen all the other sites around Coron Island. Malcapuya and Calumbuyan are too far and dangerous to go to under this kind of weather. So you know what they say, just enjoy the music, I mean, the place! Personally, as much as I wanted to swim and snorkel, I just couldn't. The jellyfish decided to have a field trip in Atwayan Beach that day and I would not dare swim with them. I've been "hugged" by a jellyfish before and it's not exactly an experience I'd like to repeat.
But Toto, Kert and Ate Pong, being the optimists that they are, saw an opportunity to enjoy the damn beach. They decided to catch the jellyfish using plastic cups and put them in the Frisbee disc so Yenyen can "interact" with them; you know, poking and seeing if they could survive without water. Kids, tsktsk.
Gloomy weather, jellyfish, not-so-swimmable waters, what could be worse right? Oh right, a group of fifty people having their company outing ala amazing race style who looked at us in disgust all throughout our stay there just because they thought they owned the whole stretch of beach. Uhm, hello? You the owner of Atwayan? Did ya rent the whole place like what Kris Aquino did when she went to Banol Beach? No? Then how about you fuck off? (Excuse me for the words and for being bitchy hihi)
After people-watching, we decided to eat our lunch. Thank goodness for the sumptuous grilled pork and crabs! They were the lifesavers of the trip. And of course a bottle of Coke ♥
When we finished lunch, we decided to stay a bit to do some more people-watching. We saw boats that came and went because seriously there's not much to see in Atwayan beach. And homaygaaad some boats that should only accommodate maximum of 20 passengers had about 50 in them! No kidding! That's not even safe. If all budget trips looked like that I would just splurge a little bit for comfort. I even saw kids and grannies in there, seriously NOT safe :|
While scanning photos of our Coron trip for this post, I realized that I did not take even one picture of Atwayan Beach. I think no one actually cared to take pictures of the place! Hell, we had 4 cameras and nobody even cared to document our trip to this beach. I guess that says a lot, no? But basically, Atwayan is just like Banol. It's smaller though. Banol is definitely better. You be the judge, Atwayan pics from all over the net here.
01:00PM
We decided to leave for Maquinit hot spring. There was no other place to go but there. Besides, seeing Maquinit in broad daylight would be a different experience. I mean, I've always visited the hot spring in the evening, after hiking Mt. Tapyas.
It was sad that we weren't able to mingle with our new boatmen (not the same with the ones who toured us around Coron Island and Malcapuya). We didn't even hear their voices. Honestly, I couldn't even remember how they looked like. :| But God had other plans. He wanted us to oggle at some whore's boobs and butt while she's trying to seduce the Caucasian bathing in the hot spring. Yep, time for people-watching again.
Maquinit hot spring should be visited in the evening only. It's a crime to pay a hundred and fifty bucks to feel and see the moss around the area. Add some 50 degrees Celsius of saltwater into that at 3:00 in the afternoon and you'd feel like your head's going to explode soon. Needless to say, we spent only around five minutes in the hot spring and off we went to the confines of Gran Vista. We badly wanted some cold water to drink and to bathe in. So when we arrived at the resort, ta-daaaa! It rained again! Thank heavens! We let the rain soak our body (ansabeee?) to release the heat from the hot spring. You could say I was bipolar towards rain that day - in the morning I was cursing non-stop because the heavy downpour didn't let us go to Calumbuyan and in the afternoon I was jumping with joy.
04:00PM
Ate Inday, Kuya Jojo and Ate Pong went to the souvenir shops in town to go shop for pasalubong because they wouldn't have time the next morning. Their flight was at 12nn and they wouldn't have time for that anymore. Our flight was a lot later so we decided to save the pasalubong shopping for tomorrow. Besides, we felt drained and drenched so the three of us decided to take a nap.
04:00PM
Ate Inday, Kuya Jojo and Ate Pong went to the souvenir shops in town to go shop for pasalubong because they wouldn't have time the next morning. Their flight was at 12nn and they wouldn't have time for that anymore. Our flight was a lot later so we decided to save the pasalubong shopping for tomorrow. Besides, we felt drained and drenched so the three of us decided to take a nap.