CORONicles Day 1: Touchdown Coron
CORONicles Day 3: Malcapuya Loop tour
CORONicles Day 4: What Should've Been An Awesome Calumbuyan Tour
CORONicles Day 5: Wrap Up and Post-Travel Accounting
We all had a good night sleep and woke up early to prepare for our island hopping tour. Waking up to the sounds of nature was something we, as urban nocturnal creatures, badly needed. The room that we had in Gran Vista was a basic fan room. We didn't need A/C rooms as the cool wind of the province was more than enough to lull us to sleep. Even though we were really exhausted from climbingMt. Tapyas the day before, we were all enthusiastic about the day's activities.
Our P120-breakfast meal consisted of coffee, hotdog, longganisa, and dried fish. It was raining quite hard so Kuya Bobby, our tour guide, advised us to wait until around 8:30 to 9:00 before we could go to the port. We were all praying for the rain to stop.
We arrived at the wharf and met our boatmen. They were an uncle-nephew tandem who came all the way from Sorsogon to Coron to try their luck here. Their boat, Ton Ton, was big enough for our group (6 adults + 1 kid). The capacity of the boat, I think, is 20pax. Ms. Gigi charged us P2000 (boat only) for the Coron Island Loop Tour.
Siete Pecados was our first stop for the day. It's only 20 minutes from the port. Entrance fee is P100/head. We also bought some bread in town earlier so we could feed the fish.
10:45AM, Kayangan Lake
We arrived at the twice-declared cleanest lake in Asia, the Kayangan Lake, after 15 minutes of sea travel. Entrance fee is P150/person.
12:40PM
We arrived at Banol beach, the only non-open water spot that we would visit for the Coron Island tour. Entrance fee is P100/head and there's another P100-fee for cottage rental. While Kuya Bobby prepared our lunch, we decided to do a little bit of walking around the area.
02:15PM
We arrived at the skeleton ship wreck but the "parking area" was so full that we had to wait until one of the boats left so we could secure a spot near the ship wreck. But while waiting, we decided to snorkel in the shallow part of the site and these were what we saw:
We left for the Twin Lagoon at around 3:00 in the afternoon. We were a little bit disappointed with our experience in the Skeleton Wreck site but the breathtaking rock formations more than made up for it.
Like in Kayangan Lake, the docking area in Twin Lagoon was also crowded. Good thing there was enough "parking space" for the boats, unlike in the Skeleton Wreck site.
P120.00 - Breakfast in Gran Vista
P20.00 - Tricycle fare to wharf
P334.00 - Boat rental
P84.00 - Tour guide fee
P100.00 - Banul beach entrance fee
P100.00 - Sieta Pecados fee
P200.00 - Kayangan Lake and Twin Lagoon entrance fee
P100.00 - Skeleton Wreck Site fee
P200.00 - Picnic lunch
P20.00 - Tricycle fare from wharf to Gran Vista
P15.00 - Coordination fee
P200.00 - Dinner in Gran Vista
P1,493 - Total expenses per person
All photos in this post are owned by Toto, Kert and me. Please email me at [email protected] if you wish to use our photos.