Day 167: Busuanga

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Coron town (the port town on the island of Busuanga) doesn't have a whole lot going for it - it is mostly just boat docks and tricycles - but the surrounding islands and Japanese ship wrecks are what people come for.

Our boat from El Nido to Coron was advertised to take 4 hours, but most people we asked said it would take 6 or 7. It ended up taking over 9 hours. This was partly due to an engine break down shortly after we left El Nido, which took them a while to fix, and then another one about half an hour later. We were a little worried that the engine would fail when we weren't so close to shore but the boat men just laughed and said that if we did break down we could just call in a rescue. Luckily we made it without any more break downs, but also much later than we expected. We were glad that it was our last long boat ride of the trip.

After dinner my mom, steph and I decided to head out to the hot springs, which are a 15 minute trycicle ride out of town. The tricycles in Coron are bigger than others we'd seen so it was no problem fitting the three of us into one (I saw one with 8 people). The road to the hot springs was dirt, and full of pot holes. There were a few times on the way to the hot springs where the driver had to accelerate before getting to a hill, and then instructed us all to lean forwards on the way up.

The hot springs were actually really nice. There are two very hot pools which feed a slightly cooler but much larger third pool. The large pool was about 50 feet by 50 feet, smaller ones were 15 feet by 15 feet. We stayed until our insides were cooked and headed back. Again, we had to assist the driver on the hills, but we made it back to Coron in one piece.

The next day we all went island hopping again (4th time since we met up). The island hopping in Coron works a little different than in other places: there is a set fee for the boat, and then each spot you want to visit also has a fee. We picked five out of the seven typical choices, and headed out.

The first stop was called seven islands - probably because it is a cluster of seven small islands. The coral and fish there were the best we had seen yet (excluding the dive Steph and I did in Bohol). The visibility was also pretty good. The coral dropped off in a steep hill, and we could see some very large fish in the depths. There was a huge sweetlips that seemed to be collecting coral and depositing it in its home. In the shallow waters we saw huge patches of sea urchins, numbering in the hundreds.

After seven islands, we went to Kayangan Lake. It is a volcanic lake on Coron island, which is a short boat ride away from Coron town on Busuanga island. To get to the lake you have to hike up and over a steep hill in to the crater. The lake is crystal clear, with karst formations in and out of the water. Quite a sight. We brought our snorkeling stuff so we went snorkeling for a while. The only life are thousands of snails on the walls and these tiny little fish with pointy noses, kind of like miniature swordfish.

When we hiked back over the hill towards our boat, we stopped at the top to marvel at the cove below. We hadn't noticed on the way up that the cove is comprised of rings of coral reefs. Pretty pretty. We took a bunch of pictures before heading down.

After Kayangan lake we found a beautiful little white sand beach to have lunch. We had it to ourselves for most of lunch, until we were finally joined by another boat. Like the other island hopping trips, our guides grilled our lunch right there on the beach.

Our next stop was called "skeleton wreck", although I was disappointed that there were no human remains. It is a Japanese boat wreck (one of many) that must have been hit pretty good because only the skeleton of a boat is left. At it's shallowest point it is about 15 feet underwater and covered with coral, so it is good for snorkeling.

Our final stop was Twin Lagoons. The boats dock in one of the lagoons, and you have to swim into the second one - kind of like Small Lagoon in El Nido. But what made this much different is that the water was "brackish" which means it is a mixture of fresh and salt water. It looks really weird - it forms layers, and it is almost oily looking. There were some corals and fish in the lagoon, but the weirdest thing were dozens of jellyfish unlike any we'd seen yet. They all seemed to be trying to swim downwards, and their tentacles were really fat. I thought the first one was an anemone until it moved away. As we were snorkeling our way out of the lagoon I spotted an underwater cave, and when I went to investigate I found that it went in and then down, further than I could see. I wanted to go further in but I didn't want to worry my mom.

That night I did some surgery on Steph's camera to try to fix it, and found it had a similar problem as mine did. The gears that are between a small motor and the focusing mechanism were jammed. I took it apart and put it back together and somehow that was enough to fix it. Two cameras resurrected!

We said goodbye to my parents the following morning as they headed back to Manila, while Steph and I stayed in Coron to do some diving. Coron is world famous for the wreck diving - it is touted as one of the, if not THE, best place in the world for wreck diving. This is because on september 24th, 1944, Americans launched a surprise attack on a fleet of Japanese ships that thought they were safe hiding around Coron. Big mistake. In 15 minutes of bombing, America destroyed over 2 dozen ships. Luckily for divers, half of these ships sank in waters shallow enough to reach with SCUBA equipment.

Steph is only certified to dive down to 18 meters so we could only choose wrecks in relatively shallow waters. We set up a trip to go to the East Tangat wreck (max depth 22 meters), then a coral dive called "magic reef", and finally the Lusong gunboat (max depth 9 meters). No other divers were going to the same places so it was just Steph, our dive master, our boat man, and myself, on a pretty decent sized boat.

The East Tangat wreck was a little creepy because the hull is still pretty intact and not much light gets inside. After circling the boat we followed our dive master inside a large doorway. The boat angles down a hill, plus it is tilted slightly on its side, so it is a little disorienting going in. We exited out a hole in the top, and proceeded to another compartment where you drop in from a hatch in the top. After exiting that compartment we just explored the outer hull, which is covered in coral. Pretty cool.

The "magic reef" dive was pretty magical, except our dive master was going way too fast. I kept seeing cool things but then I'd have to leave them to catch up with steph and the DM. I eventually communicated for him to slow down so we could take in all the sights. We saw dozens of clownfish, some pipefish (similar to sea horses) and countless other types of fish and coral.

When we went to start the boat, something was definitely wrong. Our driver seemed to think it was the battery until another boat came by and lent us a battery to try out. I think it was a bad starter. They eventually wrapped a rope around the crank pulley, and with four of us pulling (it took a few tries) we got the engine going.

Our final dive, at the Lusong gun boat, was definitely the best. We dropped down a ways from the boat to check out the coral reef. The DM took us to a giant clam about 3 feet wide. We also spotted and followed a sea turtle for a couple minutes. The Lusong boat wreck itself is kind of small, but it is completely covered in coral, inside and out. We also did a swim through there, although it was a tight squeeze and our dive master pulled us through the last bit. The boat was home to a bunch of clownfish, one of which was on such a small anemone that he couldn't really hide inside. I poked him.

Once again we had to use the rope to start the boat, and there were only three of us this time, but we got it going on our second try. Hopefully they fixed it before they took anyone else out.

Our last day in Coron we didn't do much of anything. We'd been moving pretty fast for the past 2 weeks so it was kind of nice to have a day to decompress before we headed out on more adventures.

Here's some pictures from Coron:

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Comments

[Matt Potterton]

I'm dissapointed in the boat driver
That would have been an opportune moment to fake like you all needed to pull your hardest to get the engine started and then just let you and Stephanie launch yourself off the back of the boat as you pulled on nothing