Coron Town

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“Hello, we want to book the boat over to Coron please.”
“Ok, that will be 2,200 pesos each.”

“I’m sorry, we said we wanted to book the BOAT across?”

“Yes, that will be 2,200 pesos each.”

“Are you serious?”

“2,200 pesos please.”

We were in El Nido in low season – this meant the only boat option was ridiculously expensive because they were nowhere near full capacity. To be fair – the boat was quite nice. It was an extra large Banka and because there were only 6 of us – we could all lay down on the benches! Everyone fell asleep apart from me. I am a big boat lover (not in a weird way) so I went out and sat right at the front for about 2 hours. It is well worth doing this for a number of reasons. Firstly, I got to experience the scenery of the Calamian group of islands. Secondly, the flying fish were huge and in vast numbers, and lastly it is just the right thing to do folks.

It was quite a long time on the boat – about 5 or 6 hours. It did go quite quickly though because you get to travel through such a beautiful chain of islands and there is so much to look at. I’m not going to lie – the town of Coron itself does not look too appealing when arriving by sea. There is no beach and the coast line is packed with shacks and dilapidated wooden stilted cottages. The water surrounding the town is not nice and contains quite a lot of rubbish. However once arriving on dry land it instantly becomes a lot more charming.

We were directed to Chrystal Lodge. This is detailed in the LP and it is a lovely place. It hangs off the coast on a series of uncertain, unstable looking stilts. This place has been developed into a small village all on stilts made from the local trees! The rooms are really cool and the place is full of little corners and areas to sit and enjoy coffee or a book. There is also a communal kitchen and the owner Mia is very nice. We paid a little extra for a cottage that had two floors – well a mezzanine floor with our beds on. The floor is literally just uneven logs that have gaps in big enough to fit your hand through in some cases. Below this are the murky depths of the incoming tide – so be careful and don’t drop anything! My girlfriend dropped her earings and they were gone forever.

A lot of people that come to Coron use Chrystal Lodge so it is a good place to meet people. We met a Swedish couple who had lived in Coron for 7 months. They were great people and Kris was a freelance dive instructor who offered to take us out diving the next day. We had come here primarily for the famous wreck diving – so we accepted.

The next day we got on the boat of Chrystal Bay Dive centre and headed out to the wreck sites. It was a stunning day for diving and the water was as clear as the sky. On the way to the dive sites we passed a series of Pearl farms.

“What are those” I asked

“Oh they are pearl farms.”

“Great – maybe we can let the current take us over there and we can grab a few?”

“Ha yeh – you would get killed!” Kris reassured me!

True to his word – there were a series of small floating huts around the farms and in these huts there were clearly visible guards, with clearly visible guns.

The diving was brilliant. It isn’t the best place to come to experience vast collections of marine wildlife but it is a great place to come to experience a different type of diving. I have done canyon diving before and a couple of wreck dives on small boats but this trumped all of them. Some of the wrecks we dived whilst in Coron are HUGE! They are all mainly Japanese freighters and the largest is about 160 metres in length. We manoeuvred through old cargo holds, saw bits of cargo, swam through the hole in the hull that the bomb produced and made our way through tight gullies in the ship that were once used as corridors. This was not only a great diving experience but also an historical one – I felt priveledged to have seen these ships in their final resting places.

There are a couple of wrecks that start at 10-15 metres so me and Kris stopped off at one to practise our free diving. Whenever I embark on a trip that involves diving i practise my breath holding after getting an improvised lesson from a freediving instructor on Gilli T last year and it can come in handy. There was a rope leading to the hull of the boat at about 12 metres so it was easy enough to get down there. We spent our time improving our breath holds and venturing in and out of the wreck.

That night we went out with Kris and Nathalie who know EVERYONE on the island. Jon the friendly Korean who owns the oriental lodge (highly recommended) holds parties every night in the foyer of his lodge. We went there first and enjoyed some Tanduay with some locals. Anyone can just pop in and enjoy the hospitality. Then the Kuweba brothers turned up. These are the nicest, coolest people I have met in the Philippines and if you are in Coron you have to meet them. They now own a shop next to the Gateway hotel which has the best handicraft jewellery and souvenirs I have seen. Rodney (the oldest brother) and Leyo make most of it and they are brilliant. The brothers also perform traditional tribal fire dancing and play live music at the Gateway. I was lucky enough to jam with these boys at their house a couple of times – they are all talented musicians. Anyway – this night we all ended up at the hard rock (the only club/bar) where we drank Tanduay until the early hours.

On our other days here we just relaxed here. There are plenty of cool hangouts and the locals here are really nice. We were lucky enough to meet Kris and Nathalie so we hung out with them in their usual haunts. You can climb the 700 odd steps to the point where the cross is if you fancy a nice view. But that is it – there is nothing up there for you to do!

Organise a taxi to the airport/shack a day or so in advance. There are plenty about – but you need to organise your pick up point and time. It takes about 40 minutes to get to the airport and everything is surprisingly organised considering the size of the place. If you have a girlfriend with you who is still drunk from the night before then it is probably best to buy supplies (water and food) in Coron town because there is only one shop at the airport and it is quite expensive.

I really liked Coron town and I am definitely going to come back here because I feel like I have hardly scraped the surface of this place. The only word that properly describes Coron is “cool.”

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