Day 21: "All By Myself" by Celine Dion

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It was blaring from a shopfront the day before Pearl left. We were woken and kept awake as the track looped endlessly who's lyrics loop endlessly. We heard it as we walked down the street to breakfast, and it was the first thing we heard when we returned from our tour. "All by myse-e-elf!"

My ship out wasn't until midnight so I waited around all day, passing time as best i could. Sitting. Eating slowly. Drinking cokes. A $7 massage. Staring at the sea. Before I knew it the sun had set and Mexico v. S. Africa was already in kickoff. I watched the first half and headed out to the boat. I didn't know which ship to board nor what kind of ferry it would be. Turns out the cheapest tickets out of town put you aboard cargo ships with passenger benches. I probably should have opted for 1st class (upstairs) but decided to save $1.20 instead. She was 100ft long, wooden, and sported a mighty crane for hoisting. The deck where I was to sleep was hot and stank like old fish and axle grease, smoke wafted up through the floor from engine room below my bed. There were rows of numbered cots lining the floor with barely enough room to move down the aisles. After we started moving, things got better. A breeze blew through the open windows, clearing out the headaching exhaust, and since there were empty cots I was able to put my bag next to me and stretch out and sleep. We were woken up in the morning to breakfast of fried fish and rice and a sunrise to beat them all. Busuanga Island rose up in the distance surrounded by innumerable smaller islands, grey against the orange sky.

I walked from the dock to Coron Town, maybe a mile, to stretch my legs and tired back. I met a tour guide who showed me to his fathers hotel where I got a room for P200/night. The room smelled like pee, there where holes and water damage from floor to ceiling, the light in the shared bathroom didn't work, and the shower only gave you a small drip if you prayed to it first... but the bed was cozy and so so cheap.

Coron itself is pretty bland. There is no beach in town, only stinky muddy mangrove flats devoid of mangroves. It has its charms however and most of the tourist infrastructure and town market are built out onto piers over the water. Hovels skirt the paths to hotels. Dive shops are neighbors with pig farms. Everything you need is only a 2 minute walk away.

Dive Town: Shooting the Gap has a new meaning
My first dive in Coron was to Cathedral Cave. The guides panicked for a minute when i told them i only had 5 previous dives but they set me up alone with Dino. We dropped to 15ft at the entrance of a narrow tunnel which dropped another 25ft and shot forward until the cave opened up. A hole in the ceiling, 40ft up, cast a sparkling light into the water. We surfaced into the crystalline cathedral dripping with stalactites. Bats and swifts fluttered mercilessly to and fro and clung to the ceiling.
The second dive was an unspectacular reef in a marine park where the entrance fee paid for a round the clock guard to keep errant fisherman out. Even though the vis was not great, the no-fishing policy was working as schools of huge fish swam past view. A lonely ribbon eel poked out from his hole in the sand, waiting for any careless fish to pass.

The next day was a game changer. Like snowboarding powder on a full moon, a whole new reality was revealed to me.
Our first dive was to Barracuda Lake. A brackish lake divided from the sea by a thin limestone barrier. Life was lacking but magic was evident. We started in 85deg water but by 40ft the temp had risen to 98deg. A hot spring issues forth in the wall, deep in the lake, creating a thermocline (an stark temperature gradient at certain depths). Anyone who has seen the Caves episode of Planet Earth might be familiar. The temp change was visual as well as tactile. Wavering heat at one elevation and crystal clear cool at another. As you passed the gradient, you would seem to float above the water itself. On top of that a huge 10-15lb jack and a 3ft barracuda graced us with their presence. The bottom of the lake was mud and shells, lots of shrimp and weird catfish looking things.

For the second dive we motored out to the wrecks. On Sept 24th, 1944, American planes were sent to attack a hidden Japanese fleet, moored in a sheltered cove near Colon. Many ships were bombed and sent to the bottom of the sea, of which 6-7 are within diving depths. We started at the Tangat, a 520ft cargo ship who took a bomb right through the bridge. It sunk to a depth of 110ft, the deck at 69ft, but managed to remain upright. The water was murky and there was a strong current. We had to pull ourselves down a rope, anchored to the ship as not to be swept away. Out of the depths appeared the hulk, massive and intact. We circled the outside of the ship. Red fronds grew like a scraggley hobo beard from the walls. First one, then 4 big scorpion fish became visible, fins tipped with sharp glistening spears, each guarding their own patch of seaweed. We finned up to the deck and gazed into the darkness of the cargo hold. The beams of our feeble flashlights were unable to penetrate the black, swallowed as if by a black hole. We followed our guide down into the murk until our eyes adjusted and the gloom dispersed. The floor of the hold was littered with old fuel drums, long resting at home on the sea floor. We followed through a narrow crack in the hull into the next bay. A sea snake slithered below inches from the mud as we passed through an open door into the engine room. A salvage hole above let in a little light. Giant clams grinned at us with haunting toothless smiles in the sinister green glow. We contorted our way through dark, claustrophobic hallways; through jagged cracks in the hull; through control rooms studded with valves and pipes and cables. We emerged in the bombed out bridge, long ago twisted and destroyed by war, and ascended to the deck. Gun emplacements and crane towers, encrusted with jewels of coral, rose upwards out of sight into the grey green sea. We fought our way back to the rope and began the decompression process, simply waiting at lesser and lesser depths so the nitrogen in our blood could safely diffuse without forming dangerous bubbles, known as the Bends.

The third dive of the day was at the Olymipia Maru. Another cargo ship, this one lay tilted on its side. At less depth and more visibility, we could maneuver without flashlight. Our guide took us through what seemed a weightless 3-D maze.

The next day, I rented a motorbike to check out the rest of the island. My plan was to stay over night on the far side, but plans changed. I was led to believe i could find what i needed to live easily. I packed enough to camp but left the heavy 5 liter water jug and my water filter at home. "Stores in every town!" they said. I guess I shot through most of the towns on the map without realizing it because before long I was at the biggest town, Busuanga, and hadn't stopped for water yet. I tried to find gasoline, sold in 1L glass coke bottles in most small shops everywhere in the PI, but 3 of 4 stores in town were out. I was lucky to fill up with the last 2L the final shop had in stock. No water however... Guess ill keep going. The road was rough and my 125cc scooter wasn't much of a mountain goat. I almost lost it a few times: skidding to avoid a goat, having to drop it into 1st gear and go full throttle just to get up one of the many steep rocky hillsides designated as roads, and loose gravel... oooooo loose gravel everywhere. After getting thrown off course by poor directions I had to turn around until I could find the main road again. Who need signs when everyone in town already knows the way to go i guess. Back in Coron for the night, hands and knees crispy from 7 hours of riding.

Took the bike the next day to try and find the local attractions. I rode to the hotspring nearby by it was 90 degrees by 10am and the scalding water wasn't too appetizing. Next to the "beach" advertised on city maps. It was nothing but a shoddy picnic spot with old tables... and rocky coast. no sand... Back I went. So much for the rest of Coron. Im ready to head to Boracay where there are sandy beaches and tourists to talk to.

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