The ferry to Coron was a nightmare! Had we been given accurate information in advance, we would have flown. We were assured that the "fast" ferry took only three hours so we figured that it would take the same amount of time as the one hour flight once you factor in arriving at the airport two hours in advance. Instead, the ferry required us to arrive an hour prior to sailing, left 20 minutes late, and took 4 hours and 40 minutes to complete the crossing! Not only that, Lisa described the ride as "riding a mechanical bull while being shelled by torpedoes". Additionally, they didn't turn the air-conditioning on until halfway through the journey. Needless to say, we were very relieved to be welcomed with cold drinks at a lovely hotel with a nice pool and view. Our secluded room featured a huge bed in a large, comfortable space. We wandered around town looking for dinner and managed to see almost all of the small town's few sites/sights by accident. Having decided to only do one of the island hopping tours, we had plenty of time to climb the more than 700 steps up Mount Tapyas. Cold beers and chill country music at the pool is always a good idea (especially when it's above 33 degrees and humid)! Once again, I was fortunate to meet another interesting traveller, Jasmin from London, with whom to discuss life. After already having been dragged along on two island hopping boat tours that saw Lisa spend way more time on, near, and in the water than she'd prefer, she decided to pass on a third, so I set off for Coron's version of "Tour A" by myself. I was annoyed and disappointed that the superior snorkeling reef promised, was replaced by an inferior one just off the first island we were supposed to visit. This allowed them to drop anchor once and check off two "stops". After viewing these few photos, you, too, will have seen all the fish there were to see. The little island next to Islas de Coral features Coron Youth Club Beach. The next stop was the spectacular Green Lagoon. We were fortunate to be the only boat in the lagoon, and only two others decided to venture off of ours. I swam all over the lagoon marvelling at the colours. We ate lunch on a tiny beach. The scenery getting to Quin Reef outshone the reef itself as the snorkeling was once again a disappointment. Instead of a variety of fish and coral, I discovered a multitude of human scrap and garbage. The reef is near the entrance to Barracuda Lake, and it appeared that many boats had discarded their lunch waste while heading there. I swam through a sea of garbage bags and flotsam. Kayangan Lake is arguably the jewel of Coron. I braced myself for a plethora of tourists dotting the lake in their mandatory orange vests, but was pleasantly relieved to discover that the lake was not crowded. In fact, when taking a photo, someone politely apologized for accidentally swimming into the background and hustled to get out of the frame. I immediately recognized the behaviour as Canadian and asked where she was from... "Toronto." After swimming in the lake and visiting with new Canadian friends, I returned to the crest of the hill to capture the quintessential Palawan postcard photo (above). Having nailed it, I couldn't resist inserting myself in the shot (below). With my mission complete, I headed back towards the boat and once again encountered the Dutch couple from our Moalboal truck ride.
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