Philippines: Coron island-hopping tour (Part 2) - Twin lagoon, CYC island; climbing Mt. Tapyas

Date: 31st May 2013

This is a continuation of the first half of this Coron island-hopping tour. After lunch, the boat set off towards the next stop on the tour.

Emerald green water Coron Palawan — Goodbye to the emerald green water

Floating hut Coron Palawan — Floating bar?

Coron hills Palawan Philippines — Telephone signals seemed quite far away

Filipino girls Coron tour — Some of the tourists were in their post-lunch nap

We were supposed to go to Barracuda Lake next but we couldn’t because of some “problem” there. So instead, the boat took us to the Twin Lagoon. The water here looked far clearer than Siete Picados and the skies were clearing up too. So I got ready to jump in.

Twin lagoon water clarity Coron — Here we go!

Swimmer twin lagoon Coron Philippines — Blue lagoon indeed

Twin lagoon coral reef Coron Philippines — The water was cool

Twin lagoon corals Coron Palawan — Quite rich in coral life

Here’s a brief video:

The next few photos are processed using this method.

Corals cape point Coron — This is just one of many, many coral spots in Philippines

Emerald coral reef Coron — I swam gently

Coral bed small fish Coron Philippines — Check out the small fish above the big coral

Anchor coral reef Coron Philippines — Anchored to the sand

Sea urchin Coron coral reef Philippines — Sea urchins, they’re considered a delicacy in the Far East

Coral fishes Coron lagoon Philippines — Loads of small fishes

Coral jungle Coron Palawan Philippines — It’s like a coral ‘jungle’ in here

Blue corals Coron Palawan — There were a lot of these blue corals down below

Blue corals Coron sea — They looked quite alien, but cool

Colourful corals Coron Philippines — The corals were definitely better here

Swimming guide handle Coron snorkeling — This is our guide helping people who can’t swim. This way they can just hold on to the float and still enjoy the sights underneath.

Fish underwater photography Coron Philippines — I would just stay still the water and float. It’s a nice sensation in calm waters.

Snorkeling coral fish twin lagoon Coron — But after nearly 30 minutes in the water, I decided to head back to the boat

Boat from under water Coron coral reef — I was really enjoying underwater photography

The boat then just moved a few metres ahead to the second lagoon. It didn’t look drastically different, but I went in anyway!

Sea urchins under sea Coron Philippines — More sea urchins

Big coral Coron Palawan — And more corals

Twin lagoon underwater Coron Palawan — Looked slightly different from the first one

Underwater snorkeling Coron Palawan — Not as colourful though

Coral sea bed Coron Philippines — Kinda dull (in comparison)

Taking photo underwater Coron Snorkel tour — I wasn’t the only one in my group with an underwater camera

School of fish Coron underwater — That’s a lot of fish!

School of fish snorkel tour Coron — And it’s amazing none of the fishes will ‘bump’ into you

Coron tour guide assist swimming — This is how a kid goes around with her mommy when both of them can’t swim

Boat motor from underwater Coron — I swam around the boat

White coral fish Coron Philippines — Spot the white fish

Round coral ball sea bed Coron — So many corals in different shapes, colours and sizes

Underwater Coron coral fish Palawan — I didn’t spot anything new at this reef, so I went back to the boat

When it was time to leave, the tour boat then rode to the final stop on this tour, CYC island.

Cyc island Coron Philippines — This is a small island where we could lay on the beach or swim if we wanted to

Cyc island mangrove beach Coron — Not the greatest beach in Coron

CYC island beach tree Coron Philippines — We disembarked

CYC island tees Coron Philippines — Pretty isolated

Cat CYC island Coron — So how this cat got to this island is beyond me

CYC island beach Coron panorama — I left my DSLR on the boat and just carried the underwater camera

CYC island beach water Coron — I felt like going in for a swim

Mithun Divakaran underwater — Coron underwater selfie!

CYC island Coron beach sand — A short while later we went back to the boat

Tapyas hill Coron from sea — It was nearing 3:30pm and we headed back to Coron town. The cross you see on top of that hill? I was going to climb to the top next.

Once we disembarked at Lualhati park, I headed straight to my room to freshen up and offload some of the contents of my bag.

Way to Mt. Tapyas Coron — Feeling lighter, I walked to the foot of Mount Tapyas

Coron village Philippines — It was only walking distance from Coron Backpackers Guesthouse

Road to Mount Tapyas Coron — I thought of coming here tomorrow morning but I didn’t want to risk waking up late and rushing it up a hill

Basketball hoop Tapyas Coron — Plus, the sun was still an hour or two away from setting

Palawan tax payers project tribute Coron — Giving credit where credit is due!

Steps Mt. Tapyas Coron Philippines — Sigh, my worst enemy on travels. More than 700 steps. Here we go.

Coron island hills Palawan — A few steps up and you already know the views are only going to get better

Mt. Tapyas steps tourists resting — It’s a good thing that they have benches where climbers can rest for a while before continuing onwards with their journey

Cyclist going up Mt. Tapyas Coron Palawan — Some people had other ideas

Tapyas hill steps Coron Panorama — It was pretty damn tiring

Top of Mt. Tapyas Coron — But after 30 minutes of huffing and puffing

Cross atop Mt. Tapyas Coron Philippines — I made it!

Coron town from tapyas hill — I don’t know what they are building out in the sea

Mt. Tapyas view point Coron Philippines — This was the viewpoint. And the cyclist came up all the way up here to do wheelies — not ride downhill. I was disappointed

Tapyas hill walking path Coron Philippines — They had a walking trail going around the top of the hill

Gazebo Mt. Tapyas hill Coron — They have a few gazebos up here

Tapyas hill crass panorama — I had to take many more panoramas

Gazebo tapyas hill Coron Philippines — This looked like a nice frame. So I set up my tripod and decided to shoot to a timelapse sequence.

Sunlight Mt. Tapyas Coron — But I had to stop because too many people started appearing in the frame

Mithun Divakaran Tapyas Coron Philippines — So I just took a photo of myself

Coron from Tapyas hill — It was time to head back down

Outlying islands Coron Philippines — So many islands

Coron hills at sunset panorama — Mt. Tapyas would make for a nice spot to watch the sun set

Colourful trees Mt. Tapyas Coron — I wanted to get back down before dark

When I got down, my legs were aching! I walked slowly because they were really stressed from climbing 700+ steps up and down. Once I got back to my room, I just lay in bed and gave my feet some rest for an hour or two.

I took a bath and later went out for dinner.

Heavy rain at night Coron — As soon as I sat down at Sushi Bar, it began to rain heavily. No worries, I carried an umbrella.

Lobster meal Coron Philippines — I ordered a lobster meal and found it quite disappointing. Barely any flesh and at this point, I gave up on my expectations when it came to great seafood in the Philippines.

By the time I headed back to my room, the rains had reduced to a drizzle. This was my last night in Coron. Tomorrow afternoon I would fly back to Manila. Much like how El Nido capped off my 2011 journey across the Philippines, this year it was Coron that was the true highlight of my trip. I faced quite a few disappointments on this visit to the Philippines, but the Coron experience made this visit to the Philippines worth the while.

Anyway, back to Manila for now!

Previous posts in this series:

Philippines 2013: Coron island-hopping tour (Part 1) – Siete Pecados, Kayangan lake

Philippines 2013: Aerial view of Mount Mayon; arriving at Coron

Philippines 2013: Lignon Hill Park, Cagsawa Ruins and Mount Mayon

Philippines 2013: Arriving at Legazpi; going to Donsol to see whale sharks

Philippines 2013: Leaving Boracay; Kalibo to Angeles City

Beachfront hotels and resorts on White Beach, Boracay

Philippines 2013: Bulabog beach, Mount Luho viewpoint and sunset at White Beach

Philippines 2013: Boracay island tour, Puka beach and snorkelling

Philippines 2013: Flying from Manila to Boracay, White Beach

Philippines 2013: Taal Lake Volcano and Peoples Park, Tagaytay