Exploring Coron: Coron Loop Tour and Mt Tapyas

The Coron Loop Tour is generally island hopping, visiting some of the known tourist spots around the island of Coron. Here's a look at the planned itinerary for the day:

   4:30am  Get ready for the Mt Tapyas Climb 

               (the goal, to reach the top in time for the Sunrise)

   7:30am  Breakfast

   8:30am  Coron Loop Tour

                        Siete Pecados | Kayangan Lake | Barracuda Lake | Atuwayan Beach | 

                        Banol Beach | Coral Garden| Twin Lagoon | Twin Peaks | Skeleton Wreck


What really happened...

In 'Ralph's Room', Lying on Bed. ***************************************************************************  2:00 am   “Why is it sooo hot?! (drifts off to sleep…) 2:30 am   “Oh it’s really hot! Where’s the fan??                  …not working.” (tries to drift off to sleep…) 2:35am    “Still soo hot…looks like rain today…                Rain! Open the window, open the window…                it should be cold outside, let the breeze in…” 2:40am    “Yey! Time to go back to sleep.”                     (tries to drift off to sleep…)    3:00am    Slap!  Scratch. Scratch. Slap!               (drifts off to sleep…) 4:00am    “Mt. Tapyas time! …still raining.                 back to slee…”  Scratch Scratch.                “waahh… mosquitoes! Have to find OFF…                 where is that OFF lotion…”  4:15am    “Done! Bite-free from now on… time to…”                     (drifts off to sleep…) 7:00am    “Knocking…Door… what?! 7:00am??                  Oh no… Move it!!” ***************************************************************************       Whew! And that was just half the morning. :)  After a bountiful breakfast, it was off to harbor center to get on board for our tour.   Coron in the morning is just like any other province in the Philippines, except people travelled mostly by tricycle or motorbike.  Looking beyond the streets and seeing the mountains’ façade suddenly reminds you – hey, THIS IS Coron.  Upon reaching the port we met Ate Joy and her husband.  They were our tour guides for the day.  Ate Joy was a very kind lady – who was six months pregnant!  Amazingly, she was as strong as can be, able to maneuver the boat as needed and easily get from one end to the other with no problem at all.  You wouldn’t even know she was pregnant, if not for the big tummy.

As anyone would to a pregnant lady, we kept checking on her and kept offering to assist her.  She always insisted on doing thing herself, saying she’s used to it already given it’s her seventh.  Her husband who was with her seemed to support her, understanding the strength she had.

Ate Joy portrayed just how strong a woman can be, if given the chance to rise up. By the way I understood her from her stories, she knows when to say stop, but fights to be able to provide for her family as long as she physically can. 

Amazing how she pushes through everything, not because she disregards that she’s at a vulnerable state, being pregnant, but because she knows what she can do.  

And we’re off. . . .

     Siete Pecados | Kayangan Lake | Atuwayan Beach | TwinLagoon | Skeleton Wreck

Since we still had some time in the afternoon before sunset, we climbed Mt. Tapyas that same day.

Places we weren’t able to visit, although included in the itinerary:

Coral Garden and Twin Peaks
We were told that the the waves were too strong and it would be too risky to go to these places and snorkel, so we opted to skip them.

Coral Garden - From what I gathered from research, it's snorkeling in an aquarium of a corals and a large variety of reef fishes. Anemones are also said to be abundant here with their resident clown fishes. Twin Peaks - Another good snorkeling spot, with colorful Corals.

Banol Beach
We ran out of time for the beach, and hoped to be able to visit this the next day instead.

Banol Beach, often a stopover for lunch during Coron Loop tour, is a short stretch of white sand lined with limestones and trees.  Good for picture taking, as people seem to often find themselves having the place for themselves.

Barracuda Lake
Upon finding out that the water is absolutely deep, my friends had opted not to proceed.

Barracuda Lake (also called Cayangan Lake) is surrounded by limestone cliffs on all sides.  Getting to the lake is an adventure itself as you have to climb up and down the limestone formations.  Once you get to the lake, everyone seems to say the effort was worth it.  This spot is more often tagged as a dive site.  The lake is about 80ft deep, with a thermocline at 100 meters.  From the thermocline going down, expect the water to raise in temperature from 40 degrees Celsius. As you reach the bottom, aside from the barracuda, other aquatic lifeforms such as catfish, golden rabbit fish, shirmp and snappers can be found.

Lessons Learned

1. Always have OFF lotion! This gave me about 3 more hours of sleep.
2. When planning an itinerary remember that it’s not only about the number of places you’ll be able to visit.  Make sure you have enough time to enjoy the place.  Don’t be like me who overbooked it.  Especially for Coron where (from what I experienced) you find yourself longing to have more time to spend in each of the spots visited.
3. Always slab tons of sunblock on your shoulders! Don’t be fooled by the cloudy sky.  I know I put sunblock on mine, but by the fourth day I found myself cringing whenever the towel or anything for that matter touches that portion of my body.  Ouch!