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Pastimes : Canoes, Hiking, the Great Outdoors -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crocodile who wrote (192)	9/22/1999 3:20:00 AM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 325

Spent last weekend paddling in one of the really exceptional parts of this country, which fortunately it seems that I'll be going back to a bit. An adventure travel company I'm loosely attached to is moving some gear down there, and laying out some trips. Busuanga is a big island northwest of Palawan, which is at the southeast corner of the country. Coron is a much smaller island (3 days to paddle around) just south of Busuanga. The town of Coron is on Busuanga, facing Coron over maybe 3-4km of water. We made the trip because a big shipping company now runs scheduled trips to Coron, leaving Manila late Friday afternoon and arriving early Saturday morning. Same ship comes back Sunday night. You can get a quite decent room for about $75 round trip, which includes not only the passage, but accomodation for 2 nights and food, adequate if undistinguished. In between can be two full days of amazing exploration. The town of Coron is boring, fishing village with a recent dive-tourism veneer over it. Diving is a big deal here: good coral, lots of marine life, and about a dozen wrecks, all Japanese ships sunk in the same raid, late in WWII. At least half a dozen dive shops, all fighting over walk-in customers. We stayed at a small resort owned by a British fellow maried to a local girl; they own the whole island. Nice place; native huts with comfortable beds and western-style bathrooms. Hung out a bit, made plans, spent the afternoon paddling around that island; it could be done in an hour(maybe a little more), but we took 3. A few beaches, lots of tangled jungle, some limestone cliffs, some mangroves. We saw wildly colored kingfishers, some monkeys, hawks, herons... snorkeled over reefs and a Japanese gunboat that is run up on the reef, it's bow sticking up within reach. Explored some mangroves, checked out a hot spring (great place to relax in the middle of paddling) and a cave. Next morning we took off early, to a mangrove swamp which the British owner of the resort (who has been there 13 years) tells is is the largest of the area. Through mangroves for maybe an hour or a little more, passages getting progressively smaller, current against us. Finally moved into a fresh water stream, and by doing some things fiberglass sea kayaks aren't meant for, we end up in a clear pool at the base of a tiny jungle waterfall. Nice swim, paddle back. Nice all around, for those who like mangroves, but it was low tide, a lot of mud showing and some odd smells in the air; I don't know if everybody would like it. Not much life in evidence except fish, crabs (many different sorts) and the occasional kingfisher or heron. In the afternoon we paddled the south ide of Coron. Coron rises anywhere from 80-300+ meters straight out of the ocean on all sides. From a distance it looks like a sheer limestone monolith, but when you close in the edge is fragmented into hundreds of islets, crags, bays, and inlets. The water is phenomenally clear, and both coral and marine life are abundant. There are seven lakes inside the island, but only two can be visited: the island is governed by the Tagbanua tribe, which prefers privacy; visitors are not allowed beyond the beach or the two lakes without specific invitation. They do come out to the beaches and mix occasionally - they like kayaks - but the invitations to the interior are not easy to get. We left the boats down there, and will be going back at least one weekend a month until they decide what kind of package to offer commercially. Nice to know that's on the horizon, now that I'm back to being anchored in front of the monitor...