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Coron Palawan Escapade Part 2 || Kayangan Lake, Sunset and CYC Beach, Green Lagoon
Monday, December 19, 2016
I am glad we spent our first day in Coron, Palawan doing a leisurely walk around town, exploring it on our own. We saved money from paying a tour guide for a town tour and we have time in our own hands. Its a small town so you will not get lost easily and if you do, you can always ask a friendly local for directions.
As much as I loved our first day around town, I can't wait for our first round of island tours on our second day. But the morning was less than stellar as our travel agency did not even send a service to fetch us from the inn to the port area. We had to ride a tricycle to the port and we were the last boat to leave the port. Our tricycle driver told us that the travel agency we were with is one of the relatively newer agencies in Coron so maybe that explains why everything was unorganized. He recommended for us to move to another agency which we did the next day. We transferred to JY Travel and Tours and it was smooth sailing until our last day.
Although, let me just say that the good part about being late is that our boat was always the last to leave the destinations. So our group got to enjoy the islands for ourselves so its a positive way of looking at all the inconveniences we had that morning.
Although, let me just say that the good part about being late is that our boat was always the last to leave the destinations. So our group got to enjoy the islands for ourselves so its a positive way of looking at all the inconveniences we had that morning.
That November 17, 2016, we left the port at 10:00 a.m. Our first destination was Kayangan Lake. As I am typing this, I let out a sigh remembering my first impression. Pictures don't do justice on how it looks like in actuality. It was beautiful.
Here are some pictures and stories from our second day. Enjoy!
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| It is hot outside |
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| While waiting at the port |
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| Just docked at Kayangan Lake |
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| Finally here at our first stop! |
I read blogs about Kayangan Lake but nothing prepared us from the hike we had to do. We were expecting a few steps to get to the top. You could say this was like a part 2 of our "exercise" from Mt. Tapyas! We had to walk up to the view deck and walk down to the other side of the island where the Kayangan Lake is situated. We had to do the same going back to the boat. Bakit hindi niyo kami ininform? Sabi ni kuyang bangkero saglit lang eh. (Why weren't we informed of all the hiking we're about to do? The boat man said it's only going to be a short hike.) HAHAHUHU. If you're going to visit Kayangan soon, this is your warning: don't miss leg day!
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| This view is so worth it. |
Don't you just love the color of that water? It's so clear you can see the fishes swimming.
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| View from the stairs as we were going down |
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| Back to the boat we go. It's on the other side. |
By 12:15, we left Kayangan Lake and arrived on Sunset Beach at around 12:40 p.m.
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| Island food. Yum! |
But of course, we Filipinos just have to take photos before eating. Funny story: Filipinos and the foreigners were grouped together in the benches. We finished our rice first so we were pointing fingers on who to ask the other group--the foreigners for their still very full plate of rice. And when someone from our group finally did, they said: Omg, you are really, typical Filipinos. Haha! Guess our reputation for being rice lovers precedes us even abroad.
Our boat sailed a few kilometers away from the beach to go snorkeling. Sorry, no underwater photos from this part of the tour. But it was fun! Snorkeling is always fun.
Just look at how much fun Cams and I were having! Unfortunately, Gibbo just stayed in the boat during all the snorkeling part of the tours because he's terrified of swimming. It's a real phobia. We were always teasing him. The boat has a tiny stairs at its back side if you don't want to go diving directly to the water if you're snorkeling. Gibbs got as far as the last step of the stairs before he almost had a panic attack. We told him to face his fears. "But not this fear," he answered. We laughed. But we knew then that it was serious by the look on his face and we respect that. He just became our official photographer when were were swimming and also because he stayed on the boat, he took the most amount of selfies between the three of us so he still got something out of it. And we were in one of the most beautiful islands in the world! Just being there is worth it.
After Sunset Beach, our next stop was CYC Beach. We don't have many photos from from this part of the tour as well. I found it a little lackluster than other islands I've been to. We still had a good time swimming though. Our boat didn't dock on the actual island because it was low tide that time. Cams and I had to hold on to a tire a.k.a. floatation device for one of the boatmen to bring us to the island. We just goofed and joked around with Kuya. He said he was going back to the boat and said we can swim back ourselves to which we cried, hell NO! Haha. Imagine our surprise when he came back with the kayak. No one dared to use it from our group of tourists not even the foreigners because they said it was for PHP 1,000 an hour! And kuya let us use it for FREE! So a tip guys, make friends with the boatmen. They can be generous and most of them are skilled photographers as well.
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| Arriving at CYC Beach |
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| Happy Kids |
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| Tanned, happy kids |
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| Seriously, where was I looking? |
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| Ah. Look at the sun. |
Off we went to our last stop, the Green Lagoon. We left Sunset Beach at 2:20 and arrived at Green Lagoon at around 2:40 p.m. We stayed here for a little while just to take photos and swim a little. You'll notice that the water alternates from warm to cold which was weird and nice.
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| Green Lagoon |
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| My phone captured the light rain. |
Overall, we loved our first day of tour in Coron. It was everything I expected it to be and more. And most of all, we also met new friends on our first day which was fun. We had lots of laughs. We can't wait for the next day.
NOTE: Here's a sample budget for a 5D/4N Coron Tour for three persons. The final tally is the expense per head. The food, transportation and souvenir budget are of course, estimates. But just to give you an idea, I'm going to post our budget at the end of every Coron Tour-related posts that I am going to publish here at the site just to give you an idea. Cheers!
