Coron itself, while a relatively popular tourist destination, is just a tiny little port town without much to offer. It's streets are few, and hostel life is almost non-existent. Seahorse, where I stayed however, had a spectacular view from the rooftop.
It is known for its island hopping and shipwreck diving... and the diving did not disappoint!
Home to a bunch of WWII Japanese vessels, there is a lot of underwater history going on here.
To get myself back into the swing of diving, I chose to do three reef dives before tackling the wrecks. The first dive was to Barracuda Lake, a thermocline'd lake made up of 30% salt and 70% fresh water. As you descend down into the water, at about the 20m mark, the water temperature changes from 29c on the surface to a bath-water-like 38c below!
The dive site gets its name from a lonely barracuda that hangs out here. I managed to observe him cruising past, as if to check us out, before a few minutes later swam right through the dive master's legs!
The other two reef dives yielded the usual suspects - colourful corals, angel fish, clown fish and good visibility.
Being an SSI Advanced Open Water diver I am certified to depths of 30m and have done the shipwreck diving speciality, allowing me to explore these vessels. They push that to the limit in Philippines ...
... penetrating the ship to depths of 38 metres!
Outside the ship you can see the surrounding marine-life and coral growing on the seventy year old wreck...
... while the inside is darkness requiring a torch, save for the various portholes and windows scattered around the hull.
Kogyo Maru was my favourite of the wreck dives I did, for the fact that it had very impressive coral growth across its portside. Huge cabbage coral and schools of yellowtail snapper cruising about.
The next day we headed across to the other side of Coron via bus to dive the Kyokozan Maru wreck - the biggest ship in Coron. In the region of 180m long, the wreck requires two dives to explore it!
The dive was a fun test of buoyancy, featuring a few rather narrow doorways and spaces we had to swim through!
Inside the ship you could see old remnants of wartime transport... (if you look closely you can see the wheels and engine block of a car)
While the ships humongous masts had some beautiful marine life hanging around, like the lethal lion fish below.
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After these dives it was time to leave Coron and head over to El Nido. I was accompanied by an American couple I met in Manila, Alex and Jaime, on the six hour ferry across, along with an Aussie guy we met at the hostel the night before. Luckily the waters were relatively calm, but the boat sure made a hell of a noise!
After finding a place to crash, the four of us jumped in a tricycle and headed to Las Cabanas beach...
... to have a couple beers and watch the sunset.
Later on I found a dive shop to continue my diving holiday that is the Philippines!
The dive sites in El Nido easily had the most spectacular visibility of anywhere I have dived to date. Easy 20-30m, clear blue water.
The highlight of any of my dives in El Nido was seeing my first sea turtle! The way they move through the water so gracefully was amazing to see.
But the incredible diving didn't stop with the turtle. Another cool creature I can add to my list was the cuttle fish we spotted!
As well as another massive school of snapper...
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I took a break after the days diving to go stay at Nacpan Beach, a small town 45 minutes ride away from the main El Nido centre. It was just a quiet beach with not many people around, and a small hill that offered some nice photo opportunities!
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After Nacpan I headed back into town for my last day, and more diving.
This dive we spotted an octopus hiding in a crack in the corals...
And even more huge schools of fish!
Swimming right up close to this school made me realise how much attention the fish pay to divers. Depending on how you act around them, they will either let you get really close, or just turn as one pack and swim away from you. Very calm and steady movement and controlled exhalation meant that you can get much closer than I'd been before. One quick exhale and they'd react immediately, it was very interesting!
After the diving I checked into my new hostel, one of the more social hostels in El Nido called Hakuna Matata. There I met a bunch of people and we ended up going out for dinner together to a local restaurant that served fresh seafood!
The place had a huge tray of ice and fresh fish of all different varieties. I ended up sharing a huge tuna with one of the girls - this thing would have had at least two kilos of meat on it and only cost $20AUD!
To accompany the fish, we got a few plates of fresh mussels (14 for a mere $5AUD) which were beyond incredible. Melted cheese and garlic sauce baked mussels.
This meal more than rounded off my last night in El Nido and Palawan, a much needed dose of meat! We later went out to the only bar in town and partied well into the night.
The next morning I jumped on the six hour minibus to Puerto Princesa to fly over to Cebu, ending my time in Palawan - and what a time it was!
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