Coron town and around

Today is the 8th of January and there seems to be plenty of time to kill and write about our experiences in Coron. The Journey ferry from Coron to Cuyo islands was supposed to leave at 15.00 (3pm) but apparently it is arriving from Manila at that time and we will be leaving Coron after the loading around 21.00 (9pm) and we might get into the vessel at 6pm to chill out instead of staying in this waiting room. Fingers crossed. Hopefully I will be able to post this at some point. And hopefully the man behind me will soon stop playing 'Gangnam Style' from his phone, since I have heard it few times too many.

Before we left from Finland we did make a reservation to Coron Backpackers Guesthouse for 4 nights and decided to extend our stay if we felt like it. On New Years Eve we were finally there warmly wellcomed by manager TJ and later we enjoyed a spectacular fireworks.

Coron Backpackers Guesthouse has basic stilt house bamboo accommodation in a local area, and it is definetely NOT for high maintenance guests. The neighbourhood is poor, though the hostel itself is located on one of the nicest "streets" and the neighbours are nice. A narrow wooden walkway leads to the hostel. The bamboo walls are thin and in the mornings you will wake up to the sounds of people living next door; taking care of the kids, doing laundry, listening to music, taking shower..or sounds of cocks, chicken, cats, dogs, pigs (yes, also under the stilt houses) and some freaky words of the talking birds. You're able to see the water underneath your room through the bamboo floor. The guesthouse gives towels and sheets and has well equipped kitchen for the guests. The manager TJ (at the time) can help you with anything you might want to know.

The town itself is smallish, but according to locals it has multiplied in one year of time! I can understand that because there is a lot of talk about Philippines becoming the new Thailand. New hotels are build in high speed, cafeterias rise up in 4 days of time (we saw that happening!) and more tourists are drawn to see the nature wonders or take a dive at the world famous wrecks. The town is very tourist friendly, everything is near or you can take a tricycle. There are several ATMs that accept foreign cards (max take is 10 000 PHP and in peak season they might empty quickly). Euro exchange to PHP can be a challenge, but with the help of TJ anything is possible. English is widely spoken and services are good from a take away latte coffee to local eats to pizza and European cheeses. Only thing missing is electricity at certain times a day and chain food stores such as Jollibee or McDonalds. Our favourite food was definitely at Kapemos on National Hway after Neptune Dive Center.

One notable thing in the city is really the lack of electricity from time to time. The city limits the consumption of electricity and the times when the power is cut off, is called 'brown out'. And yes, the cut off itself is done using physical man power. One morning we witnessed the whole episode when some guys drove by on scooter and extended a long plastic rod to open or close the electricity circuits from the electricity poles itself. This might happen randomly throughout the day, so, no one can really tell when they have power. Some places do have own generator, some not. When there was no electricity on our guesthouse, there was no way to flush down the brown things in the toilet or take a shower (use the water bucket).

The main sights is town is to climb the 720 steps to see the view from Mt Tapyas, take a trip to nearby hot springs and rent a boat out to Coron Island to experience the Kayangan lake (snorkeling to see pipefish and cleaner shrimps) and Barracuda lake or take an island hopping tour to nearby beaches and islands. It is said to be a once in a lifetime experince to dive in Barracuda lake, where the water suddenly changes the temperature to 38 degrees and you can sort of see the 2 water surfaces from below. We only did the snorkeling bit. On Coron island one too popular spot is also the Twin Lagoon or Twin Peaks, where you can snorkel under a small opening to another lagoon. I think it is not worth to see at the moment and when I was thinking aloud why it was so popular, I was told that the corals had been spectacular only 2 years ago, and now destroyed by the amount of people going there...sad.

After some snooping around we got info how to get to the CORON sign on the neighbouring hillside right under a weather station. There are steps in front of the Ampfibiko Dive center that lead to a street parallel to the main street. From there one has to turn left and follow the road, untill you reach a tight turn left. From that turn there is a dirt road to the sign and to the weather station up the hill. But, there is also a small farm house by the sign and I do not expect those people to like tourists wandering around, so we just quickly took some shots of the sign and headed away as soon as possible before the sun went down.

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