El Nido, Coron, and Donsol

Once in El Nido we had a bit of an adventure finding accommodation as the wifi at Love and Peace was weak and we were unable to book in advance. After walking door to door down the main street with our bags for 30 minutes we ended up at Rico’s Cottages right on the beach. We booked island hopping and dive trips and had a drink on the beach at sunset and ate dinner right on the beach as well.

Island hopping is popular in Palawan. There are a variety of set tours with set prices and they are sold from a plethora of tour shops in town. We went with “Tour A” which has five stops. Tours are inclusive of boat, entrance fees, lunch, and, in El Nido, snorkeling gear.

The five stops were a mix of beaches and lagoons and two were good for snorkeling. At Secret Lagoon, we climbed through a hole in a rock wall to reach the lagoon. It felt a little less secret with eight other boats doing the same thing, but was still fun. The water was clear and all of the islands have rock karsts adding to the scenery. The whole day pretty much looked like a postcard.

The day started a little rockily though as our boat wouldn’t start so the crew had to borrow a battery from a neighboring vessel. I assume it was returned…

Friday we dove. Diving in the Philippines is incredibly affordable- three dives cost between $70 and $90 including all equipment,  dive master and lunch. From El Nido we did three reef dives.  We saw two huge turtles, a AV variety of rays, an eel, lobster, and tons of colorful fish. These were the dives with the bet visibility and most diversity of sea life.

Saturday we did an inland tour. We hired a trike with a local guide, a teenager named Jeffrey who is an avid selfie enthusiast. At our first stop we hiked to a waterfall and swam in the pool under it. We had the place to ourselves right up until we were ready to leave. Then we took a rocky road to picture postcard NacPan beach. There is no development here yet, just a few cottages and restaurant huts. We spent a couple hours here swimming, eating, and lying in the shade and enjoying the scenery.

Sunday we got an early start and took a six hour ferry ride to Coron. Coron is known for wreck diving due to a large number of Japanese boats boats sunk here by the US during WWII. Unlike El Nido, there is no beach in Coron town, just a bay.

Monday we went island hopping. We had a bit of an adventure to start the day as our trike was late picking us up at our hotel and all of the boats wre full when we arrived at the bay. We ended up on the “misfit boat with only three other people after a lot of standing and shuffling from boat to boat.

We had four stops on the tour, but the highlight was the last stop- Kayangan Lake on Coron Island. At Kayangan Lake you hike over a hill to a turquise saltwater lake with a lunar-like landscape below. The lake is surrounded by rock formations and trees and populated by small fish.

Tuesday we went wreck diving. We dove first at a large wreck and then at a smaller one and then at a reef. We were able to swim through parts of both. Our first dive was cut a bit short due to one of the other people with us losing a fin as we swam through a narrow corridor. The highlight for me was seeing the coral on the walls of the ship and a school of small fish illuminated by flashlight inside the second wreck.

From Coron we flew through Manila (most flights go through Manila) to Legazpi. From there it was a two hour trike and cramped van ride to Donsol. I think Donsol was my favorite place we visited in the Philippines (although I liked it all! ).

Donsol was a sleepy fishing village on South Luzon until the discovery that whale sharks feed right off the coast from March to May each year. Not nearly as touisty as many other places in the Philippines,  Donsol has a very relaxed vibe.

Since we’d been pretty active for over a week, we took a chill day our first day in Donsol and hung in and around the Dancalan Beach Resort where we were staying (Kara, it was a budget resort :)). They have hammocks, cheap food, beer, and fruit shakes and thatched sitting areas overlooking the ocean.

There was already a grup diving the next day, so we decided to wait a day for the whale sharks and went diving instead as it is cheaper with others. We did one reef dive off San Miguel island an hour away wherevthe highlight was a huge seahorse. Then we went another 45 minute to the Manta Bowl.

The Manta Bowl is in the middle of the ocean between San Migul and Ticao islands. It is where manta rays congregate to be cleaned. We did two dives in the Manta Bowl. Often the current is so strong you need to hook into the reef but we had little current which meant less visibility.  On our first dive however,  we sw four manta rays. Two were large- over 5 meters. What’s so cool about watching mantas is how they seem to slowly fly by you underwater. The second dive we had no spottings, but that was since we saw them on the first dive. I actually ran out of air on the second dive and had to buddy breathe off Melvin, the dive master.

OK, Saturday, April 9. Possibly the highlight of the trip to date (although the W was also incredible)-whale shark snorkel day. Here’s how it works. You show up at 7 am and fill a form and pay 585 pesos per person plus 300 for the environmental fee (good for five days). You watch a short video and wait for your name to be called. Only 30 boats can go per day with six people to a boat.

Whale sharks in the Philippines are called Butanding and your guide for tree hours is a BIO (Butanding Information Officer). You also have a captain and 2-3 spotters aboard. You then cruis around until they spot a whale shark and everyone jumps off the still moving boat and swims like mad til you reach it. Then you follow it until it dives too deep or another boat unloads and pushes past you.

For the first 20 minutes or so there were no sightings. I started to get worried that this would be the first day since March 2 with no Butandings. Our first foray into the ocean was unsuccessful adding to this concern. But our second jump was aweso e and the third even better- we got to swim with the Butanding for a good five minutes and clearly saw its whole body and the fish that ride as passengers on it. You are not allowed to touch the whale sharks, but you can dive down right next to them and swim along close enough to do so.

In the three hours we swam with seven whale sharks.It was sseriously a bucket list experience! Rich bought a whale shark statue to commemorate it.

That night we took a trike to Ogod (pronounced O-gud) river and joined a tour of Filipino tourists for firefly watching. The fireflies live in the mangroves and light them up like Xmas trees as they feed and mate.

Yesterday we left Dancalan and flew to Manila.  We have one day here staying in Manila Bay. This morning I went to Intramuros, the old walled city and took the light rail and my first jeepney back. Jeepneys are old US army jeeps converted and decorated that are common public transport all over the Philippines. Tomorrow we fly to Nepal!