Palawan part 1

A 2-hour flight from Cebu brought me to the island of Busuanga in the north of Palawan province.  After two big cities, it felt great to step out of the plane and breathe in some good, clean air.  The town of Coron where I'm staying is nice and small.  The area around town isn't too spectacular, but the surrounding islands are absolutely amazing.  I rented a kayak the other day and paddled over to Coron Island, which is home to the cleanest freshwater lake in the Philippines (a dubious honor, I know) and some stunning natural coves, lagoons, and islets.

Coron Island

The first thing I did upon landing on Coron Island was to dunk my camera in 6 inches of salt water, so I think I'm out of pictures until I hit Cebu or Manila on my way out of the country in a few weeks.  I'll have to steal some from the internet.  Anyway, kayaking through the lagoons of Coron was probably one of th
e most amazing things I've done, and I had the added bonus of meeting Todd and Demetri at Kayangan Lake who got me thinking about doing a longer boat tour with them.

The trip back from Coron Island to Coron town was pretty miserable.  My arms were already burning from the first leg of the trip, and I had at least three miles of open water paddling to get back.  I started the trip out strong, singing every sea chantey I knew to keep my spirits up.  Just as I came within a half mile of town, the wind kicked up directly in my face, and my progress slowed considerably.  My arms were killing me at this point, but I couldn't stop, as it would just send me blowing backwards.  I was getting frustrated at this point, and even the heartiest of sea chanteys didn't help the situation.

Yes...it really did look like this!

An hour later, I was still making slow progress along the wharf as the local tricycle drivers laughed at me.  When I made it back to the dock, I was exhausted, but felt a little better when a local tour operator was so impressed by my trip that he offered to give me a free beer.  That almost made it worth the 8+ miles of paddling.  After my beer, I went in to meet with Todd at his office, and talk about the plan for a 3-day boat trip through the islands.

We decided on leaving the next day, along with Demetri (an actual Russian rocket-scientist who served as first mate), the hard-working Irving (our local helper), and two American girls, Julia and Patty.  Todd was kind of a Captain Ron type, and it wasn't surprising that we got going a few hours late.  He took us out to some beautiful coral reefs for snorkeling, and then set us up on a quiet beach for some camping.  As we waiting for our fresh-caught fish to cook over the fire, Demetri entertained us with his encyclopedic knowledge of pretty much everything in the world.  Any question that we could think to ask, he could give you th
e details, all the way down to the atomic level.  Genius!

Barracuda Lake

The next morning we woke up early and headed over to Barracuda Lake, where we got the whole place to ourselves and just had an absolutely beautiful morning swim.  We sailed around the rest of the day, looking for some more good snorkeling, and finally ended up at a beautiful island with a couple of great campsites along the beach.  Not much to report, except for some nice relaxing time on the beach, and fun wandering around the island.  The girls had a flight out the next day, so we dropped them off in Coron, and Demetri, Irving and I headed out for an afternoon of exploring on the small boat.  We had some interesting discussion about Demetri's engineering work all around the world, and found a great, secluded fishing community that was fun to explore, and an absolutely perfect hidden beach.  I almost thought Demetri was going to shed a tear when we first hit land on the beach.

Anyway...most of these pictures are stolen from the internet.  When I have a better connection I'll steal some from the lovely Julia.