Coron.Coron.Coron

Burnt skin , sandwiched in towering limestone cliffs. . still smiling??? ftw?



What's not to smile about? With the gifts of nature abound the Calamianes_couldn't help but to take another shot of  Coron, tags as the last frontier of my country.

It's easy to capture beautiful photos when you are in Coron. It's very scenic and everything is picture-perfect, even for amateurish me.



The towering rock formations are to die for.

Even girls couldn't resist and didn't mind taking the risk of climbing the rocks for a bit edgier photo ops. Can you spot me there?

Never! haha! I dared not be taken a photo side by side with those young body-perfect girls. .so I had mine solo! haha.insecure motherhen!




Another one of me on top of one of the limestone cliffs. Showing-off that at my age I could still climb that high barefooted. Another symptom of my growing insecurities as I age. haha.




I envy me_ there.
With the perfect beach weather we have this week, its' so hard to fight the idea of catching  flight to Busuanga ( from Manila it's only approximately 40 minutes or less) and indulge another nature bound weekend in Coron. What d'ya think?
If its gonna be your first Coron adventure, may the following posts serve you in one way or another.
click to Indulge!

Some places : 

- to stay :  Coron Gateway Hotel Suites , Coron Hilltop View Resort, Busuanga Island Paradise, Darayonan, Coron Village Lodge, Mt. Tapyas Hotel , Balinsasayaw Resort , Princess of Coron Resort

- to see in Coron Town : Mount Tapyas , on top of Mt. Tapyas , Party Boat , Bird's Eyeview , Fresh Catch , Kuweba , Makinit Hot Spring

- to never miss : Banol Beach , Siete Picados , Kayangan tease, Kayangan Lake , Barracuda Lake , Twin Lagoon, Twin Peaks

- to enjoy food : Coron Village Bar and Resto , Bistro Coron , Coron Harvest , Sea Dive Restaurant , Coron Gateway Restaurant , Kawayanan Grill.

Be happy always!

Darayonan, Coron Village Lodge and Mt. Tapyas Hotel

During our short trip to Coron Palawan_ we did stay in only two of the numerous hotels in town, yet we managed to pay sometime to take a look-see of other accommodations for future reference.
 In my archive, already you would find (click to see- - > ) Coron Gateway Hotel & Suites , Busuanga Island Paradise Resort and Coron Hill Top Hotel, Princess of Coron.
Those four are a bit pricey compared to the next set of hotels. So if you are under budget the following are pretty options for you to stay.

DARAYONAN

Darayonan is quite popular to the locals. Everyone there when asked to refer a place, he would mention Darayonan. The hotel's website is pretty impressive too.

A local tourist guide we met at the airport brought us there but we didn't like the place and so didn't stay there.

It has a pool. Who needs it when you are in the last frontier of P.I., with paradise-y ocean and lakes?

And no matter how hard the agent tried to convince us to stay here, we didn't. First of all, we wanted a fresh, clean and comfortable room with amenities. We were not so interested in outside-the room amenities/facilities which we didn't need cos we would be out sightseeing the whole day.
Darayonan was affordable but we didn't like the rooms. Sorry, was not inspired to take photos of the rooms which were lacking in style and imagination, and I didn't take any. They were just rooms, period. With beds, period. Square and nothing else.
In fairness, we went back to give this place another chance for us to like, the next day without the agent, but still didn't appeal to us. But well, to each his own. It might be your taste.



CORON VILLAGE LODGE

Just few steps from Darayonan, is  Coron Village Lodge. It is as popular as Darayonan and within similar room rates. The lodge has its rooms spread across the street where the annex buildings are located. The original building is old but interesting. That's where older rooms and the restaurant are located.

This was a room in the annex. It was nice, clean and cheap. We were counting on it to stay on our last day of Coron. We had ran out of resources then ( cash and complimentary stuff ) and sought for a practical place to stay. So on our way to an island tour, we dropped by and made a reservation of the room. when we came back in the evening after the tour, the staff failed to reserve the room for us and was already taken. We were offered another room in the old building. haay@@ !

MOUNT TAPYAS HOTEL

I'm not sure how to categorize this hotel in terms of room rates. Let me say it's a median. Middle of Coron Gateway hotel and Darayonan. I actually like this hotel. Cuzin' Che hated the uphill location which I liked so much. The ocean/island view was beautiful at the uppermost part of the building which was a restaurant of the hotel.



We found this hotel after climbing Mt. Tapyas. It was located right at the bottom of the mountain, I think?

That's why I guess I asked brother to take a photo of us here. To establish the Mt. Tapyas location of the namesake hotel. But failed!!! hahaha! This was part of the hotel's backyard. I think the background was a portion of the mountain (Tapyas).



We didn't get to stay here too. We were paid a show room and well, the rooms were neat and nice. Maybe next time. There I got the contact nos.

Princess of Coron Resort

Had the room at the first level of this casita vacant for even an over night stay, we might grabbed it just to experience the accommodation in Princess of Coron Resort. That particular room was spacious and nice and rate was reasonable.

But the resort was fully booked. They offered us a room in this building that would not be available for the next three days from the day we dropped by to the place and by then our Coron getaway had ended.

These were the two rooms they were offering us and not even available the day we went there. They were already waiting for the booked guests. However even thu' they were vacant, I didn't really like them. The rooms were consumed by the big beds and left no movement space.



Each room's pride is a modern bathroom. Nicer than the room itself.

Another claim to fame of the resort ( if you dig local showbiz personalities:), is they accommodated the stars of Dyesebel t.v. series when they were shooting in Coron. Local big stars like Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes. I asked which rooms they particularly stayed _separately, in those small rooms with big beds shown to us.

The resort has a mini zoo with these frightening eyed monkeys.



They also have a wading pool.



The Austrian owner (married to a Filipina) of the resort was not around but his beautiful dog was.





I recommend this resort for budgeted tourists cos they allow their big kitchen to be used by the guest without charges.

Fresh Catch Of the Day

While waiting for our breakfast to be served (at Sea Dive,Coron) , I would amuse myself with the beautiful nature and activities around the place.

I would be particularly consumed watching the divers on route to the dive sites. They would first be transported by a small boat to get to the actual boat which was a lot bigger and couldn't dock to the shallow part of the sea.

So there in the mornings I would be sitting pretty by the sea, but one time something caught my attention.

At my back was a village boy doing something interesting.

He was fishing, using improvised gadgets_ thread and hook and he was fishing pretty well !

In less than 20 minutes he was able to catch fishes for his family. The merit was not actually solely on him.

He had his brother on the boat as a backup and they worked as a team. Second step after catching the fish, was to hand down the fish to his brother.

The brother would quickly attend to the live fish and prevented it from leaping back to the water by whacking it with his slippers _ OUCH!!

Then he would deposit the fish to his safety container and the process went on circling with his brother atop at the restaurant.


Alas after so many pieces of fish I saw the village boys caught, I heard a woman's voice from the window of the resto's kitchen (which was just right beside where the boy positioned himself to fish), shouting to the boys to stop fishing! It was the mother of the village boys who worked in the resto and reminded his sons that they were not allowed to fish on that side of the sea.
The boy obliged his mother's command and went down the boat to join his siblings. They went home with about 2-3 kilos of freshly caught fishes.

Balinsasayaw Resort, Uson Island

Balinsasayaw Resort. For a while I got lost in the name of  this island resort that is opening soon before the year ends. Balinsasayaw is an exotic bird uniquely found in Palawan and has the ability to create its saliva into a nest. A kilo of its nest is priced from P20k to P200k or about $5,000. This nest is turned into an expensive, exotic soup dish which is very popular to the Chinese community.

Next, I got lost in the beauty of Balinsasayaw Resort. Outlined by the breathtaking sights of  marvelous islands, staying here would be a totally delightful experience. The resort would be a perfect jump-start to the rest of the Calamianes Group of Island which most of them are just across from the Uson Island where this resort is located.

Most of the cottages are strategically located at the uppermost parts of the island to fortify good viewing of the phenomenal islands around.








 The structure of the island resort easily reminded me of Balicasag Island in Bohol. Only, I haven't had the chance to check if the beachfront waters are snorkel paradise too like what Balicasag is famous for.

I would be glad to accept an invite to the opening of this potentially paradise resort when they officially open. Hello owners of Balinsasayaw Resort ! ! !