Julia's Travels: Coron

When James and I arrived in Coron, I knew that I had made the right choice in going to Palawan. The place was truly breathtaking: blue sky, crystal-clear water, hundreds of uninhabited islands, friendly locals...the Philippines was beginning to feel like a well-kept travel secret.

James and I made a b-line for the dive shop/guesthouse, got settled and started arranging some activities. We connected with several other travelers: Jesus (from Spain), Bastian (from Germany) and Mark(from Australia/England). Together, with our new found partners in crime, we did a little snorkeling, some hiking and scuba diving.

The diving was especially cool. The Busuanga archipelago, surrounding Coron, was the site of several American/Japanese WWII battles and there are some amazingly preserved sunken Japanese warships in the area. Needless to say, wreck diving is a big draw here. Normally, you need a special PADI certification to go inside of a sunken wreck but hey, we're in the Philippines, and things are a little "different" here. So, I got to swim around inside and explore two sunken ships, which was simultaneously scary and cool (in the words of Bastian, I was just "happy not to get entangled inside the ship and die").

The snorkeling in Coron was also quite nice. The coral wasn't perfect (the area has had some trouble with dynamite fishing in the recent past), but the turquoise water was amazingly clear, the limestone karst islands were breathtaking, and there were some freshwater springs which created thermoclines in the lagoons.

In addition to Bastian, Jesus and Mark, I also met a group of fun-loving Canadian firefighters and a nice Dutch couple. James and his fellow Canuks jumped on the chance to inform me that the Canadian loonie is currently stronger than the US dollar. I responded that such a thing defies he laws of reality, but alas, it seems as though they were right. Naturally, they were pretty excited about this and took every available opportunity to remind me of their currency's superior status. I have one response to this, guys: enjoy it while it lasts. I swear, somewhere, pigs must be flying.

-Julia