Coron, Palawan: Day 4 & 5

Day 4

• Calauit Safari
• Concepcion falls

We had an early start on Day 4.  We left Jazmine's Place before the break of dawn, stopped halfway to eat our breakfast then sat in the van for another hour before reaching Calauit Safari Park.  It was more or less a 2-hour trip by land.  

I wasn't so excited about this part of the trip, mainly because I am not a fan of zoos and the like, I feel as though the animals are harassed in exchange of photo ops.  Then again, I haven't had a safari experience yet, so I thought let's see.  I expected that the safari tour would mean we'll ride a jeep and go around the property, you know... as you see it on television, I didn't expect that it was a safari on foot.

I like animals, I like observing them in their natural habitat, undisturb.  

Our tour guide said that there was more or less 20 giraffes in the sanctuary, but we only saw two adult giraffes and a baby, the rest of them were most likely not yet hungry so they didn't appear on the feeding ground.  The poor giraffes also had open wounds, which was also a difficult sight for me.  It's funny though that the giraffes seem to prefer taking food from one person than the other.  I remember us waving the branch at them and they would come sniff it but not eat it.  

Aside from giraffes, there were zebras and Calamian deers also freely roaming around the sanctuary.  The rest of the other animals were caged, just like you see them in the zoo. 

It hurts when the giraffe keeps ignoring the food you're offering them

Last stop for the trip is Concepcion falls,  it's a downhill trek from the main road, sad to say I wasn't able to swim because it's that time of the month!

There was plenty of people when we arrived, it was really crowded.  There wasn't much room to sit or stand.  At a glance, the place looked abused, and with bad sanitation.

There was three to four concrete pavilions which were all taken when we arrived, so for a while everyone kind of didn't know what to do.

There was also only one changing room/restroom which didn't look kept, it was kind of filthy to be honest. 

Nevertheless, they had to experience Concepcion falls.  So off they went as I watched the bags.  The falls was roughly about 10 feet high, it seemed to be famous with the locals.

Local kids climbed up the jump-off spot like a boss

After the Concepcion falls experience, the ladies were told that they can wash up in the residential kubo where the van was parked.
The owners were kind to let tourists use their wash room for free.

After a tiring day, we headed back to Jazmine's Place.
Some of the girls together with the guys went to the market to buy ingredients for our paluto dinner at Luis Bay.

There was too much food I could only wish I can continue eating what was left over right now.We went back and had our nightly devotion sharing.

I was assigned to share that night, I chose to discuss on the topic, why some prayers are unanswered.  

Around 11pm, we went back to Luis Bay for some Karaoke.  It was our last night afterall, we were also celebrating birthdays of Mimi and Vianca.

Super fun night!  What happened in Luis Bay stays in Luis Bay. ;p

We left at around 3am?  Bummed that they're not open 24 hours.  Hahaha!

We had our last breakfast together the next morning, most of them had to leave for the airport at 10:30am.

Mimi, Sam and I had a later 4pm flight so we were left behind.  We actually still had some time to visit Mt. Tapyas as we wait, but being the titas and tito that we were, we just hanged and watched television in our room, had lunch at a nearby place before leaving for the airport.

Photo credits: Stan, Mimi, Jean

Coron, Palawan: Day 3

Picture perfect at Barracuda Lake

Day 3 (In no particular order)

• Twin Lagoon
• Smith's coral garden and beach (snorkeling)
• Barracuda Lake
• Maquinit Hot Spring

Twin Lagoon has got to be my favorite spot of the entire trip.  The view was unlike any other, and it has this enchanting yet peaceful vibe to it.

We were welcomed by a breathtaking view of limestone rock formations, as the boat veered deeper into the picture perfect scenery comes the first lagoon.

The second lagoon is hidden, there is a passageway under the rock formation from which we entered.
During high tides, the passageway would be submerged under water, you can swim underneath the rocks if you're a swimmer.  But for none swimmers, there is a ladder that you can use to climb over to the other side.

Our tour guide asked us (the none swimmers/not so confident swimmers) to lay back in floating position and form a link, he then pulled our human link into the second lagoon, that was so much fun! (I wish we had pictures, but there is a video clip!)

Smith's coral garden was a whole lot nicer than the other coral garden we snorkeled in.

More fish, less sea urchins.  The view underwater was spectacular, you can swim between the shallow and the deep waters.

Barracuda Lake was a bit eerie for me.

The imagery was stunning as you can see in our photo above, but the rock formations underneath was kind of creepy.

Maquinit Hot Spring was our last stop, if you are taking this trip with a senior citizen or anyone who enjoys water spas, I am 99% sure that they will love it there.  As a safety precaution, remember to rest every 15 minutes so it doesn't get too hot.
It was the perfect way to soothe our sore muscles and that capped off our island adventure on Day 3. 

It's funny that we only have photos during our lunch stops.  That's how beautiful the place was.  You'll forget everything and find yourself really savoring the moment, taking it all in.  The sights, the smell and the tranquility.

Our tasty lunch

Taking a dip after eating lunch

That's it for our island adventure day

We are again ready to eat!

Coron, Palawan: Day 2

After the eventful-supposedly-first-day at Coron... We were back at the NAIA Terminal 4.
Now the group is complete.

Still all smiles, like nothing happened.

This time it's for real.  No more flight delays.  We finally made it to Busuanga airport!

While waiting for the checked in baggage.

Upon arrival at Busuanga airport, it was like an hour land travel going to Jazmine's Place, our home away from home for the next 3 nights.

There was no time to rest since we are half a day delayed, we quickly changed into our swimming clothes, grabbed the important stuff then off we went to start the island hopping tour.  

Day 2 (In no particular order)

• Coral Garden (with lots of sea urchins, so watch your feet)
• Atwayan beach (where we had our lunch)
• Kayangan Lake

All set for adventure! Waiting for our snorkeling gear rentals

We had our lunch at the beach, I mean who wouldn't be thrilled.

The words lunch and beach put together, oh it was heavenly.
Food was prepared by our boat men, thank you mga kuya.

Our first DGroup trip. 

It was a short hike going to Kayangan Lake.
There's not a lot of photos when we finally reached Kayangan Lake, because we all decided to take a dip and since it was so relaxing, photo ops were forgotten.

A beautiful photo of Marbie.

Photo credits: Stan, Mimi, Ven, Jean, Vianca

Coron, Palawan: Supposedly Day 1

Palawan had always been one of the places I dreamed to set foot on.

I booked my flight to Busuanga on August 25, 2016 via Cebu Pacific, for departure on October 5, 2016, 12:10pm.

As I remember, my one way fare was 1,822.88php including the additional 15kg. check-in baggage.

Contrary to other people's bad experience with Cebu Pacific flight delays, I on the other hand had a favorable experience flying Cebu Pacific ever since. It was a surprise to me that our departure flight was delayed because Manila weather then seemed to be clear.

And so the adventure begins!

We finally boarded and took off at around 2pm-ish (I cannot remember accurately), an hour in flight we were excited to finally reach our destination.

We noticed though that we were going around in circles for a couple of minutes but I thought that's normal air traffic and that we were just waiting for our turn to land.

Then the captain spoke, apparently visibility was poor, so after 3 attempts HE IS FORCED TO ABORT LANDING, and we will be heading back to Manila!

So we were back in NAIA Terminal 4, and had to re-book for the first flight the next day.

Thank you Marbie for taking care of the re-booking process, it was a bit of a hassle re-booking for a group of 12 people (misplaced boarding passes, etc.), but praise God for Marbie's patience and quick thinking, we were able to re-book for the first flight the next morning.

Nobody went back home since it's an early flight the next morning.

Instead, we found a budget hotel to stay for the night as it was already dinner time when the re-booking was settled.

Salem Complex was just across NAIA Terminal 4.  A 5-minute walk and you're there.

We got two rooms, for the guys and gals and we each paid 500php which wasn't too bad, in my opinion.

DG Budget Hotel Salem, Salem Complex, Domestic Road | Pasay Airport Area, Pasay, Luzon 1301, Philippines

Despite being tired and hungry, everyone was still pleasant and happy, surprisingly. :) 

It was also goodbye to the half day itinerary since we didn't make it to Coron on Day 1.

But all is well. :)

This was our first decent meal for the day, sorry the photos are blurred.  Hungry, shaky hands. Haha!

After dinner, we gathered in the gals' room for our devotion night, it's such a blessing to share this supposedly stressful and hassle situation with these bunch.

Indeed, we always have a choice on how to respond to stressful situations, and choosing to remain calm and take things as they come proved to be the best option.

Haggard na ako, pagbigyan na... It's been a long day. Hahaha

Photo credits: Marbie, Stan, Vianca, Ven, Mimi, Kat