Aloha Everyone,
It has been some time since we last posted and we wanted to take a minute to update the travel blog. The past week has been fantastic and Michelle will fill you in on the details in her post..... Meanwhile, I thought I would post a few photos from our time diving and island hopping in the Calamian group.
Where we last left you was flying into Coron. Here, we booked a total of 7 dives (Michelle did two massive wrecks), and one day of island hopping. The WWII wrecks were amazing..... so much coral growth and just gigantic compared to ours in Hawaii. If you took a look at the link in the previous post, it details much of the history of the wrecks so I won't go into that. I will however say that for thrills minus chills (lovely 82 degree water) Coron wrecks are impressive!
Michelle posing like the Mermaid
GO DUCKS
I found myself in heaven while diving these wrecks and Michelle did awesome too. On our first dive at the wrecked seaplane tender, the Akitsushima, she followed our Philippino guide Toto into the bowels of the ship with only a little flashlight and came out with a healthy appreciation for this side of the sport of scuba diving.
Our depth here was a little more than 100 feet and we saw a few lionfish as well as the remains of the deck guns on the boat and some munitions.
Back on the dive bangka boat, Toto cooked an amazing lunch complete with chicken and rice and of course FISH, and before we knew it we had arrived at the Okikiawa Maru.
The OM is an Oil Tanker and she is a great dive. Here we penetrated in the prop shaft and found all sorts of critters from clownfish to batfish and even a nudibranch that resembles the Spanish Dancers we have seen only this one is black with a silver lining..... all around, a great day of diving.
Below is a photo of the common in Philippines, not so common in Hawaii, Lionfish.... look out, they are poisonous!
The following day, we headed out on a small boat with captain Aldo to nearby Coron Island. Here you will find a variety of freshwater and brackish lakes. Our morning started with a trip to Cagyanon Lake. The place was amazing and Michelle even found a small bamboo raft! I of course snorkeled around and lazed in the sun. Because we were there early, we had the place to ourselves..... for about 20 minutes. Before you knew it, the small area was over-run with tourists of all types. Our privacy came to an end, but we met a large family from Manila who were just amazed at the beauty of Coron Island as we were!
Our day continued with a trip to twin lagoons (we had to swim under a cutout in the limestone) a good snorkel at Seven Islands, a protected marine area, and lunch next to the skeleton wreck. Don't ask me why they call it that, but they wanted 50 pesos to take a look and we just thought it wasn't worth the $1.10!!!
On Tuesday, our time in Coron took us on separate paths. I booked 3 dives with new found dive buddy Gareth and Instructor Dean. These two blokes were stoked and we did a total of two more wrecks and a fantastic reef called CYC.
Dive profiles are as follows:
Dive 1: Irako Maru (Refrigerator/Cargo Vessel)
38.4 meters, 35 minutes on Nitrox 28 (Transmission room, engineering room, boiler room)
Dive 2: Olympia Maru (History unknown)
24.7 meters, 46 minutes (Prop shaft penetration to boiler room, cargo hold, bow lockers and shower room) GREAT DIVE.... could do it 10 times more
Dive 3: CYC (Coron Youth Club)
14.9 meters, 74 minutes (no wetsuit thanks, boardshorts only!)
Great critter site. Remora, juvenile sweetlips, clownfish, plenty of amazing corals!
Finally, our time in Coron had come to an end. Not without a final trip up to the hotsprings. What a crazy place this was as we took a tricycle (think motorbike with a cramped sidecar) out of Coron town and into the bush. The springs are the perfect temp though and we met a group of fellow travellers enjoying the relaxing atmosphere. If we are ever back in Coron, this is a must.
We checked out of Seadive and boarded the Jessebell boat (60 passenger "ferry" if you can call it that) last Wed AM. The trip took just as they said, 8 hours and only once during the journey did the engine of this beast come to a grinding halt. The AM was spent up on top of the roof with 4 Italians who were enjoying the panoramic views as much as we were. As the day heated up however, we had to take refuge inside, under sarongs or wrapped up in hankies... hope you enjoy the photos, and yes Mom(s) we are wearing plenty of sunscreen.....
