the viewing deck: Solo Walk in Coron Town Tour

stunning waterscapes of northern palawan
july 15-18, 2011 friday to monday

objective: to visit the best tourist spots that fits my taste and budget accordingly.
additional task: to find-out why most of the filipino speaks about coron's lagoons, lakes and beaches

calamian group of islands

continued...

important note (coron town):
Coron is both the name of a town on Busuanga, and the name of the island just offshore. The municipality covers part of Busuanga Island and all of the nearby Coron Island.

mt. tapyas' start of 724 steps to the top

mt. tapyas' 724 steps to the top

mt. tapyas summit

i arrived 0930H in NAIA terminal 3 for 1120H ETD. As usual, local airline sickness for noon departures was happened, i.e., being delayed, my flight was postponed for 40 mins. around 1200H past, airphil's Q300 took-off with complete passengers onboard. this friday has an excellent weather, not so cloudy and very blueish skies, a good start to have a get-away surrounded by seas. after almost an hour, the plane touchdown to busuanga airport. went outside to look for any public vehicle bounds to coron town but it seems the only transpo available is the aircon van at php150. road to coron seems like a safari zone which excites me for my activity on sunday. in approximately 30 minutes at around 23 kilometres, i arrived in coron town proper.

DAY ONE:
CORON TOWN TOUR

took lunch 1st before strolling town for cheapest but clean accommodation. after that, i asked locals for a possible activity for the day since i didn't have any hard itin made, i have to fill-up the possibilities. as my travelmate suggested, my 1st activity was supposed to be mt. darala, the highest peak in coron. as per the locals, this plan was not doable due trekking going there was not that easy. accoridng to them, i need to hire a guide, trek to summit estimated at 4 hours and its almost 1600H that time, which means its hard trek down the mountain at night. after hearing this, not to mention the long waiting in tricycle terminal bound to brgy. balisungan (jump-off point for mt. darala), i have thought of trailing the hill of mt. tapyas starting from this area (public market).

mt. tapyas viewing deck

724 steps going down

the following was my spontaneous activity out of boredom and the output of asking the locals on do-it-yourself basis, i just only walked except for the last one;

1. mt. tapyas - a hill with huge cross at the top and lighted every night. before you reach this point, you have to surpassed the 724 steps upstairs that totals 1,428 going down. near the cross is the viewing deck overlooking the coastal side of the town. no entrance fee and like an ordinarry tourist, i have spent 3-4 times stop-over to overcome the gravity endurance. by the way, i bought 1st zagu shake in the market and a bottle of water as my trail drink.

2. church, town hall and plaza - strolling the town since there's really not much to see. i noticed the discipline of the locals in their thrash, how clean was the sidewalk and the streets. i even entered narrow streets in slums area.

3. lualhati park - this is a newly built park exactly located in the boulevard port near the public market where jump-start for the tourist boats activity was held.

4. maquinit hot spring - around 1700H i hired a tricycle on special trip for php200 roundtrip to this area since there is no public vehicle going there. en route i saw the philippine port area which is almost kilometer away before the spring. this port serves the trip going to puerto princesa city and el nido. arrived in the hot spring after 30 minutes, paid php100 for standard tourist and effective august 2011, entrance fee will boom up to php150. if you have a student/seniors id you should bring it to avail the 20% discount. while inside, i explored 1st the wetlands with few mangrove trees beside which during that time was low tide. afterwards, prepare myself to submerge in 14-18 degrees celsius saltwater and feel like its a jacuzzi. most tourist i saw was muslim family and foreigners. after an hour, i went back to my lodge.

refresh myself before having my dinner near the harbour centre. then night stroll, entered netshop then go home. all stores here close at 2200H. i spent around php1,100 on this day.