Siete Pecados

Coron, Palawan
08.21.2009

More than an hour was left for us to explore at least one more island of Coron that afternoon before settling back to Darayonan for the start of our forum on climate change. We hurriedly set our floaters and snorkels up for a terrific snorkeling at Siete Pecados. This is one of the must-visit sites in Coron. When our boat docked, Maanne and I no longer needed warm up for a marvelous experience ahead us. We rushed to the water and saw another magnificent work of God.



One who experienced snorkeling here may say that this might be the best site of our country’s finest coral reefs. Colorful fishes big and small are around you waiting for a piece of bread. Another good thing that happened here for us is that our boatman, Rico, was a very strong swimmer. He only needed a piece of rope-float made of Styrofoam and cloth to roam us around. Troubles in real life were all gone as we saw the enchanting creatures underwater as if you never wanted to take your eyes away of them. The sun was about to set in an hour so after almost an hour of snorkeling, we needed to pack ourselves back for a busy night waiting in Darayonan.

Malcapuya Island

Coron, Palawan
08.21.2009

We left the historic town of Culion with smiles as we are about to discover an island where the recent Dyesebel of the Philippines shoot most of their scenes according to locals. It took us almost 40 minutes of sailing until we reached the very exquisite island of Malcapuya. No wonder why the Kapuso Network chose this island for the remake of one of the most loved fictional story of our film history. We arrived few minutes past 12. The sky is as lovely, the sand is as smooth, and the sea is as calm as the face, skin, and character respectively of Dyesebel.



We had our lunch, roamed around, spot attractive sceneries then had some photo shoots. Maanne and I were so amazed of the clarity of the sea, it was crystal clear. The sand is also delightful comparable to a light-cream polvoron where you can walk barefoot under the sun. There are scattered hazy red rock formations in both ends of the beach that looked so well in photos.





We were sanctified of a very sunny afternoon during our stay and though I put some sun block on my face, neck, shoulders, and arms, I was unsuccessful from the effects of the sun. But I have no regrets! Sunburns will only be temporary but the memoirs of Malcapuya will be ceaseless.



After almost 3-hour island exploration, time has come to leave Malcapuya. We get back to our boat and sail to visit Banana island. Few kilometers away from this island, we felt that there are no surprises waiting for us. The water is dark blue conveying a deep sea, the sand is not as light as what we were expecting, and there were many guests occupying the island so we decided to leave the area and get near to Coron town proper. I have posted a glimpse of Banana island on the photo below.

Culion, Palawan

Immaculada Conception Parish
08.21.2009

After our mini-hike at Mt. Tapyas, we had breakfast and make our way to the seaport near Coron Gateway Hotel for day’s island hopping. It was a sunny morning when we started to sail but weather suddenly became dull and hazy when we were almost near our first island… the town of Culion to visit its church and museum. Just few kilometers away from the island, we envisioned Latin symbols of Alpha and Omega printed boldly at a structure and few meters from it, we saw another symbolic emblem with an eagle on its top. It took us about an hour-and-a-half pump boat ride from Coron to reach the historic town of Culion.




For those who do not know yet, Culion once served as leprosy segregation camp or leprosarium of our country. According to some friends who have visited this place, it is worth to see Immaculada Conception Church built by the Jesuits in 1906 and the leprosarium museum. A tricycle brought us to the church in about 5 minutes. We felt so blessed as we witnessed the beauty of this timeless house of God. I truly adore the combination of its aged outside and innovative interior architectural design. From its vicinity, we saw an old church bell as well as two pieces of old canons facing the sea. It then popped into my mind that maybe Culion served as a military camp during the Spanish era…so I read some articles about this and have confirmed that Culion was once a fort during the 17th century.




We failed to see the artifacts of Culion and the leprosarium documentations as the museum was closed due to national holiday. Frustrated of the scenario, we went back to our boat to sail for a few minutes and have lunch at our next stop…the Malcapuya island. As we sailed away, we again saw the alpha and omega symbols and we realized that those symbols were written at the back of Immaculada Conception Church which might correspond to Revelations 1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty."

Coron, Palawan

Nuovo Hotel Michelangelo/Maquinit Hotspring/Mt. Tapyas/Horse Valley
Coron, Palawan
08.20.2009-08.23.2009

Maanne and I took advantage of the opportunity when I was about to attend an island congress of PCL-NCR set in Coron, Palawan. Though this would be both our first time to be in Coron, we already knew that the place has so much to offer for everyone…We booked our flight via Zest Air 2 days ahead of my congress schedule for us to explore the wonders of the Calamian Group of islands which comprises Busuanga, Coron, Culion plus 98 other scattered islands in northern Palawan.


After a safe arrival at Francisco Reyes Airport in Busuanga, vans for hire are available to drive everyone to Coron town proper. We first checked-in to Nuovo Hotel Michelangelo located near the sea port and just a tricycle ride away to their public market. Hotel Michelangelo is owned and operated by Italian and Filipino partners as told by its staffs. This hotel is not as attractive as other hotels that we saw with regards to its architectural design but they do offer great comfort with their wide air-conditioned rooms and water supply is never a problem.




After a late lunch, some picture taking, and 1-hour rest at our hotel, we traveled 5-km to Maquinit Hotspring. With an entrance fee of P100 each, this natural brackish hot spring offers therapeutically relaxing water ranging from 38-41 degrees Celsius. We enjoyed dipping our bodies for more than 2 hours and went back to hotel for our late dinner and had a fine rest.


The next day, we woke up early in the morning to climb partly the 700+ steps of Mt. Tapyas where a giant white cross is situated, an iconic monument that can be seen even from neighboring islands. As much as we wanted to reach the top of this mountain, we needed to preserve our legs for long days ahead of us so we decided to stop after climbing almost 200 steps and just took some photos with panoramic view of Coron bay at our back.



I will be making separate blogs about our experiences in Culion, Malcapuya, Siete Pecados, Twin Lagoon, Kayangan Lake, and Banol Beach in its respective albums. I was fortunate to have a glance of the Coron Bay at sunset.

After days of exploring Calamian islands, we were about to flew back to Manila 1:00 pm on August 23 but we did not want to put our time to waste during our remaining hours in Coron. After we had our breakfast, we rushed 4 kilometers from the market to Horse Valley. We experienced horseback riding for an hour but only within the ranch. We failed to bring the horses out to explore some more views of the mountain as we were already running out of time. We immediately get back to town proper where we bought the town’s popular local product, the cashew nuts which come in 3 variants, the plain, fried, and roasted.




We then checked-out to our hotel, said goodbye to Coron, and were picked up by a van that drove us to Busuanga airport. After another hour of safe fly, we were back to our real life.

Ogtong Cave

Bantayan Island, Cebu
02.28.2009-03.02.2009

After having eventful 2-night stay at Waterfront Hotel, Maanne and I check-out the next morning following another great breakfast at Uno Restaurant. At around 8 am of 02/28/09, we immediately proceeded to Cebu North Bus Terminal where we could find a ride for Hagnaya as we are about to travel and discover Bantayan Island. Hagnaya serves as seaport for those who will travel the northern part of Cebu via ferryboat. We rode a local bus "Ceres" that took a 3-hour travel where we passed by more or less 10 cities and municipalities of Cebu province. Although the travel was so exhausting, we were still keyed up to find out what awaits us because the night we met Doc DJ, he highly recommended to us that we travel to Bantayan if we intend to go to beaches of Cebu than having a stay to the costly hotel beaches in the vicinity of Cebu City as it will be truly worthy discovering the island. Though we were really unfamiliar to where we supposed to go, as strangers, I was unrelactant asking our co-passengers where should we unboard and thank God because Cebuanos are very honest and accommodating that they were so kind to direct our path.

We arrived in Hagnaya port at noontime. After paying the fare and terminal fee, we embarked on the ferry and waited for almost half an hour for other passengers. We sailed for an hour until we reached the Sta. Fe port area. Because Doc DJ has a staff who lives in Sta. Fe, he helped us thru having room reservation. Despite of unfamiliarity with Bantayan Island, we were glad that when we got off the ferry boat, there was already a staff from Sta. Fe Beach Club waiting for us having my name written on a piece of cardboard. He fetched us as well as their Korean guests. We arrived at around 2pm at the resort where we had our late lunch. Before we brought our things to our room, the receptionist invited us for a trip to Ogtong Cave at around 3pm so we just left our things secured in our room and we proceeded to Ogtong.

Upon arriving at Ogtong Cave, we felt that this resort has more things to offer than Sta. Fe Beach Club as they have pleasant reception, well-constructed man-made garden with green atmosphere, satisfactory swimming pools, fine white sands, and a cave with brakish cool water...simply wow to our delightful eyes! My wife then got speechless appreciating the beauty of Ogtong but at the same time knowing that that was not the resort that we'll be staying and that we need to leave Ogtong at 5pm...but I had another idea, recognizing that Sta. Fe BC and OC are sister resorts for sure we could make arrangements and transfer to Ogtong that very moment in time. Without wasting much time, we hurridly make the deal that we wanted. The receptionist called Sta. Fe BC and their service vehicle fetched us again for us to get out things at Sta. Fe. My wife's mood blanched the moment we got back to OC. We hurridly put our things to our room "No. 6", then dashly picked up our digicam and, of course, the tripod. The moment we left our room, it came to my mind that our stay would be a sort of our postnuptial photoshoot. :-)



We explored Ogtong Cave that afternoon, having our photoshoot anywhere we wanted, appreciating the shady sky, the huge rough dark-grayed rocks, and the white sand beach until the sun came down. We then had an early dinner at their restaurant with seafoods then proceeded to our room to have a break after an exhausting day.


The next day, we even explored OC more. The scenery is more appreciable upon sunrise. We adore nature, we love green, and we enjoyed what we are seeing!



After having some photoshoot with nature, we visited the cave once again and had a fine stop there before staying at the beach for some time to relax, swim, and ride the yellow kayak.




Our day was superb! As if we did not want to see the sunset knowing that we have to leave the next morning for our 440pm flight at Mactan. Time was fast, the sun came down again, we had our dinner with the resort's special birthday pancit and grilled tanigue. We had no choice but to rest in our room, pack our things, and had plenty of rests for tomorrow would be another long day for travel.





We really had great and enjoyable stay at Ogtong Cave, though far, it worth the travel. :-)