CORON 2018: A REAL PARADISE TO KEEP (1st part)

MAY 19-23 

Mixed twist and turns of emotions that's what this Coron travel has brought us. Just like in the movie inside out, I think different emotions has been rumbling during the whole trip. From excitement to fear to hope to disgust to sadness and back to happiness. Only to realize that God's plan is always better than ours. 

It was good morning of May 19 we were all excited as we make way to Clark International Airport everything seems to be smooth flow, not until we boarded the Plane and take off. about 20 min. in the Air, we noticed smoke inside the cabin and it grows that the fastened seatbelt sign make rounds over and over, until the Captain announced that we will be having emergency landing to the nearest airport due to technical problems. We can feel the tension of his voice and the urgency of the situation as we felt the maneuver and raging clouds that we surpassed. Thank God that NAIA terminal 4 was just 10min. away if we'll go back. For every passenger in that plane would say that would be the longest 10 min. of ourlives. We keep on praying and make ourselves calm and composed until we landed. wooh! that was intense right?. After that moment we waited for hours for the turn out of the situation; when the PAL representative told everyone that our flight will be rescheduled the next day as early as possible but we have to go back to clark airport since all their flights going to Busuanga are only accessible in Clark. They will provide everything; the options were to stay in a hotel in Manila or Clark with meals included and shuttle. We opted to be in Clark to be able to get the earliest flight as possible so we won't get a hard time adjusting our tour itinerary. we also rebooked our returned flight to the last flight of the day as possible so we will be able to transfer our supposed to be first activity. We're almost relieved upon approaching Clark, but to our dismay, the shuttle couldn't locate the OASIS hotel. We almost wasted 1.5hrs just making rounds to find the hotel. it was 9:30pm when we arrived and 10:00pm when we had our dinner. It was a good hotel actually and we can access their amenities but we're dead tired of what the day has become so we just take some rest and be able to wake up 3:30am to catch the 5:15am flight of the next day.
May 20: the day has come and we were all praying for one smooth safe flight. It was like an answered prayer while in the middle of our flight, a rainbow shows itself as if waving a big hello for a wonderful day ahead. Upon arriving safely at Busuanga airport, that was also the moment that we got back all our excitement for a great adventure.

we're all asked to vacate the Plane immediately

Trying to calm ourselves

Medic stand by, in case of dizziness and nausea  

Dinner at Oasis Hotel

At the Lobby

Day 1 was running and we don't have any bookings on different tours for the day; luckily almost all of accommodations in Coron were also tied up with different travel agencies for rush bookings. Since we will be staying at Jazmine's Place, we seek for their help and asked if they could find us any available for Joiner tours of Island Escapade. Thank Goodness! even it was 7:00am there's one available and we don't have to change our itinerary. We may not be able to haggle for a discount but still a good deal since we don't have time to look for another agency. Another Thankful moment was when we were allowed to avail our breakfast since we will not refund the supposed to be first night of stay, we arrived exactly on time that we can still eat breakfast and get ourselves ready for our first day adventure.

Island escapade comprises of Malcapuya Island, Banana Island and Bulog Dos Island. Set of Tours are standard and grouped by the Local Office just like in El Nido that's why you only have to choose on what package group of tour you'd like to go. Much better to do some research first and plan what's best for your taste. We plan to put Island Escapade first because this will fall on weekends which we thought would be crowded, we have decided to save the best picturesque spot on weekdays so we will be able to appreciate every karst, walls and lagoons without thinking of the crowd. Another thing is that we long for a beach escapade so there's nothing to doubt but filled our eyes with world class beaches on our first day. So for first destination, it is Malcapuya Island. about 1-1.5 hrs boat ride we're welcomed by a 5 min. walk to the opposite side of docking area and what dawned on us was a dream beach to-go place. Coconut trees lined up in front the shore of fine and white sand beach with a dramatic tree trunk lies on water. Rock formations on the right and left side adds to a picture perfect scene of Turquoise water. Cottages were also available but we opted to just put our belongings under the care of a coconut tree since we'll be staying for only and hour and a half. 

Spotted a rainbow (A promise of a good adventure)

Next destination would be Banana Island. They used to call it Banana Island because the Island's shape was similar to a Banana but the other side of the story was that, long time ago this Island was filled with Banana Trees but as time goes by. it was hit by a heavy storm and destroy everything on it then, later on they just replaced Banana Trees with Coconut Trees. It is just a small island with clear warm water that's good for a relaxed swim. This also serves our lunch area with cottages to accommodate large crowd and beach volleyball set up for some sports enthusiast. This Island has a resort that's under construction.

Last destination for the day was Bulog Dos Island. It is a two island island connected through a sandbar but it was high tide when we get there so we just climb to the view deck to see what's in store in this place; not to mention the two seasons island resort on the other end of the island. It lies in middle of an open sea so the back end of the island has a strong current and sharper stones but the side facing the sand bar was a good spot for swimming.

Going back to Coron town takes us about 2 hours boat ride that make us feel more tired but definitely worth it. Our 1st day has actually ended but we managed to drop by at the Church. Say some piece of Prayer and giving thanks to the Lord for it was a tiring and thrilling experience to get there but still He made us safe all along. And because it was a long day we just eat dinner inside our room. Oh yes! we brought to us rice cooker and some canned goods because of things like this. so let's see what happens the next day on the 2nd part of this Coron 2018 blog series :)