We landed at the Busuanga airport at around 11am of June 1, with the weather threatening to get worse. After 15 minutes of hovering in the air, the pilot managed to land the plane at the airport, to the relief of some 50 people who were just too excited to taste the raw beauty of Busuanga islands.
After we landed, a transport service from the Coron Village Lodge brought us at the hotel for a sumptous lunch at the hotel's simple yet appropriately set up bamboo-motiffed restaurant. We were given about an hour by the tour guide, Dexter, to unpack and get ready to see the virgin locations that the people of Busuanga, the Cuyonens, are all too proud about.
We ride a motorboat at around 230pm. Two nice Cuyonens - Buds and Reynante have been tasked to ferry us around Busuanga in the next 3 days. Cuyonens, as i have observed, are sincerely nice and really proud when showing off the beauty their home has to offer. Rightfully so, I agree.
It is such a joy to see a pristine place like Busuanga. Day 1 in Coron (town or municipality located in the Busuanga Islands in Palawan province in the Philippines) is such a blast that I can't find the right expressions of awe evoked by the virgin locations we have been to, just in Day 1.
Our first destination was the Atuwayan beach and the snorkeling was liberating. Then, we went on to see the Twin Lagoon and for the first time, I have seen and experienced diving in an underwater cave bounded by razor sharped stone walls that gave me nasty cuts in some of my fingers just by touching them.
Afterwards, we went to the very serene Cayangan Lake, supposed to be a sacred lake maintained by the local Tagbanua tribe - a more than 1000-year and still existing indigenous tribe that preceded even the waves of Aetas, Malays, and Indonesian immigrants to the archipelago. Only that getting there requires scaling some 200 hundred step mountain footpath that goes up and down, requiring me and my brother-in-law to carry my son Cobi, half of the way. My legs nearly buckled down more than once, both from Cobi's weight and mud-slippery steps.
Cayangan Lake is such a clean lake that you can see the bottom at 14 meters deep. The water is amazingly clear. Dexter, the tour guide said it has been officially acclaimed as one of the world's 'cleanest lakes' in the last 3 years, having been consistently proven by biologists for its cleanliness comparable with similar places across the world. I have to believed it when i actually swam in it. Awesome lake indeed!
We capped the day by going to another amazing place - a seawater hot spring, the Makinit Hot Spring. Wow, it was such a joy to dip in it and soothe your aching muscles after having been flexed pre-maturely swimming and diving a few hours ago.
We headed back to the Coron Village Lodge at around 7pm, and after another sumptous dinner of tasty crabs and beef soup, we retired to bed. Of course, I had to see some 100 emails from the office that made me guilty for a moment. But after realizing how much i would have missed if i did not go with the family to this holiday, I would not exchange this experience for anything my colleagues in Singapore can offer :-). I knew deep in my heart that my wife and kids are proud i made the right choice on this one.
Got to go now, breakfast is waiting. I don't like the Longaniza (grounded meat made into sausage - a Filipino breakfast delicacy) and the Danggit (a dried small fish, which is best eaten fried with fried rice during breakfast) getting cold on me....
It's Day 2 of my Busuanga holiday!
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