Culion: Like Seeing the Starry Night Sky with a New Set of Eyes

La Immaculada Concepcion on a clear, moonless night

The monotone of the boat engine and my nap kept being disrupted by the constant complaints of the short-haired woman seated near the kapitan.  A local judging by the way she keeps addressing (pestering is more like it) the crew, she tells everyone either the life vest issued to her or somebody's footwear smells like sewage, even challenging everyone including the passengers to stop and smell their slippers.  Mercifully, no one budged.  Save for this comedic drama, the one hour and forty-five minute banca ride southwest from Coron town to Culion was uneventful.  The sea was calm, the good weather holding.  

It bears mentioning the boat terminal in Coron as the wi-fi signal was better than in our lodge and the facilities were orderly, owing to the recent resumption of big ferry trips from Manila via Puerto Princesa.  The terminal's walls were plastered with 2Go posters advertising the promo fare of P1,200 which was impossible to miss and difficult to ignore -- something to keep in mind for a return trip hopefully in the very near future.

Hmmm, why go to Culion and not stay longer in Coron?  While I still like Coron, I personally wanted to venture somewhere new.  The last time I visited, we had a side trip to the wildlife reserve of Calauit farther north and enjoyed it.  This occasion is no different.  I was also eager to venture somewhere quieter, less touristy as I've always been a fan of small towns.  Besides, it's always fascinating to go somewhere I've only read previously in books.

Return to Coron: A Liveaboard Kind of Day

Grand entrance to Kayangan

I've seen and marveled at these karsts before, floating on an emerald sea that even a stormy day in 2007 cannot obscure.   Fastforward six years later, these towering limestone behemoths still awe me.  I've seen the karsts of Halong Bay in Vietnam while riding a junk some  years back and biases aside, while I find the Halong limestone formations as impressive, the sea here in Coron and elsewhere in Palawan is so much clearer, so much so that from a plane, one can see all the way to the relative shallows, the darker hues hinting at their varying depths.

Just one mind-boggling fact: of the country's 7,107 islands, 1,780 can be found in Palawan while some 50 of these islets are in Coron.  Surrounded by so much water, it is almost impossible to visit without so much getting into the water or at the very least, drink in the wonderful scenery and get your feet wet, literally.