When a dream became a reality: Trekking Mt. Tapyas and Dipping at Maquinit Hot Spring

At 4PM, we are already on the lobby of the hotel waiting for our tourguide. After 15 minutes, out tour guide led us to the tricycle that will be our mode of transportation for Mt. Tapyas and Maquinit Hotspring. There were two tricycles, so we decided to split the group into two, one tricycle for boys only and the other one would be for girls only.

Road Sign going to Mt. Tapyas

A mass was on-going when we pass through San Agustin Church. After like 15 minutes, we were already on the starting point for Mt. Tapyas trekking.

What to Bring:

• Water! (Especially when you’re not into trekking or climbing)
• Chips (so you have something to eat when you got hungry on the top)
•  Towel (for your sweat)

Long way to go!

Let's Start!

It was very easy for the first 50 steps since the gap between the steps is somehow far. But the next steps will make you chase your breathe! (Am I exaggerating?? hehehee). This applies for those people that are not into trekking, mountain climbing and too much walking up. Imagine the stairs in MRT stations, for example, in Shaw Boulevard station? Multiply that to 7 or 8, that would be, approximately, the height and number of stairs leading to the top of Mt. Tapyas. 

STOP! :)

BF ignoring his cramps

enjoying the view and resting :)

Couple pic while resting

the view while going up

were almost there!

We reached the top around 4:50PM; probably it took us just 30-45 minutes going up. Although BF had cramps while climbing, we find the climb too short and not that hard. Probably because we had reached the highest peak in Luzon, which is Mt. Pulag (I’m not bragging, you know! hahahaha)

So what can you see at the top?

There is a big cross at the top of Mt. Tapyas. This place is good for photo ops, before and after reaching the top. Overlooking is the whole Coron Town. You can also see the islands that are part of the Coron Loop Tour.

Is it worth it?

The answer would be a big YES! I so love the view of the sea and the mountains surrounding the town. It seems serene and calm. How I wish I can have a house that has an overlooking as beautiful as I saw at the top of Mt. Tapyas.

the cross

can you see the port?

can you see the islands for coron loop tour?

you can see the boats from here

couple pic with the cross

sunset :)

After cam whoring, we decided to go down to proceed to our Maquinit Hot Spring tour. We trek downwards, more or less for 30 mins. While trekking, we saw a man going downwards the hill using his bicycle! We were amazed how he can managed to go down because the Hill is somehow steep and worst comes to worst, he might end up stumbling until he reached the ground.

the bicycle man, i wonder what happened to him

stairs going down!

this is us after finishing the trek, it's like nothing happened :P

We then rode again the tricycle. We went back to the hotel because we need to pick-up another couple that would join our group. But they were not there so the tricycle went to the marketplace first to buy barbeque for dinner then search for the couple. After 15 mins, the couple was still not in sight so we just went on to Maquinit Hot Spring. The couple will just follow then.

It was a rough road going to Maquinit Hot Spring. It was not yet cemented so you need to get your butt ready. Lucky us it was not raining that time. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to pass on this road during storms or rain.

Around 6:45PM, we arrived at Maquinit Hot Spring. There were a lot of guests that time when we arrived. We did cam whoring first. I find the big mask hanging on the tree cute! I hope I can bring it home. hehehe

the mask

We ate dinner first before dipping into the hot spring. The dinner was taken care of by the tour guide. It consists of itlog na pula, fresh tomatoes (kamatis), fried fish (I forgot the name, but it has sharp teeth!), barbeque and ofcourse rice. Unfortunately, some of the dishes were not served because the container fell during the travel going to Maquinit. The container has the food inside. Still, we did enjoy our dinner and we ate using our hands only :)

dinner

this is where we eat

there's the pool!

After dinner, we went to the hot spring. We were warned that it is very hot but BF, being stubborn as he was, hurriedly went to the hot spring and dip his feet. As I expected, he immediately get out of the water and went back to me.

Me: “ang init noh?!” (it’s very hot right?!)

BF: “OO!” (Yes!)

And we just laughed. I then tried to dip to the water and dude, it was hot. Not just hot, it was really HOT! It was like 40 degrees Celsius! At first, we can’t bear to dip even our legs. But everything is a process right? So after dipping our legs, our knees followed, then our hips, our tummies, our shoulders and lastly our necks! Well, that’s for me. Hahaha. I can’t dip my whole head to that super hot spring! Hehehe

The Hot Spring is man-made and privately owned. It has a PHP 150 entrance fee. It’s big. I can’t determine if it’s clean because it was night when we went there and you can’t see clearly other things below the water (aside from your feet). But I think it has moss. A lot of rocks underneath so be very careful and mindful. If you get used to it, the hotness of the water would not bother you anymore. It will relax you that you really want to sleep there.  I think the forest and the nature surrounding the Hot Spring would look good in broad daylight. But hey, it’s a hotspring! So ideally it would be best to go there after a tiring trek to Mt. Tapyas or a whole day of snorkeling and island hopping :)

enjoying the hot spring!

After some BF and me time, then photo ops, we got out of the hot spring. I think we just stayed there for 30-45 mins. According to some locals, nobody can stay there for more than an hour since it is very hot. And when I looked to Jah, her face was oh so red! I was kinda worried coz I thought she’s sick. Luckily, she’s not. It’s just that, the hot spring is really HHOOOTTT!! (I think I just mentioned the word HOT 100 times to this blog! Hahahaha).

After fixing ourselves, we went back to our tricycles, this time we were complete in one tricycle (the six of us). Seriously, the road going back is really dark and if you’re the type that watched the movies Wrong Turn or Jeeper’s Creepers, well, you’ll find the way back really creepy. Hehehe. That time, Coron doesn’t have electricity so imagine that! Hehehe. I didn’t even bother to take a picture because of total darkness in some parts of the road!

Finally, we were back at the hotel pass 9PM. We discussed the details for tomorrow. One of the topics is where we are going to have breakfast. Since we just really tired, we decided to just eat breakfast at the hotel. This in turn became a wrong decision. 

See Day 2.

When a dream became a reality: Coron Planning and Arrival

Our First Anniversary trip to Puerto Princesa last year was a very memorable one. It opened our hearts desire to travel more and explore, if not all, atleast some of the tourist spots that the Philippines can be proud of. Before, I was hoping to take a trip around the world, but after Puerto Princesa, I realized that I need to travel first our country before going out. So when the time comes that someone would ask me, what can the Philippines offer? I would proudly state every places I’ve been to, until they’ll get tired of listening :P

Coron Island, as I quote Wikipedia, is the third-largest island in the Calamian Group of Islands in northern Palawan in the Philippines. The island is part of the larger municipality of the same name. It is about 170 nautical miles (310 km) southwest of Manila and is known for several Japanese shipwrecks of World War II vintage. The island is part of the ancestral domain of the indigenous Tagbanwa people.

The area around the wrecks has rock formations which provide for snorkeling opportunities, with underwater visibility extending up to 80 feet (24 m). The water is often calm. Coron is one of the most visited destinations for wreck diving in the Philippines. Wreck dive sites are found in depths as shallow as 10–30 feet and as deep as 120–140 feet (37–43 m). Most are in the range of about 60–80 feet.

Kayangan Lake, you'll see more of this on Day 2
courtesy of Wikipedia

With this information, and not to mention a lot of blogs about how beautiful this place is, BF and I decided to come back to Palawan for more! Hehe. But this time, we will go to much laid back place which is the Coron Island. My former board mates, Kwek and Jah, together with their BFs, decided to come along since they haven’t been to any places for leisure and vacation outside Metro Manila.

November 11, 2011 (11-11-11), a seat sale from Zest Air was announced which cost Php 11.00 one way (excluding other surcharges). But I wasn’t able to book on the mentioned day since their site was not accessible and having an internal server error. Probably a lot of people were trying to book a flight. The next day, Nov. 12, 2011, I checked the website of Zestair again, it was now accessible. So I tried to book a flight for our desired travel dates, and BOOM! The eleven peso seat sale was still available, on our desired travel dates that include our exact Anniversary (Aug. 20)! I immediately booked a flight from August 19-August 22, 2012, contacted Kwek and Jah, and borrowed my officemate’s credit card for payment. (I paid my officemate immediately, don’t worry :D)

credits to the owner

Fast Forward, three weeks before our flight, raining was non-stop! The sun was not even showing even for a while! I was really anxious that on the day of our trip, there will be a storm. There was TS Gener, Habagat then just days before our flight, there was TS Helen. Luckily, TS Helen just spent four days in the Philippines, the sun shone on the day of our trip and our flight with Zestair was smooth and on time. I was really thankful to Jesus that He granted my wish. Seriously, He never fails to listen. 

our tickets

in case of emergency

getting nearer

and nearer :D

We arrived in Busuanga airport around 10:05AM, picture taking with the aircraft (hahaha), waited for our luggage then proceeded outside the airport to look for our van that will bring us to Coron town. Since we availed the package tour offered by Coron Wonders (as recommended in Girltalk), they provided the van for us. I saw my name and Kwek’s holding by a man, then he pointed Kuya (I forgot). Kuya asked how many are we then he accompanied us to his van. Actually, I was a bit shocked and disappointed when we were not alone in the van; there were other tourist inside (around seven of them I presume). I thought that the van service will be all ours but it turned out that it was not. I thought of this because when we tour in Puerto Princesa, Palau-yo Tours provided a van for us and it was all ours. No other tourist hitched with us even though we are only two.

touchdown Coron!

Francisco B. Reyes Airport

Couple Pic! :)

our names..vans are waiting

Anyways, back on our trip, the travel time from Busuanga Airport to Coron town is approximately 30-45 mins. The road going town was already cemented so the ride was smooth. Mountains and nature can be seen along the way. 

We were dropped-off in our hotel, which is R2R Bayview Inn. There was confusion between Coron Wonders and R2R. Coron Wonders thought that we booked R2R through them. I didn’t hear their argument until Kuya (forgot his name, they said it was the owner of Coron Wonders) called Ms. Rina and she confirmed that we directly booked the hotel. That was the only time that we were allowed to enter the hotel and accompanied to our rooms. But here’s the thing, R2R haven’t cleaned the rooms for us! Only one room was clean enough for us to stay while waiting for the other rooms to be cleaned. So we waited for like 20 minutes before me and BF can have our own private room (room 208). Also, our assigned tour guide (forgot her name also, I am not really good in remembering names!), seems that she doesn’t know our itinerary. She told me that she will pick us up in the hotel around 5PM for our Maquinit Hotspring. A question mark drew all over my face. Then I told her, “Akala ko mag-mt. Tapyas muna bago maquinit? (I thought we will be climbing Mt. Tapyas first before proceeding to Maquinit?)”. Then I showed her the itinerary that was sent by Ms. Rina. After reading, she changed the time to 4PM. Actually, before Mt. Tapyas, according to the itinerary, we will be touring around the town. But since according to my officemates who previously went in Coron and to the blogs and forums that I had read that Coron is just a small town, and thinking that we can do the town tour all by ourselves, I decided not to discuss it to her anymore. Also we were a bit tired from the travel.

our hotel for four days and three nights

 I did not bother to rant about these scenarios during our trip, because I don’t want our vacation to be ruined. But as I was writing this blog, I felt really annoyed to what happened to us on our arrival and we can’t do anything about it.

Proceeding to our trip, lunchtime came and we were really hungry. Exactly 12nn, we went out. We really don’t know where to eat. I just relied on what I had read online. Lolo Nonoy’s came up to my mind and Centro Coron. BF and I let our new tourmates (Jah and her BF, Reinier) decide where to eat, and they chose Centro Coron.

Centro Coron Bed and Breakfast is located near the market. It is right across Ralph’s Pension House and GMG Hotel. It also offers package tours and accommodation. The restaurant is quite small. Actually the whole building is small as for me. I heard that this restaurant have delicious meals. The four of us just shared the meal since it was a bit pricey but has big servings. We ordered sinigang sa miso (pink salmon), pork liempo, six rice (the BFs have a huge appetite..haha) and 1 mineral water. The food taste is…OK. It doesn’t taste bad but it’s not that delicious. Good for very hungry people (like us!). It’s forgettable hehehe. Our total bill was Php 800.00. For the taste and because we are “kuripot” (thrifty), the food is a bit expensive. We didn’t experience bad customer service, probably because there were few clients by that time.

pork liempo

pink salmon; it's pink when you open the head

BF and Me with Jah and Reinier

After eating, we decided to roam around the town. I wanted to see what I have been reading about in blogs for so many months :). First, we went to the market. It was like a typical market. The difference is there was souvenir items (shirts, ref magnets, keychains) sold in the shops. Almost all of the eatery was carinderia type, small but I think their food were reasonably price. I want to see how far the port to our hotel is. The port is located at the back of the wet market. We passed by Coron Gateway Hotel. This hotel is the nearest hotel to the port, but it is very expensive to stay there.

road signage

Mt. Tapyas View from the Market, the cross cannot be seen, too much light

lualhati park

near the market

Overlooking the port was different accommodations on stilts. One of them was Sea Dive Hotel. It has its own docking area. It looked clean from afar.  I noticed that there is a restaurant with mermaids design. I later found out that it was La Sirenetta. Good location for a restaurant right? It would be a romantic place for lovers especially when the sunset is coming.

la Sirenetta

sea dive

the port

Since it was around 2PM, the sun is really, really high and it was super hot. We went back to the location of Centro Coron and decided to have a mango shake beside it. The shop is pure white. I really love its color. It looks really clean, neat and relaxing. It’s called Ice Valley. They only sell different kinds of halo-halo and shake. Bf wanted the special halo-halo but it was not available. So we all settle for a mango shake. But the mangoes can only make three shakes! The other only available shake would be banana shake. BF gave way so he was the one who availed the banana shake. I just let him sip my mango shake. hehehe

Menu

fave shot for the day :D

Mango Shake and Banana Shake

After some chit-chatting and photo ops, we came back to our hotel. It was around 3PM so we will have an hour to prepare for our Mt. Tapyas and Maquinit HotspringTour.