With our last day in El Nido behind us (we spent the day soaking up the rays of sun in the lukewarm water), we once again teamed up with our new compadre “Noam” and the 3 of us hatched our plan for getting out of El Nido. We found a small fishing boat that would transfer us to Busuanga Island and the city of Coron. We grabbed our bags and headed for the pier where we met up with a troop of other travellers all headed the same way. Although the morning had been calm and clear, clouds were beginning to form in the distance. By 8:00am our oversized pumpboat was chugging it’s way out of the Bacuit Archipelago Bay.
About an hour into the journey the heavens opened and rain once again pelted down on the boat and the wind was quick to follow. As the surrounding islands began to disappear around us in a veil of rainfall, the ocean swells grew in size and were several feet high. However, the Filipino boat crew members assured us that it was “No Problem”. Sadly, not for Amanda. The ups and downs took their toll on her and she graciously donated her partially digested breakfast to the aquatic life below the water. Luckily, after about an hour the storm passed and we were able to continue our journey.
In total, the trip took about 6 hours, and other than a couple more cloud bursts, we arrived in Coron without a hitch and checked ourselves into a room at the “Sea Dive” Hotel. The evening was spent catching up on e-mail and sampling the snacks the restaurant had to offer.
The next day we were pretty much grounded to the hotel because of the Typhoon that went whipping through the island, but we were lucky enough to get a couple of “rain-free” hours that we used to climb up to the Cross of Coron which offered an excellent vista of Busuanga Island and Coron City below.
We found endlessly amusing things to captivate our attention (such as trying to balance our water-bottle atop our heads) or crying “Snake!” just to freak each other out… well… one of us anyway. We were out exploring for 3-4 hours and we made it back to Sea Dive just in time to escape the late afternoon downpour.
As evening turned to night we went out into the storm to meet up with Noam, but the darkness of the Typhoon-induced power outage drove us back to our hotel. There, by candlelight we met up with a Chinese traveler from Shanghai named Sophia. The three of us sat and talked and exchanged tales of our harrowing boat adventures from the El Nido ferry (Sophia, in fact, had the better tale because although we had both been caught in the Typhoons, her pumpboat’s engine broke down about 40 minutes from Coron Town and their boat had to be towed in to the pier).
We were shortly joined by Noam and the 4 of us enjoyed a nice meal by candlelight. To cap off the evening, Noam led us to the local Pizzito Restaurant where we enjoyed our first “Halo-Halo” culinary experience (which was far easier to stomach than Balut). Halo-Halo is a Filipino dessert made from shaved ice, fruit, jelly, cereal, brown sugar and a whole melange of sweet treats all mixed up together. The 4 of us talked the rest of the evening away and before long it was time to call it a night.
The next morning we awoke to find out that our flight would be delayed by an hour, which under normal circumstances would not make much difference, however, we had to make sure to catch our connecting flight which was in the city of Clark (roughly 90 kilometers from Manila). So once the ZestAir service bus had finally picked us up (despite pre-booking it, we were somehow forgotten), we arrived at the Coron Airstrip ready to board the plane… which was nowhere to be found.
Our scheduled delayed departure was once again delayed and now we were well behind schedule but we were assured by the staff there would be “No Problem” catching a shuttle bus from Manila to Clark. The turbo-prop flight through the Typhoon was one we would like to forget but at least we arrived safely in Manila with our friend Cecille waiting there to send us off. She had learned of our delays and had the foresight to hire us a taxi which would whisk us to Clark (as the shuttle buses had long since departed).
We sped away from the airport with 3 hours in which to make the 90km trip, however rush-hour Saturday traffic in Manila is an obstacle in and of itself. To make matters worse, several streets we needed to take were flooded because of the typhoon and so weaving our way through the mess of Jeepneys, motorcycles, trikes, cars, and buses was very “stop and go”. It was so “stop and go” in fact, that Amanda made good use of the Air Sickness bags she had taken from the plane. We made it through the city in about an hour and a bit, but things were starting to get close.
As 4:30 turned into 5:00 we began to fear we wouldn’t make our 6:00 flight, but when we asked our driver (who had to make an emergency bathroom stop at the Jollibee), he simply said “No Problem” and assured it was just over the next bridge… and then, just until the next town… and then, just up this next road… and then… uh… let me just stop and ask for directions. Needless to say we were fearing the worst when we pulled into the Airport at 5:45 to catch our 6:00 flight. We dashed to the counter and pleaded with the attendants to let us on the flight (which they graciously did), but suggested that we arrive a little bit earlier next time.
At last, we boarded the plane and set our sights on our next destination, the wilderness island of Malasian Borneo.