Coron Palawan 2023: Happiest birthday Nacho Kid!

It’s been more than a month since Nacho Kid’s birthday extravaganza at Coron Palawan (his dream!) and as a busy single parent with a lot of mental health issues, I just found the time, and energy to finally tell our story. 

Ever since he knew how to maneuver GoogleMaps, Nacho Kid always dreamt of exploring the Philippines, no, the world; and as a mom, I want to provide him all the happiness that I could. From our trips to Bohol, Singapore, and Boracay (mostly co-sponsored by our fairy godmothers and godfathers).

This year, he wanted to visit several places and one of those on the list was Coron. Last year we went to El Nido. 

The cheapest fares I found for a direct flight to El Nido was from Cebu Pacific and it cost us around P14,000 for  roundtrip tickets. Thankfully it was non-eventual and we arrived on schedule. We travelled with my brother Kurt and his ninong Arvin!

I’m too lazy and occupied to do DIY tours so I booked them via Calamian Islands Tour (hint: they offer the same trips as the ones Klook provide, but direct – so cheaper). 

Here are the tours we availed:

• Joiners Coron Town tour – 650per person
• Joiners Coron Island super ultimate – 1700per person
• Joiners Reefs and Wrecks Tour – 1500per person
• Joiners Calauit Safari with Black Island Tour – 2400per person

You can have private tours at a much higher rate. We don’t mind island hopping with other people. We get to socialize a bit and meet new interesting personalities.

I scheduled the town tour first, because we arrived in the afternoon, and this one is just half a day. You get to explore the small town and churches, climb the 100+ step hill, and end your tour with a hot spring bath at Maquinit Hotsprings.

So proud of this little kid – turning big boy, for climbing the mountain despite all the odds. I felt bad for giving up not even reaching half-way. Good thing there’s ninong arvin to stay with him until the end. He was so proud of geof for not giving up!! Even if there were times they had to pause to take a breather.

My baby is growing up! Or is all grown up.

Mission accomplished!

This was the only photo of us in the hotsprings. No photos of us inside the springs sadly because it was too dark, too wet, too humid. We were to scared our phones would get destroyed in the process. Hahaha

‘ Ninong Kurt treating us for dirtyicecream. I wonder why it’s called dirty ice cream? Im sure some manongs have proper hygeine naman.

Or next stop was a tourist shop, with tourist prices. I only got Geof a wooden jeepney priced at 450php. The pearls were priced at 15k+ and I was like.. what?! It’s cheaper to buy in Greenhills!

Kurt and I stopped by at Good Grind coffee, the “best” coffee on the island according to people. Their caramel matcha was good even if I wasnt fond of matcha it was yummy because there was more caramel in it. Price ranges from 120-150php

Then the next tours were island hops!

‘

There were lots of stops for snorkling, and compared to other islands Coron had the most beautiful fishes and live corals we can see! Even if we do not go super deep in the water. Geof was so happy, and I got so nauseus by the 4th leg LOL there was something about staying in the ocean for too long, and going back up the boat, that makes you feel you are stil, waving around. 

As you can see, our tour guides and boatmen gave their best effort for this lovely lovely spread for the SUPER ISLAND TOUR. Look, shrimps, clams, and lato! They didnt scrimp!

The other tours, gave a less specatular spread though. Boo.

One memorable thing, this was 5 minutes before the carnage AKA storm. Arvin and I were stuck trying to paddle the boat and not moving any inch because of the strong winds. We had to get rescued! I was so paranoid that we would drift away in the middle of the ocean omg.

Despite smelling like bat pee and poop, exploring the Black Island Caves felt magical. It was Geof’s first time inside the cave too! There was a crystal clear spring water you can swim in, it felt chilled, not so cold that you’ll shiver, but refreshing enough to cool you down from the sun.

‘Book a safari tour too! You’ll get to support the giraffes, zebras, and other animals! The caretaker told us that because there was in-breeding that happened, the second, third, and fourth generation giraffes were smaller and had genetic defects which was sad.

I think in regular zoos from other countries, they would do inter-specie exchange to avoid this from happening. However, here on Coron, the giraffes are just out there in the wild. So it has its pros and cons.

We got to feed them! They have strong grip and bite so you need to hold onto those stalks harder. 

Vela Terraces Coron is where we stayed, and they went the extra mile to create this special birthday ballon surprise greeting for Geof!! Thank you!

Birthday dinner was pizza and spaghetti at Trattoria Altrove. It wasnt authantic Italian because the Carbonara had cream, but it was good enough. The pizzas were cooked in a brick oven though! We had pepperoni and 4-cheese.

Of course a birthday wouldn’t be complete without a birthday cake! We tried all flavours available, in each slice at Maria L’s Cakeshop. This was a neat find in Coron. Her cakes were really yummy especially the Carrot cake and Caramel Cake. It had generous amounts of carrots, nuts, and raisins. The creamcheese frosting wasnt to sweet, and the cake was uber moist. I think her carrot cake was better than most I’ve tried here in Manila too!

Happy birthday Nacho Kid! We love you so 🙂

PS: The pizza and Arvin hhehehehehe