A week in Coron (Island Paradise) (9/22-10/2)

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  Coron, Philippines
Thursday, October 5, 2006

I returned back to site on Tuesday after a wonderful week's vacation with seven other PCV's in Coron. The original purpose of the vacation was to get my SCUBA Diving Certification. Sadly I started to come down with a cold the last few days in Iloilo. I completed two days of the SCUBA course including one day in shallow water practicing our skills. It is a very strange feeling to breathe normally under water. The second day in the water I woke up and just did not feel right about finishing the course. I did something I rarely do, I swallowed my pride and competitive spirit and I chose not to continue on with the course. This was a very difficult decision for me, and those of you who know me well, understand how competitive I can get. But it felt very good to listen to what I was feeling and follow that (however emotional the decision was). Prior to coming to the Peace Corps I thought I would learn many of things I can do, up to this point I have learned more about what I can't, which is perhaps just as important

Balay Majika (the pension we stayed at)

. I am slowly realizing I am not as tough as I'd like to think I am.... I know this is a very important realization ... as hard as it may be to admit it!!

I still had a wonderful vacation in Coron and recognize how privileged I am to be on this journey and spend time in the beautiful surroundings of the Philippines. Coron is a quaint little tourist town that up to this point has kept its local spirit (besides many of the Ex-pats that live there to take advantage of the diving). There are no Jollibee's (Filipino McDonalds) and because of the typhoons we were without power for almost half of the week. We stayed at a wonderful little pension and spent our days out on the boats SCUBA diving, snorkeling, going to the local natural hot springs and even had a kayaking adventure.

On Sunday our last day in town Aaron (PCV) and I decided to go kayaking for the morning. We had a nice little paddle to a cluster of islands about an hour from the main Port of town. On the way back we were traveling against the current and the waves started to pick up. Slowly the inside of the kayak began to fill with more and more water and we did our best to bail it out but it kept getting harder and harder to paddle. Thankfully we were close enough to the pier and there were some men working on a docked boat

Another picture of the boat

. We tried to get as close as possible but the kayak kept filling with water and we eventually flipped over. We were able to hang on to the kayak as a floating device until we waved down the attention of the men working at the pier. They were able to lower a ladder so we could get out of the water and then with a large struggle it took about eight of them to lift the kayak out of the water. When we flipped it over we realized there was a hole in the bottom and it was filling with water on the inside, hence why we sunk. Needless to say we did not pay for the rental of the broken kayak and we were very lucky to have not been further out in the water. So between the SCUAB adventures, sunken kayaks and beautiful scenery of Coron I had a wonderful week vacation with fellow PCV's.

Next week I am facilitating a workshop for the cave guides and tourism council in Ambongdolan. I will be teaching them the Leave No Trace Environmental Ethics to help preserve their caves. I am looking forward to see how this event turns out. I'm sure I will have plenty to share after next week.

I hope everyone is well, sending love from the Philippines!

Peace

Sherry

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Another view of Coron Town from View Park	Baron (One of our Turkish SCUBA instructors)	Boat on Coron Island	Bunk Buddies
Carrying the sunken kayak	Coron Island in the distance	Coron Island's beautiful scenery	Cross at top of View Deck
Delicious Turkish Salad	Discovery Divers	Enjoying the view of Coron at the top!	Entrance into Baracuda Lake
Excited for snorkeling!	Filippino kids following us to the bank	Getting settled in our cabin	I love the pictures!
Limestone rock wall covered in trees	Manang Bing at Balay Majika	Me and our Trike Driver	Me and the Coron Guys
Me and the Coron PCV Guy's	Me on the dock, gotta love the island life!	Meat Market in Coron Town	More beautiful scenery
Need I say anything... beautiful!	Nipa Hut at entrace to Baracuda Lake	Old Plane Wreck	On our way to Baracuda Lake for Snorkeling
Our almost sunken kayak	Our boat capitan to the lake	Our Feast.... so good!	Our last day out for dives (Just beautiful)
Our Super Ferry night boat (Manila to Coron)	Overcast but still having a good time!	PCV Aaron and Filippino's pulling kayak out of H2O	PCV being wacky on board
PCV David Ambush and I enjoying Coron	PCV Kelly and I (Girls having fun on the island)	Port of Coron upon our arrival (7 am)	Random Ferris Wheel near Market in Coron
Sail boat and island paradise	SCUBA Air Tank	Sign to View Park	Soaking up the sun!
Some of the Coron Crew	Sun Set on our last night in Coron	The Discovery Diver Crew	The Hills are alive.....
The limestone rockwalls were amazing!	The PCV Divers	The Shipwrecks to Dive in Coron	Thumbs down to the broken kayak
Trike Ride Pic (the dirt road to Hot Springs)	Typical Island Scene.. or at least for tourist!	View down to Coron from View Park	View from Discovery Island
View from other side of View Deck	View of Coron Town from boat	View of Discovery Divers Dock and Island	View of Manila from boat deck
View of our boat as it was leaving the dock	View of Port of Coron	View of Sea Front housing in Coron (4m kayak)	View of Seadive Resort in Coron Town
View while sitting in the natural hot springs	Views from the Kayak (prior to sinking)	We Kayaked around this bend to cluster of islands	We swam through a small tunnel under these rocks!!
Where we headed? CORON

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