PHILIPPINES: Diving in Coron, Palawan

We spent just under a week in Coron Town, Busuanga Island spending the days diving at the nearby WWII wrecks, and taking boat trips to the neighboring islands.  We loved Coron Town, we had great hosts at the Patrik & Tezz Guesthouse, and we did some insane diving with Rocksteady Dive Center (a Rasta-themed, Dutch owned dive shop in the Philippines lol).  Our first dive after being certified in Southern California was on a wreck near Coron that was 25-30m (yes, meters!) below the surface.  Unfortunately we were so excited to be taking pictures and videos of the wreck that Jason and I were passing the camera back and forth, and it slipped out of our hands and floated up to the surface.  When diving you can’t surface immediately, especially not from such a depth, and when we returned to the surface and looked for the camera, it was nowhere to be seen.  We lost two days of photos from island hopping and diving, and I was so heartbroken that I rented a crummy camera from the dive shop and returned to dive (and photograph) more wrecks the next day. Lesson learned: weight your camera when diving.

Sunken ships form an artificial reef which allow large corals to attach and grow on the ship and bring an abundance of sea life.  Because the water is so rich with life, there are a lot of particles in the water which makes for poor visibility (and murky photos).

Our Divemaster Dino, a Coron native, and Jason

Jason buddy breathing with Dino. Apparently buddy breathing outside of emergency situations is frowned upon, but it seems to be acceptable in the Philippines.  Jason went through air much faster than Dino and I did, so Dino shared his air with him on the way up so we wouldn’t have to rush.