PALAWAN | Coron’s Twin Lagoon

Monday, January 24, 2011

Beautiful Afternoon at Coron's Twin Lagoon

Next stop on our island hopping tour was the dive to the Sunken Japanese wreck which I don’t have a photo of since I don’t have an underwater camera (advice to those planning to go to Coron, you gotta have an underwater camera with you, even if just the cheap disposable ones). So I’ll be moving ahead to the Twin Lagoon which was our almost last stop for the day.
  
Towards the Opening of the Coron's Twin LagoonAgain, I was expecting a cove where we might get to relax a bit but it turned out that not unlike Siete Picados there ain’t no sandy beach to land on here too.


Pardon my ignorance, but I really don’t know the proper definition of a Lagoon, so here’s something from Wikipedia; a lagoon is a body of shallow sea water separated from the sea by some form of barrier.

Alrighty, so now that we got that out of the way, let’s get on with the show.

As its name suggests, the Twin Lagoon is composed of two lagoons, an outer lagoon where we docked and an inner one, where one has to pass through a cavelike entrance either by swimming or rafting during low tides and by diving under or climbing a ladder above during high tides.  It was said that accidents do happen while diving under so better be careful.  Lucky us the tide was ebbing down during our visit.
 
We disembarked from our boat, transferred to the bamboo rafts provided by the caretakers and as soon as everything’s in order (i.e., our cameras), we soon paddled towards the inner lagoon.
 
Into the Portal, Watch Your Head at Coron's Twin LagoonThere were a couple of visitors in the area but they were already leaving so we mostly had the lagoons to ourselves. The sun was already low in the horizon and we can definitely feel that dusk would soon encroach these parts.

The water was deep green in color and it was eerily quiet. We can hear nothing but the sound of our paddle hitting the water. The sun’s ray bouncing off the limestone cliffs surrounding the lagoon had that very late afternoon look and it only heightened the sense of unnaturality of the place.

I was actually having second thoughts snorkeling but what the hell, right?

Swimming at the twin lagoon only got my stomach on a knot even more. The water here was strange, very strange. One moment the water’s cold and the next it’s warm; I turned my head to the left, the water was crystal clear; but when I turned right, everything turns blurry like the water’s filled with oil (but it’s not oily at all).

With no other snorkelers in the area, my mind was zoning in on the realms of the X-Files. Told you I don’t like snorkeling alone, what more on a strange lagoon. 
Limestone Cliffs All Around Coron's Twin LagoonAfter circling the area for some minutes, I finally got my head out of the water and found that our raft was gone. My stomach turned a few notches tighter.

With a sigh of relief, it turned out that our boatman was just disposing a huge jellyfish that was found in the area.

I at length had enough of it and finally boarded our raft and paddled back to our boat.

I was relaying everything I experienced to our boatman and he did confirm everything I experienced; I wasn’t going bonkers after all haha. He said that some locals (or was it divers, sorry got everything mixed up) tagged the lagoon’s water as strange water due to its peculiar properties. I asked if there was some sort of explanation regarding the water suddenly turning oily like that but even our boatman doesn’t know why that was.

Coron’s Twin Lagoon was one strange swim.

Stillness at the Coron's Twin Lagoon

 

      Coron Island Hopping Tour
      Boatman: Avel Arevalo | (0939) 815-0044
      Tour Fee: Php1,500.00 whole day boat rental fee

      Twin Lagoon Entrance Fee
      Php100.00 / person


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24 comments

  1. First time on your site, you have great pictures! galing ng mga kuha mo Christian :)

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  2. im guessing what camera did you bring inside the lagoon, ang lakas ng loob kng dslr! great shots, as always.

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  3. ah! I miss Twin Lagoon! where salt and fresh water meet :) also as you go deeper there are these different water temperature currents. I think at least every 10 feet it changes from cold to warm. ah!

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  4. Claire
    Salamat Claire!

    Chyng
    I brought my Nikon D80 with me, as my Canon S3is was malfunctioning from my Mt.Tapyas climb =P

    John
    Interesting waters, right?

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  5. yeah, and good news for me! I'll be back in Coron on Febuary! Yay! :D after 4 years!

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  6. John
    Lucky you! This Feb, dito lang ako sa malapit lapit, Candaba Swamp, Binondo for the Chinese New Year and Clark for the Hot Air Balloon.

    Intay ko pics mo pre!

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  7. really enchanting... nice shots.

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  8. Pare question, anung waterproof bag ginamit mo? I was thinking of swimming around with my D40.

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  9. Dong ho
    Uy thanks for dropping by sir!

    John
    I don't have a waterproof bag (unwise I know hehe), I think may nabibili housing for DSLR's for underwater use. Nakalimutan ko tawag but it's not that expensive (around 2k ata).

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  10. 2K lang? pwede yun ah, san makakabili nun?

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  11. I had such a grand time going through all the posts that I missed! You always make me want to visit so many places here. Someday soon, I hope. :)

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  12. John
    Yup, as far as I can recall ha. Look for Dicapacs sa mga local camera shops.

    Hilda
    Thanks ma'am! I'm glad my blog inspires people to explore our country, the Philippines is so beautiful, we just need to go out and see it for ourselves. =]

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  13. this is the only post i've read about twin lagoon and it's mysterious properties... hmmm. pag ako nasa lagay mo, nagpanic na ako nun at muntikan ng malunod. hahaha

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  14. Fetus
    Haha naka vest naman eh, kaya no chance na malunod =P

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  15. I didn't have a photo to the inner lagoon's entrance. I think this place is really scary because of the water's depth. Hahahaha! But I did enjoy my Coron tour. =)

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  16. Great shots! I've here twice, and I am planning to go back again :)

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  17. Ming
    I've also been here twice, the first one was in the afternoon, the second time was in the morning. I must say mas maganda sya bisitahin sa umaga

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  18. Hi! I linked your post in my post, http://3rdworldturista.blogspot.com/2012/05/coron-second-time-around-day-2.html. Great photos!

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  19. Is the water from twin lagoon too deep? Cause i dint know how tk swim and
    I'll be spending my debut at coron. Your photos are great

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    Replies
    1. Yes, Coron's Twin Lagoon is quite deep. You don't have to worry though, you may just wear a life vest :)

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