Note: All photos are best viewed on mobile, I believe.
Hello everyone!
Let me pick up from my previous post in this series. This post should have been uploaded first before that Barracuda Lake post, but I changed my mind. It shouldn't matter though. After all, the highlight of my Coron trip is Kayangan Lake. As I've mentioned in my Islands in Coron post, we had our first island tour on the second day. I've shared those photos in Photography Lovers community to highlight what I really loved on that boat trip. If you haven't seen that post yet, please refer to the link below:
That post ended at the boat docking area of Kayangan Lake which is already a sight to behold in itself. I haven't included all the photos in that post, so here are the remaining ones that I can't still get over:
As I've mentioned in the previous posts in this series, the moment we docked, I immediately told my friend we definitely need to go back there. I don't care if I'll spend a lot of money just to go back. I think I told you already, but let me repeat, we're already booked! We'll go back to Palawan this May 15-20, 2022! This will not just be Coron, but including Puerto Princesa and El Nido. I'm so excited!
We stayed longer in the docking area even if the guide already told us to start climbing those steep stairs to access the inland lake. We took a lot of pictures and I can't still believe I was gazing at those magnificent structures. I felt I was not deserving of such beauty. Have you ever felt that kind of awe? I can now say Coron is now my favourite travel experience so far.
And now the dilemma: I have two separate sets of photos, one taken from my phone and the other taken from my camera. I initially planned to have them shared separately, but it's not good-looking from the perspective of rewards. So, just have them in a mishmash.
Before I take you to the lake itself, let me share some of the photos taken using my phone. These photos are still in the docking area:
I guess it's now time to talk about Kayangan Lake. I've been teasing about this for like almost three weeks. 🙃
KAYANGAN LAKE
Kayangan Lake is the most popular tourist destination in Coron, Palawan. It's one of the only two lakes on Coron Island that are accessible to the public. The second lake is of course, Barracuda Lake which I already shared ahead of this post. If you haven't read that post yet, please refer to the link below:
According to official records, there are a total of eight lakes on the island, but according to our guides, there are thirteen. The rest are not open to the public to preserve the area. The whole island of Coron is under the ancestral domain of the Tagbanwa Tribe, one of the original inhabitants of the Philippines. The largest lake is Cabugao Lake which will dwarf all the other lakes on the island, but it's strictly off-limits to the public because it's considered sacred to the Tagbanwa people.
Before reaching the lake, we had to climb up those 150 steep stairs until we reached the Kayangan Lake View Deck. That's the famous spot where most of the tourists would stop for photos. It's kind of misleading for me because the view is not really facing Kayangan Lake, but it's facing the sea where the docking area is located. Nevertheless, it's the view that made Coron famous, so I won't whine about it.
We never expected to climb another set of stairs that day. Since we climbed Mt. Tapyas the day before, we were really tired when we reached the view deck. There were a lot of people queueing and waiting for their turn to take photos or have their photos taken. We couldn't afford to wait our turn there, so we decided to just go directly to the lake and had the photoshoot later. We just directly head down to the lake and this is the view that greeted us:
Crystal clear water nestled in between awesome karst formations, Kayangan Lake is unique as it is said to be 30% saltwater and 70% fresh water. It's quite the opposite of Barracuda Lake which is 30% freshwater and 70% saltwater. These bits of information are from the guides. Those limestone formations serve as filters which made the water super clear. More than that geeky information, I just enjoyed the tranquillity of the lake until a lot of tourists came in.
At this point, let me share the photos from my phone. I think they offer a different perspective of what's in the lake. As you can observe in the first photo below, the water is super clear that freediving will offer a different experience. After all, like Barracuda Lake, Kayangan Lake is also one of the cleanest lakes in the Philippines.
Just as we were enjoying the lake, taking a lot of photos and swimming, the guide told us that we need to move in 10 minutes. That's one of the downsides of having a packaged tour. You can't decide on how long you will stay in one place. Other than that, the lake was a feast to a wanderlust like me. We climbed back those stairs and reached the view deck and then take as many photos as we can before other queuing tourists came in. I have no decent photo in the view deck though, so let me just share some of my vanity at the lake.
I guess that's all for this post. See you at the next one! I still have a lot of stuff to share in this series. Maybe I'll just lump all the beaches that we visited in the afternoon of the second day. Stay tuned!
Kim Ybañez
Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession, but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits secluded destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying hard photographer so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.
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