SCUBA Diving in Coron, Palawan

My main goals in Coron were to go island hopping and to snorkel at least in one of the shipwreck dive sites.

Coron is known as the Shipwreck Capital of the Philippines (well, I just knew when I saw someone wearing it as a statement shirt). I did one of the island tours on our 2nd day. On the following day, since there were no other island tours available, we decided to go for a fun dive. It was marketed to us by the hotel staff in Corto del Mar. He said tourists really go for diving in Coron instead of island tours.

After a while, the dive master/manager (who's French) approached us and asked if we're interested. Corto del Mar has its own dive shop. We discussed about risks, difficulty, prices, etc. We're sold about the idea and very excited about it. It's my first time to dive!!! YAY!!!!

The fun dive only costs P2000 per dive, per person, including gears plus lunch. If you wanna go to another dive site, that's another P1,300 (you can go at Twin Peaks, ship wreck, or Barracuda lake). We did two, so we paid total of P3,300 for the whole day. I think it's pretty cheap since there were just two of us in the boat plus each had his own dive master.

We woke up early, had breakfast, and went to the dive shop which is 5 mins away from the hotel - went before 9am for gear fitting. Then the divers drove us to the port and by boat we went at CYC beach where we were instructed of basic Scuba skills - like how to remove water from your mask, how to remove water from your breathing apparatus, how to breathe without it, how to equalize, how to balance, and basically how to NOT DIE DOWN THERE! :)

Well, I thought it was a piece of cake, but nuh-uh!! It's damn difficult and life threatening. However, the experience was also damn good!! If you know me, I like the thrill of "surviving".

I will never go back to snorkeling after scuba diving (although half meant).

There's truly another world under the deep blue sea - mountains of coral reefs, schools of fish in different colors and sizes, amazing view. It's one of the most beautiful things I've seen in my life. Our dive master said that the sites we went at are not even close to the best dive sites in the Philippines, but I'm in awe already.

(There aren't too many underwater pics because my instructor was holding my camera. He thought I was only interested of selfie pictures of me.)

It's a Barracuda!!!! A predator.

Our second dive site was at Twin Peaks. We snorkeled at the same place the day before. There were lots of jelly fish.

On our second dive, our instructors taught us how to jump dive (whatever you call it!) :P The gears were really heavy!!!

To know more about Corto divers and their dive courses + prices , visit their link at http://www.cortodivers.com/

Thank you Kuya Jay (one of the dive masters) for sharing the experience and being patient teaching us the skills. I learned so much about Coron, its people, eco-tourism, scuba diving, mangroves, and different human natural instincts (just too many! i love information!). The passion in you is just amazing and inspiring. I hope to see you somewhere soon!

I'm definitely going back for my Open Water diving certification! Coron is just too beautiful (both land and underwater)!