My Palawan trip a couple of years ago was my first ever to that side of the Philippines and succinctly splendid! We were all of 13 family friends who took a plane ride to Busuanga Island to stay in Darayonan Lodge located in the town of Coron for 5 days. We landed on the Yulo-King Ranch airport and took a 45-minute drive to Darayonan on an all-weather gravel highway. We were on the lookout for Tagbanwas, natives of Palawan who have the ancestral domain rights, whatever they may be.
With our gear and excitement at bay, we island-hopped and ventured into the lagoons and lakes of Palawan. On the first day we docked on an island and had alimasag (soft shelled ones you can break them with your fingers), inihaw na talakitok, lato (seaweed), inihaw na pork chops and boiled vegetables. On the way back to the Lodge, we stopped by Makinit, a hot spring place owned by the Sandoval family.
On the second day, we took a 2-hour boat ride to Kalomboyan Island and passed through a south sea pearl farm which was securely lined with numerous buoys all around. Someone in the group pointed out Culion Island where a leper colony was established many years ago. Along the way too, we stopped by a portion of the sea to check out some Japanese WWII naval ships sunk by American bombers. For lunch we had unicorn surgeon fish (a.k.a. machine gunner or sunghan), alimango (I had a huge crab claw that filled me up), wild oysters, chicken inasal, imbao (shellfish) soup, pork barbecue and the usual veggies and bagoong.
Next day, we swam into a lagoon from a boat through a low lying rock structure as we clang for dear life with vests. It was scary at first but I had to overcome it or be left on the boat. I think I might have over-extended my legs in swimming in the lagoon. It was well worth the swim though as it worked up an appetite. Later, we feasted on lobsters, talakitok, sunghan, and an unidentified fish cooked as sinigang.
I missed out on Baracuda Lake where a live dangerous-looking stone wall lies, sharp enough to kill you if you didn’t know how to climb. The baracuda’s name is Henry and if you shouted loud enough, he’d probably come out to eat you. To cap the day, we had dinner at Coron Bistro, a hole-in-the wall kinda, but food was so great we kept on going back. To die for, in case you get to Palawan, are Bistro’s Pizza de Mare and Pizza Margherita.
As the New Year’s Eve approached we all prepared our own little specialties to put on the table. There were two kinds of Paella, ham, roast port, paté, three kinds of fruit salads, a whole array of seafoods again (as if we hadn’t had enough), grapes, galantina, cheeses, champagne, wine, sparklers for the kids… really too much. We flew back to Manila with an average weight gain of 5 pounds. Next time I write about Palawan, it’ll be about a sustainable development community that’s now in the pipeline.
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