Shipwrecks and Starfish

Danvic, Carlo and I woke up bright and early and ready for our next adventure. We rode in a tricycle back to the port and hopped on the same boat from the day before.

We got to snorkel around a coral garden and two different shipwrecks. The coral garden was breathtaking. I’ve never seen so many fish of all different colors, or as much coral that hasn’t been touched by commercialized tourist ventures. We even found Nemo (or rather, several of them!) Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any pictures of the underwater wonders we experienced.  

Luckily, I pulled out the camera in time for lunch!

The shipwrecks were rather eerie—we were swimming on top of Japanese WWII ships that had been shot down by American planes. I won’t lie, it freaked me out a little bit.  

My favorite part of the day was when Jack and Nader (our tour guides) took us off the original tour and decided to take us to a small, deserted island with a lot of coconut trees.

Jack climbed up the coconut tree quicker than you could say coconut. I’ve never seen someone move so quickly up a tree.

*you can see Jack shimmying up the tree

Nader and Jack helped us open the coconuts on a rock (and made monkey noises). It was rather fun to act a little barbaric…And we got to “taste the wild” as Jack would say.

Nader

Jack!

We feasted on fresh coconut juice and meat—these were the most fresh (straight of the tree will do that) and tasty coconuts I’ve ever eaten. 

On the way off the island we found several starfish and had a mini photo shoot. All in all it was a surprisingly fun day. 

My favorite part about these trips is that the islands and tours (as well as Coron as a whole) aren’t completely commercialized yet. To find the second shipwreck the boat driver knew where to go because a plastic 1 liter bottle was the marker. I think it will be sad once this place becomes commercialized, but for now it’s a fabulous escape from the city.