PALAWAN Philippines…Part two on the Wilderness Kayak Tours by Lee Goldman…Palawan the PHILIPPINES best kept secret & NATURES Paradise…brought to YOU by The PHILIPPINE-MICRONESIA ALLIANCE, The Divers Choice
© Gunther Deichmann - Nature at its
best...pristine Jungle in Palawan
http://www.alliancediving.com/main.html
The
main focus of the trip is the incredible area of northern Palawan;
El Nido and Bacuit Bay. This is easily one of the most beautiful
places I have ever been (and I worked in Palau, San Juan Islands
and Vancouver Island in the Pacific Northwest, Belize…) so I
have an idea what pretty is. We spent our time here snorkeling,
kayaking, and camping.
While it is hard to say what activity is best in El Nido, for me
snorkeling ranks up there at the top. There are over 400 species of
coral in Bacuit Bay and in a recent survey lead by the world famous
ichthyologist, Dr. Gerald Allen, they recorded over 800 species of
fish, including several new species and records of fish. What make
it so special are the gigantic islands in the bay that provide
protection from potentially large ocean swells that may damage
coral. Fields (and I mean fields) of staghorn coral, table corals
that measure 3 meters in diameter, un-imaginable colors radiating
from all types of hard and soft corals, beautiful and rare fish and
all this in 1-2 meters of water! On our trip we spotted hundreds of
juvenile fish with some of the guests favorites being the Humphead
grouper, Zebra lionfish, Helmut Gurnard, and Javanese Damselfish. I
am a coral guy, so to see such healthy and diverse coral gardens
was the ultimate treat for me.
While most of the bay can be accessed boat, kayaking is the only
way to see this place. Picture perfect shallow lagoons, intimate
stands of mangroves, and paddling next to a 300m vertical cliff
face that erupts from the water is a pretty amazing experience. We
conduct our kayaking with complete boat support, so we transport
the kayaks to our designated area. We had great weather; calm seas
and cloudless skies. Our daily excursions were designed to go to
places that not many other tour groups go and because we are
camping out in the heart of the islands, we could easily time our
visits between other operators.
We are also the only outfitter that provides luxury camping in
Bacuit Bay. Our campsite provides large walk-in tents with
mattresses, fans, lights; a dining tent with sit-down meal service;
a chef (who did a fantastic job preparing 3 – 4 course
breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals for us); a generator to charge
batteries (and make fresh fruit shakes or margaritas); a comfort
room tent and shower tent and we also had a certified masseuse
there to help with folks whose muscles were in need of attention
after a day of snorkeling and kayaking. Arriving at camp in time
for the sunset was a great way to end the day. Of course, waking up
to a beautiful morning amongst the islands was a great way to start
the day as well. For those wishing to get the most they can from El
Nido, our expeditions should not be
missed!
Lee
Goldman
Great NEWS...BUSUANGA AIRPORT in PALAWAN Philippines extended... now more flights,comfort...plus several Whaleshark sightings in the Coron Island area
NATURE is a lot closer now....
BUSUANGA AIRPORT Palawan Philippines...
CLUB PARADISE, EL RIO Y MAR
and the
DUGONG DIVE CENTER
Busuanga
Airport, landing point for
CLUB PARADISE, EL RIO Y MAR
and the
DUGONG DIVE CENTER now has a 1500 meter concrete runway plus
a 400 meter gravel extension.
This gives a new dimension to tourism in the islands of the
Calamianes. Whereas before only 19 seater planes were able to land,
Busuanga airport is now being served by the super fast 32-seater Do
28 (needs only 35 minutes to get there from Manila) and the 50
seater Dash-7.
Starting next week, May 17, 2008 the service of a 72 seater plane
from Phil Airlines will begin daily flights. This will bring the
total seat capacity per year to about 100.000 seats yearly. New
hotels, lodging houses and resorts are under construction and on
the planning board. Present room capacity of 400 rooms will be
double within an
year.
© Gunther Deichmann - the spectacular marine life in
Palawan
The Government has decided to pave the road from Coron to Busuanga
Airport to modernize the road system and create more
comfort for all travelers. Guests of the
Philippine-Micronesia Alliance
and
CLUB PARADISE, EL RIO Y MAR and DUGONG DIVE
CENTER will get to their destination a lot faster
and more comfortably now.
This will increase their time to enjoy all the exciting dive sites
to see the Turtles, Dugongs, WWII Wrecks, a whole fleet was sunk in
this area and of course beautiful reefs in this area.
Another great NEWS is, several Whale-sharks have been in sighted in
the Coron, Palawan area, a good reason for planning your next trip
to PALAWAN...the Philippines best kept secret...NATURE at its
best.
© Gunther Deichmann - the
WWII Wrecks of Palawan
© Gunther Deichmann - the WWII Wrecks
of Palawan
PALAUTOURS.COM updated today May 7th 2008...including the FSM...Federated States of Micronesia...plus a lot more very soon.
Before you make all our travel arrangements check it out...why not stop over in the Philippines for a few extra days and Dive some of the best Bio diversity in
the world. Plan your trip as a combination Philippines - Micronesia then you have the very best of both worlds.
Think about it.
PalauTours.com Now... Welcome to Micronesia!
The colors of the Pacific...
(FSM - The Federated States of Micronesia)
Chuuk (Truk Lagoon) - Yap - Kosrae & Pohnpei
Click the image or the link below
http://www.palautours.com/micronesia.html
As promised... we have just updated the
palautours.com site changes and NEW additions are as follow;
Micronesia section is updated see the screenshot on this blog - a Palau and Regional map has been added -
in the Photo Gallery we have now provided caption on all the images for easy identification - Getting here is
been updated - some pages have additional text - plus we have changed some photos in various categories.
More to come by this weekend and an incredible update is in progress for the Dive sites of Palau, we will feature
most of the dive sites and not only the popular ones, a big undertaking but I am sure you enjoy it once that is done.
We try very hard to have our first listings up also by Sunday, please stay tuned or start subscribing.
Your Palau Tours Team
Did You Know...? Dinosaurs dung...& three DUGONGS spotted at the HOUSE REEF at Club Paradise last week...Dive with Dugong Dive Center
DUGONGS at
THE HOUSE REEF ...
CLUB PARADISE PALAWAN.
©
Courtesy of Dugong Dive Center in Palawan, Philippines
click the image or the link below to visit the website
@
http://www.dugongdivecenter.com/
I
have
just received this report from Dirk Fahrenbach, yes three
(3)
DUGONGS right at the
House reef at Club Paradise grazing the seaweed bed.
This is the only place in the Philippines where you can observe
these amazing and gentle creatures in the wild, the area is well
protected by a conservation Park.
Another
article but not related to our Dugong sighting is that of a Auction
where some fossilized Dinosaurs dung has been sold for some US$
1000.00 very interesting reading...
GD
Dino dung
snapped up at auction
Jurassic-era coprolite, or fossilised dinosaur dung
Two pieces of dinosaur dung have been sold at auction for $960
(£486) at an auction house in New York.
The fossilised dung, which resembles rock on the outside, and a
colourful mineral inside, is 130 million years old, from the
Jurassic period.
Auctioneers Bonhams of New York said it sold for twice the expected
price.
The buyer is reported to be Steve Tsengas, the 71-year-old owner of
a company that sells products to treat pet animal waste in
Ohio.
Marketing
tool...
for the full story click the link
below...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7377982.stm