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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

See also Lee Goldmans other articles on this blog… now we bring you part two (2) from this amazing destination in the Philippines. Within the next few days we finish his Journey and publish part three (3), so please stay tuned or subscribed to our Blog @ http://www.alliancediving.com/blog/

PALAWAN Rainforest
© 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

This report has just reached me this morning from our Alliance Partner Juergen Warnke at Club Paradise in Palawan, Philippines.

NATURE is a lot closer now....
BUSUANGA AIRPORT Palawan Philippines...

 

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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.                                                                   

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© 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.
 

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© Gunther Deichmann - the WWII Wrecks of Palawan

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© 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.

This blog was posted on the Palautours.com site, we like to share this with you since we are so close to each other... The Philippines & Micronesia.
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)

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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.


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© 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