These are all the modes of transport we took over the two days from leaving Porto Galera to to Coron in the neighbouring district of Palawan.
One of our dive boats took us and our luggage to the central quay in Sabang where a motorised tricycle was waiting to take us to the van depot in Puerto Galera.
Here we were put on a van the would get us to Calapan, the capital of Mindoro. We congratulated ourselves on getting the last 2 seats in the van until they squeezed 3 more people in, so 18 of us set off in a toyota van.
It was a 1 1/2 hour drive to the centre of Calapan where we were put into a tricycle to take us across town to the bus depot. I was glad to see it was a decent sized bus so we had proper seats . This bus took us on about a 4 hour trip to a town called Bulalacao. We were fascinated how the bus seemed to pick up individuals at random intervals - no sign of bus stops , then drop people off as they called out.
There was a van waiting when we pulled up in Bulalacao that would take us to San Jose where we had a B&B booked for the night and were catching a ferry the next morning. After jumping in the van we were asked to wait outside - there was no sign of the driver. After about half an hour even the Filipinos were getting a bit frustrated at the delay. Eventually a sleepy looking guy sauntered up and got behind the wheel. Having been impressed with the driving of the first van & bus, this guys driving was dreadful - he set off slowly wavering
all over the place constantly papping his horn. Then he'd just suddenly put his foot down dangerously overtaking other vehicles and driving at anything coming towards us.
It was a relief to finally pull into the depot in San Jose where we caught a final tricycle to the Beachfront Bed & Breakfast. It was tucked down a small street behind very imposing gates. Once inside it was a little haven of tranquility. We were greeted by their guard dog - a big fat black lab who was happy for some attention. We had just made it in time for a beautiful sunset (and sundowner). A lovely way to end a full on travelling day. We also enjoyed dinner on the terrace overlooking the ocean (although no longer chilled beers on offer) and had a good nights sleep in the comfortable room.
The ferry was scheduled for 9am so we had an early breakfast which we'd had to book the night before - sweet fried fatty pork and rice not our ideal breakfast and we were regretting not having eggs on toast as the 2 backpackers next to us had requested. Although they seemed to have a coffee machine on site, we were given a jar of instant coffee and coffee mate. It made us smile when the backpackers called this retro. So rather than us being old travellers we prefer to think of ourselves as retro now.
We jumped in a tricycle at 7.30 to take us the short hop to the ferry terminal. Having reserved our tickets online we felt smug to sail past the big queue outside the ticket office. Our bubble was soon burst when we arrived at the port to be told our reservation wasn't our tickets and we must go to the ticket office. The ticket office had only just opened as we joined the queue of Filipinos and tourists. It soon became apparent there was only one person issuing tickets and it seemed to take about 10 minutes per person with tickets being written out manually. By chance we overheard the packpackers in the queue behind us telling the girls from our B&B they needed to obain another slip of paper from a ports office across the road. Colin went and got these - we've no idea what they were for other than recording our names and date of birth. Anyway, it's just as well we did have it as they were stapled to our tickets. As it was 8.55, Colin asked if the ferry would be delayed (as there was quite a lengthy queue behind us) but the lady shrugged 'maybe 9 maybe 10'. This meant we had a manic dash back into the port. We needn't have worried as everyone was still sat in the waiting areas. We found a seat in the shade, discovered there was another port fee we had to pay and then waited a further 90 minutes watching big loads being taken to our ferry.
We finally boarded just before 11am. We were a bit surprised to see our seats were actually beds. We got settled in - they were reasonably comfortable and there was a nice breeze blowing through. There was a food kiosk which only had crisps and pot noodles - unfortunately they had no hot water for the noodles. We had bought some snacks and bananas for the crossing that we believed was going to be 6 hours. We finally set sail just after 11am. We were impressed how the Filipinos lay down with their kids for such a long period without any boredom or hissy fits. The 2 young kids on the bed next to me were entertained by Tom & Jerry cartoons (as was I). I wasn't so keen on the cock fighting their dad started to watch and bet on.
Colin got chatting to a young guy from New Zealand up on deck. The sun was going down as we approached Coron making the islands look beautiful. We docked around 6.30 and took a tricycle to our hotel - accommodation only okay but at least the internal room was away from the street noise and had good air-con.
We had a walk into town - the narrow streets were chaotic and noisy, but we found a nice restaurant and bar near the waterfront. We're planning to do some wreck diving which this area is famous for and a boat trip around the key beaches and sites that Coron is renowned for.
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