Coron Escapade - Part 6 (The Last Installment)

To view previous posts in this series, click the following links: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Day 8: April 30, 2010 - Club Paradise

There's not much to do but enjoy the resort and nature's beauty. In the morning, we walked around and discovered that there is a small chapel in the middle of the resort.

After our walk, we decided to go snorkeling and check out the house reef. It was beautiful. Lots of colorful fishes. After a while, we went to the other side of the resort to see the giant clams. The water was deeper in this part of the island but we were able to spot one clam. Ariel caught it on video but we weren't able to take a photo. Then we just decided to hang out by the beach.

Several minutes later, we moved to the pool area. The sky was getting darker and the waves rougher. No more snorkeling for us.

Then, the most exciting thing happened. Just before noon, while lounging by the pool area, a guy from the aqua sports center approached us and told us that a dugong had been spotted near the house reef and asked us if we'd like to snorkel to see it. Ariel and I jumped on the opportunity. Ariel ran to get a pair of fins and life vests and we walked into the docking area. When I saw the waves, I hesitated to jump into the water. Good thing the aqua sports guy encouraged us and promised to swim with us. So we got into the water and swam with all our might against the pounding waves. I was on the verge of giving up when we finally saw the dugong quietly feeding on seagrass on the sandy bottom of the sea, just a few meters from the surface of the water.

We were told to approach quietly, avoiding noisy splashes from our fins and not to come too close so as not to disrupt the feeding.

Here's a video of our snorkeling experience.

We were so pleased with our experience that we just relaxed the rest of the day.

At dinnertime, we were serenaded by the resort musicians as we enjoyed the sumptuous buffet.

I wanted to take a photo of the full moon for the last time but when we went out to the beach after dinner, we couldn't see the moon. After a few minutes, I noticed a faint glow from behind the distant islands. Slowly, the moon began to rise from the horizon. It was amazing! My first time to actually see the moon rise!

After our photo op, we walked to the Dugong Bar to have drinks - our last hurrah before heading back to the hustle and bustle of real life.

Check out all the photos here.

Day 9: May 1, 2010 - Time to go home!

Just because it's our last day doesn't mean we will just lock ourselves in our room and just wait for our departure. On the contrary, we wanted to enjoy our stay in the resort up to the last minute. So, we changed into our swim wear and headed off to the house reef for another round of snorkeling. We enjoyed the cool waters up to around 10am. Then we headed back to our cottage to pack. We ordered room service for lunch (pancit and sandwich) at around 11:30am and walked to the docking area by noon. Goodbye Club Paradise!

See all Day 9 photos here.