Following the chilly night bus escapades we spent an incredibly dull 9 hours in Manila airport waiting for an internal flight to Busuanga Island, Palawan. The boredom was punctuated with an extortionately priced cappuccino, an equally pricey giant pizza and free wifi (free wifi everywhere, simply marvellous). Many hours later we boarded our little propeller jet for the 40 minute flight to Busuanga. Soon we were on our way to Coron Town the main population centre of this little island.

Dumping our bags we opted for a short hike to the viewpoint, some 700 steps up a rather large hill for spectacular views out over the bay. 700 steps may not sound much but after 100 we were sweating and a little out of breath, oh dear. The views were stunning and we braved the biting ants and mosquitoes to watch the sun go down. Our first sunset in quite some time and it was well worth it.

From the view point we jumped into a luxury looking tricycle with room to swing a cat and decoratively furnished with pink frilly curtains to whisk us off to the nearby hot springs. Yet another extremely bumpy ride along unpaved roads and we arrived at Makinit Hot Springs. Three large pools all helpfully paved complete with little ledges to sit on ranging in temperature from moderately hot bath to super hot bath. Fortunately the springs are only slightly wiffy and since they're open to 10pm the best time to visit is after the sun goes down and the outside temperature had dropped a little. Even more spectacular is that they sell cheap San Miguel (local) beer for a few pesos just to complement the experience. Only down side is that beverages cannot be consumed whilst floating in the pools but it does give the excuse of stepping out to cool off a little. We neglected to bring a towel so soaking wet we donned our clothes and were 'blow dried' dry on our way home on the speeding frilly tricycle.

Up at a reasonable hour on our second day in Coron to do some island hopping, we stepped aboard our on Bangka armed with snorkels, flippers and sunscreen for a day on the waters off shore. Our boatman/guide/chef was fabulous and took us first to a little marine park where we saw the most stunning coral. The fish were plentiful and a little turtle even graced us with its presence. To be honest after an hour or so of floating around we weren't sure it could get much better than this. Back on the boat and onto our next stop, blue lagoon and a freshwater lake on Coron Island. A short walk through the forest and we arrived at an incredible lake with water as clear as glass. Unfortunately the view was spoilt a little by bright orange bobbing things clinging to the edges (yes those unfortunate swim-less creatures known as Korean and Filipino tourists). Our third stop of the day took us to a secluded white sand beach where our boatman cooked up a stunning lunch of grilled squid, tuna, rice, vegetables and salad.

Skeleton wreck was our next destination, one of many wrecks in the area but parts of this one are shallow enough to be seen without scuba diving. Whilst I floated around on the surface James partook of some impressive skin diving down to about 8 meters to take some photos. Evidence can be found on the photo page! Last stop was twin lagoon, a strange experience as the surface of the water was cold and the deeper parts warm where fresh water was mixing with sea water. A perfect day on the water and our favourite so far.

On our last day in Busuanga James took the opportunity to do some more diving (unfortunately I couldn't due to a cold). The area is famous for its wrecks; quite a few are dotted around, relics from the war. James was able to do three dives and saw three of the wrecks, the most challenging was descending through 4 meters of vertical funnel with little room to manoeuvre and all sorts of scary sounding stuff. From here we travel to El Nido in the north of Palawan proper, a seven hour boat rode awaits.