Bahala na

Another trike ride took us to Coron, for our last 3 days of the Palawan archipelago. It caught me a bit by surprise when I realized that we would be saying goodbye to the ocean after Coron; the sea seemed so intertwined with our experience in the Philippines. Coron itself wasn’t our favourite place, but we did find some gems and it had the best island hopping.

Gem #1 was Lobster King. Lobsters here are different than the ones in Canada: They come in different colours and they don’t have claws. But they’re still delicious! Another new food experience for Daniel and Arwen.

Gem #2 was another great food-themed experience: a cashew factory tour. By factory I mean the basement of a store where a family processes cashews by hand (40kg per day). After picking the nuts from the tree, which grow at the tip of a fruit that looks like a pepper, the nuts are dried for a few days in the sun. Then they are halved with a hinged knife, shelled, and peeled. Then they wash the nuts ten times to get an acidy residue off. Next the nuts are packaged raw, seasoned, fried in various flavours, or baked. It seems like every shop in Coron has its own “Lola’s secret recipe” for cooking the nuts 🙂

Coron is built at the base of a big hill. Gem #3 is the observation deck at its peak. The deck offers a 360 degree view of the ocean, islands, and countryside. Daniel, Arwen, and I climbed the 730 stairs to see the sunrise one morning.

Gem #4 is a personal connection. Remember this guy from church in Concepcion?

His dad couldn’t be at church because he had to work (as a cook in Coron.) We did meet his dad the day after church when we were walking to Conception Falls. He was taking his family (wife and 3 kids) for a motorbike ride and they pulled over when we recognized each other. A few days later, while looking for a place to eat in Coron, we were wishing we had asked where he worked. We wound up at a pizza joint with good reviews. Imagine our surprise when the cook said: “weren’t you in Concepcion?” It was the Dad! It was a really fun connection in a far away land.

And he made great pizza!