My Palawan Trip Plan

I am so excited to go to Palawan soon together with my hubby. Although no fixed schedule yet I'm hoping it will be in the next few weeks. It would be our first time to go to this popular destination (at least in the Philippines). I've read a lot of travelogues and now I'm sold on visiting this province which is known as the Philippine's Last Frontier. There's just too many must-go-places in Palawan but I'm contemplating on two major places - Puerto Princesa City and the other one is either Coron or  El Nido.

I know one week is not enough to experience the beauty of one of the most famous tourist destination in the country but I just have to make the most out of our vacation days.I need to stay there for at least one year if I want to fully experience most of it's beauty. Coron alone, one of the municipalities of Palawan, is noted for picturesque steep limestone cliffs, white sand beaches, hotspring, seven mountain lakes famous of which is the nationally-acclaimed cleanest lake in the Philippines the Kayangan mountain lake. And that is Coron alone. There are 22 other municipalities which has it's own must-go-tourist spot. I heard that El Nido has sparkling white beaches and Busuanga has wildlife sanctuary. The list of wonderful places goes on and on.

Big Lagoon in El Nido

Coron

It's quite hard to decide where to go in Palawan given the time and financial constraints but as I've said I just have to settle in two major places which are Puerto Princesa City and El Nido or Coron. I'm sure of Puerto Princesa because this would be our base when we go to Honda Bay for island hopping tour and Sabang for Underground river tour, two indispensable tours if you are in Palawan. But for the other one, I'm torn between Coron and El Nido. Both places have crystal clear water and white sand beaches which is what I'm looking for. One day I prefer El Nido the next day it would be Coron (lol). Well there are still some time to decide for that. At least I'm sure of Puerto Princesa City. 

I used to be rather confused what exactly is Palawan. I did a little research and here are some interesting facts worth mentioning. (source: palawan.gov.ph & wikipedia )

• Palawan is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of jurisdiction.
• Palawan is basically composed of
• City - which is Puerto Princesa City
• Mainland Municipalities - this is the big/main island which is divided into 12 municipalities (Aborlan, Bataraza, Brooke's Point, Dumaran, El Nido, Narra, Quezon, Rizal, Roxas, San Vicente, Sofronio Española and Taytay )
• Island Municipalities. - these are the smaller islands surrounding the big/main island, consist of 11 municipalities (Agutaya, Araceli, Balabac, Busuanga, Cagayancillo, Coron, Culion, Kalayaan or Spratly Islands, Linapacan and Magsaysay.
• The Tabon Caves in the municipality of Quezon is known as The Cradle of Philippine Civilization because the earliest human remains ( until 2010) have been found in that cave on May 28, 1962 by an American anthropologist. The bone fragments was believed to be 22,000 years ago. BUT just last 2010 another fact was established when they have proven that another older remains were discovered at the Callao caves near Penablanca, 210 miles north of Manila. The Callao Man's fossils can be traced back 67,000 years ago, making it the earliest human remains found in the country.
• Palawan is known as the Philippine's Last Frontier simply because it has wild and undeveloped natural resources left in it's natural condition with abundant  wildlife species much like an unexplored paradise and a wonder of nature for human beings. This place is rare nowadays. Hopefully it will remain as it is forever. Industrialization is good but it should not be at the expense of a very beautiful paradise such as Palawan. There are now several protected areas in Palawan to preserve it's natural ecosystem like the Calauit Island in Busuanga. The island is mostly surrounded by coral seas where endangered and rare species including sea turtle, giant clam and dugong maybe observed.

TCB

photo source: palawan.gov.ph

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