[Throwback] Busuanga, Palawan

Back in 2004, a friend of mine invited me to join his friends on a trip to Busuanga in Palawan. At that point, I hadn't been to Palawan yet but I had always wanted to go. Naturally, I accepted his invite. We stayed at Maricaban Bay, which I believe was like a sister resort of Club Paradise. (I can't seem to find Maricaban Bay Resort online anymore but I think it rebranded and changed its name to El Rio Y Mar.)

Maricaban Bay Resort in Busuanga

It was a memorable trip for many reasons. First, the snorkeling and island-hopping. Part of our stay there included getting to spend a day at Club Paradise. Apparently, the snorkeling around that resort is fantastic. We started out by snorkeling on one side of the island. It was relatively deep and our guide pointed out a sea turtle at the sea floor. Cool! We continued swimming until we got to a section filled with a wide variety of fish and incredible corals. Before we knew it, we had gotten to the other side of the island.

Beach at Club Paradise

As if that wasn't enough, on another day, we were taken to a small island. We were told to just swim out from the shore so we did. Just maybe fifty meters away from the beach, the water seemed to be about 30 meters deep already (or more). The sun was up and the skies were clear, which meant we could see all the way to the bottom of the sea. And I gotta say, that snorkeling experience was quite possibly the best I have ever had. There must have been thousands of fishes swimming about in that area! The variety was absolutely astounding. And we're not talking about minuscule fish here, we're talking about good-sized, vibrantly-colored fishes! It was like an incredible kaleidoscope under the sea! We would most likely have continued snorkeling there and enjoying the visual feast underwater if not for what seemed to be a very territorial triggerfish that kept swimming ominously close to us and darting about in a seemingly menacing fashion. At some point, we all got worried that it might just bite us so we swam back to shore. But that snorkeling experience (as well as the one we had at Club Paradise) continues to live in my head rent-free to this day.

The snorkeling around this small island was the best I've ever experienced!

We also got to visit Calauit Game Preserve and Wildlife Sanctuary. While there, we got to see a few African animals such as giraffes and zebras out in the wild. We also got to see some local fauna such as the Philippine mousedeer, the Palawan bearcat, and wild boars.

Feeding a giraffe in Calauit

Our food during that trip was also pretty good. As far as I recall, all our meals were part of our package, including the lunch we had at Club Paradise and the amazing beach picnic buffet that was prepared for us during our island-hopping day.

Gorgeous Busuanga sunset

I went to Palawan two more times shortly after that. I wrote about my trip to Coron back in 2006 and I will write about my visit to El Nido in my next post.