I'm in Puerto Galera, Philippines, pondering coral

I'm in Puerto Galera, Philippines, pondering coral

I'm in Puerto Galera, Philippines; at least, I'm in the area people generally refer to as Puerto Galera. Puerto Galera itself is just a port, as the name says, where one disembarks and goes to other places. The other places are beaches for the typical tourist traveling from Manila.

I took the SiCat bus from Manila to Balangas. At Balangas I disembarked at the ferry terminal and took a small outrigger called the Blue Penguin 1 to Sabang, a one hour ride across the water. The cost of bus and boat were 600 pesos. It leaves from Citystate Tower Hotel on Mabini Street in Manila promptly at 8.00 am. You can buy tickets the same morning.

I had been told that Sabang was very touristy. Most people had told me not to stay there but a couple of people had said yes, it was not that bad.

But from the boat Sabang and Small La Laguna Beach and Big La Laguna beach just looked like resorts piled on top of resorts and stacked up the hills. The beach itself was a tiny strip of sand not worth lounging on. Against the beach was concrete wall holding back bar after girlie bar.

So I stayed on the boat and let it take me to Puerto Galera. The shoreline actually looked more attractive the longer I traveled. There is some development but also empty beaches on small islands forming a harbor.

At Puerto Galera I caught a tricycle motorcycle taxi. It took me to White Beach. White Beach is two steps better than Sabang. It still has many hotels but the beach is wider and the scene is not as crowded and is more subdued. It looks like a popular place for Filipinos to go on weekends and Holy Week.

I rejected the beach and had the driver take me to Aninuin Beach a few minutes further. This place is much more pleasant, with only a few resorts. First I checked out Aninuin Beach Resort, which is listed in Southeast Asia on a shoestring. But they have knocked down the huts listed in the guidebook, and are in the middle of building a small hotel. The rooms were 2500 pesos a night, so I passed on that.

Contrary to what the tricycle driver told me, there were a few other, less expensive places to stay on Aninuin Beach. (He was gunning to put me in the first hotel on White Beach.) I found a decent place called Tamaraw Resort, which has both air-conditioned huts and hotel rooms for 1500 pesos each.

The place is right on the beach, and the beach is quiet. If I really want to I can walk to restaurants and dive shops on White Beach, or take a tricycle taxi for about fifty pesos to Puerto Galera or another fifty pesos to Sabang.

This place is pleasant enough, but nothing like the white sand paradise I found at Malapascua Island. This is a place where Filipinos get away on the weekends from the huge city of Manila. As such it appeals a lot to the common denominator, such as average food, snorkeling trips to broken coral, and rides on inflated torpedos behind runabouts on the shoreline.

I went on a snorkeling trip today and it was heartbreaking compared to my dives off of Malapascua Island, Philippines and my snorkeling on the small islands near Railay Beach, Thailand. The "Coral Garden" is a "Coral Graveyard" of broken coral from hundreds of snorkeling boat anchors and hundreds of tourists paddling around in life jackets and standing on the coral. The handful of fish were diverse but were paltry compared to the huge schools of fish dancing a ballet around me near Railay. The coral was broken and gray compared to the colorful stuff near Malapascua. At least they keep bringing the life-jacketed tourists to the same patch of coral over and over again, I concluded. Maybe it limits the damage to other places. (There are supposed to be good dive sites near Puerto Galera.)

It is a taste of another slice of life, and perhaps an incentive for conservation and preservation: perhaps I should not be so cynical and we still need to save the planet from ourselves.

I'm in Puerto Galera, Philippines, pondering coral