libot: Light house, Croc Farm, and Kamarikutan coffee house in Palawan

KamarikutanCoffeeHousePalawanOctober8,2007

Palawan trip. Third day (farewell palawan!)
BancaoBancao Lighthouse
(photo:stairs to the beach, lighthouse, wall, eman atop the lighthouse)

Early the next day we decided to go to the lighthouse in barangay BancaoBancao. It's about 20mins ride by tricycle and the last part passes through some rough road overgrown with chest-high weeds. Apparently this is not a popular tourist spot - ... which is great! There was even a decrepit resort with big slides and pools. I found out later that it was closed a few years ago because, apparently, a child of one of its patrons died there. The BancaoBancao light house has been inoperative for the last few years now.
(photo:lighthouse solar power collector, balay inato restaurant tables, restaurant/hotel front)

Balay Inato (chicken inasal fast food resto)
An open-air fast-food style restaurant was all we had time for. The chicken inasal served in this restaurant was half cooked. Malas yata ako sa chicken inasal because that was strike 2 na. I won't even bother talking about strike 1. This restaurant has recently constructed rooms-for-rent fronting the dining tables. Its horribly apparent that no one will enjoy staying in those rooms because of the loud blaring music emanating from loudspeakers all over the place.
(photo: crocodile pen, baby croc petting session, largest crocodile found in palawan)

Crocodile Farm
After lunch we hastily made our way to the crocodile farm which is about 45minutes away. There were not too many crocodiles around because of recent events causing high death rates. Notice the HUGE crocodile skeleton above. Just imagine being assaulted by one of these monsters! A waist high croc that's more than twice (2x) the average height!!! WOW, gives me shivers! Alas we did not have much time to go around as we had to check in the airport for our flight back to Manila.
(photo:waiting for our coffee, pond, allan relaxing)

"Kamarikutan": coffee house
After we checked in our bags, we did manage to slip out and go to this beautiful coffee house called the Kamarikutan. The name roughly translates to "Wilderness Coffee Gallery" and is open from 8AM till 11PM and serves very good coffee (starbucks price nga lang!). The natural vegetation in its large garden creates a nice "wilderness" ambiance. The art on display is probably for sale because visitors are not allowed to take any pictures of it. Kamarikutan is on Rizal Avenue and is only about 100 meters from the main entrance to the airport.