After ten days on the island, I began to notice that my routine was becoming monotonous. I usually start by getting some breakfast and then having a cup of coffee at a beachfront café. The rest of the day is spent working until lunch, finding a cheap place to eat, working again, and finishing the day by watching the magnificent Boracay sunset — with occasional dips in the sea thrown in for good measure.

One morning, I decided to rent a bicycle and explore the island's biking routes, particularly those located within the NewCoast township and leading to the Instagrammable Boracay Keyhole.

I woke up at my usual waking time of 5:30 am and by 6:15 a.m., I was in front of a bike rental shop near D-Mall. The female employee had just finished opening the shop and greeted me for being the first customer. I rented a mountain bike for 400 pesos for four hours, with the option to extend for an additional 100 pesos per hour.

By 6:30, I was off pedaling. Neither a Boracay loop nor pedaling many kilometers is on my agenda. I much rather take a leisurely ride and see the sights, perhaps stopping for a swim along the way. After thirty minutes, I arrived at the Boracay Keyhole. In the mornings, the place usually has a modest but lively crowd of people. As it turned out, I was the only one there that morning.

The wind was strong enough that I could hear it whistling. I sat on a chair from a weekend pop-up café set up by Belmont Hotel to enjoy the ocean breeze brushing my face even more.

Because it was a Saturday morning, a staff member from Belmont Hotel arrived a few minutes later and began setting up the pop-up café. I ordered a donut and a cup of fresh brewed coffee. Soon after, two tourist vans arrived, shattering my illusion of having the place to myself. After spending a blissful half an hour staring at the rock-formed keyhole, I didn't mind getting up and moving on with my day.

Having stayed at Belmont several days earlier, I am already familiar with its beachfront shore that spans wide and almost deserted. True to form, I found myself alone on a long stretch of powdery white sand bordered by turquoise waters. I swear, I could go full monty to swim and nobody would notice. However, boxer shorts is as far as I can go.

I parked my bike near a plant box and hurriedly stripped down to my under boxers and dashed off to the water. I found it soothingly refreshing because I had avoided swimming on the beach for several days after transferring to Henann Crystal Sands in Station 2.

Concerned about my 4-hour bike rental, I intended to stay in the water for another 45 minutes, giving me another couple of hours to explore the island on two wheels. "Hell, I can extend and spend another 100 pesos," I told myself to keep myself from worrying too much. I then swam away my worries and temporarily forgot about time.

About an hour and a quarter later, I was still in the thick of practicing my stroke and prolonging my breath hold underwater. A few other people started arriving. After drying up under the sun, I rode my bike again and off I pedaled to my next stop.

Rejuvenated by my morning swim, I went a bit faster than 18kph and arrived at Puka Beach in under 20 minutes. The place was a little crowded as compared to when I first went here in 2016. I only spent a few minutes as I was getting hungry.

The biking path from Puka Beach is a couple of kilometers of moderate uphill. Soon after, my legs, which had already been battered by the uphill roads of NewCoast, tightened up, forcing me to struggle all the way back to D-Mall.

I returned at well almost 1:00 p.m., more than two hours after the end of my four-hour bike rental. I asked the lady staff how much I would be charged for the overtime. "It's okay, you don't have to pay anything, I'll just write it in as half-day rental (4 hours)," she tells me in Tagalog.

I thanked her profusely as I made my way back to my hotel. However, before I could shower and change to dry clothes, I figured I must satisfy my hunger first and off I walked towards Pares Hilton for some good ole Pinoy-style beef stew.

If it weren’t for the state of the world grappling with a new Covid-19 variant unfolding during my latest return trip to Kayangan Lake, I would've said “third time’s a charm, indeed”, as I again take a dip on its crystal-clear waters. It feels like it was only yesterday — actually, the year 2009 — when I first caught sight of this magical lake. I can still vividly recount myself and my then-girlfriend Marianne wearing oversized life vests, pulling one another into the middle of the lake.

It was a wonderful memory vault entry made more pleasant by the picturesque setting. To swim in one of the cleanest bodies of water in the Philippines, surrounded by lush greens that grew out of edgy rocks, was an enjoyable experience. It was a definite fine remembrance in my book. What’s not to love about Kayangan Lake?

A few years later, I made my second journey to this place with the girl I was dating at the time, along with her three female friends. It's as if the lake somehow attracts my wanderlust when I'm with someone. It was also worth noting that a year after that, on another Coron trip, I was with Lauren (who later became my girlfriend). However, I remember that time, we skipped Kayangan Lake because nighttime caught up to us during our loop tour under an affordable Coron tour package we availed. 

This time however, I came back to Coron, Palawan with no love in tow. Instead, I came as part of a media trip with the Tourism Promotions Board of the Philippines, the marketing arm of the Department of Tourism tasked to slowly but surely promote the reopening of tourist destinations in the country.

This was the week when Typhoon Odette ravaged many parts of the Visayas and Mindanao regions in the country. The northern part of Palawan, where Coron is located, was mostly spared as the storm’s main eye bowled south toward Puerto Princesa and El Nido.

A day after holing up in our hotel rooms as a safety procedure and because the Coast Guard disallowed any sea journeys, the sky returned to its blue color. As updates about the damages suffered in the provinces of Siargao, Cebu, and Bohol started coming in on our social media feeds, a feeling of sorrow cast over us. I felt a little guilty going on an enjoyable island-hopping tour while many of my countrymen were suffering with no water, electricity, and flattened homes.

However, the moment called for its own introspection about how the Calamianes group of islands has suffered economically because of the pandemic lockdowns and restrictions. I focused my mind on the reality that what we’re doing here is helping kickstart the tourism industry by instilling confidence that traveling is becoming safer, especially for fully vaccinated travelers.

A half-hour boat ride and a 10-minute hike later, the beautiful view of the Calamianes Islands greeted me again as I stood on the iconic view deck near Kayangan Lake. The postcard-like image never gets old.

The same can be said of Kayangan Lake itself. Gone maybe the sharing of the experience with a special someone, but still the same, I was sharing it with a group of people who are passionate about helping the tourism industry get back on its feet.

As for myself, maybe the days of traveling with a special someone are over for me, or just not in the books for the immediate future. Nevertheless, the opportunity to revisit places like Kayangan Lake and to hold this simple, low-paying, but personally rewarding job of being a travel writer is something I must never take for granted.

“Third time’s a charm indeed” — and also, a fitting closure to my past highlight experiences in Kayangan Lake.