Calamian Islands - island group in the Philippines
The Calamian Islands or Calamianes are in Palawan province in the Philippines. They are located northeast of Palawan Island, across a straight from Mindoro. The most important town is Coron which is a popular dive resort, partly because a battle during World War II left many sunken ships in the immediate area.
Islands and towns
The archipelago includes dozens of islands. Three of the four largest are quite near each other.
- Much the largest is Busuanga Island, which has the two main towns, Busuanga and Coron.
- Culion Island is second-largest, south of Busuanga.
- Coron Island is third, located southeast of Busuanga Island.
The fourth main island, Linapacan, is well to the south of the other three, about halfway between them and Palawan Island.
For each of the main islands — Busuanga, Culion, Coron and Linapacan — there is a town of the same name. Coron Town, however, is on Busuanga Island; Coron Island is just part of Coron Municipality which also includes the southern part of Busuanga Island and several smaller islands. None of these are large towns; Coron Municipality was the most populous as of the 2010 census at 42,000-odd.
There are many smaller islands scattered around and between the others. Perhaps the most interesting is Calauit Island, which is a wildlife sanctuary with many imported African animals. See the Busanga article for details.
Get in
There is an airport near Busuanga Town with regular flights from Manila and a Manila-Puerto Princesa ferry that stops in Coron. See Busuanga_Island#Get_in for details. There are also boats from Coron to El Nido; see Coron#By_boat.
Do
The region's main attraction is diving.
- Coron is considered one of the world's top areas for wreck diving; during World War II, the American Navy sank a dozen Japanese ships just off Coron Island in 10 to 40 meters of water.
- Linapacan has some of the clearest ocean water anywhere and is very good for snorkelling. Of course there are many more beaches and dive sites on all the islands.