Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Finishing up in the Philippines

We got up early and ate breakfast upstairs overlooking the beach and ocean. Breakfast has been mostly good with buffet style and made to order eggs. They have baguettes and fresh fruit so I’m happy.
The boat was ready for 6:30 am and our gear was loaded up. The water was calm the skies gorgeous.
We watched Negros disappear and settled in for our 2 hour boat ride to our first dive stop. Ian sat out front and listened to music while I read. It was brilliant watching the sky change colours.
Our dives were amazing. Saw more turtles –
- and trumpet fish (long thin fish with trumpet like snouts), frog fish, clown fish, lots of grouper, etc., but the best thing we saw was a giant school of Jacks. It was AMAZING. Jayboy pointed to two turtles quite close to each other and I watched as one swam away and the other larger one lifted its head to watch it go –  as we looked up to follow its path, a massive dark cloud appeared in the distance. We watched in awe as the cloud took shape becoming 1000s of large silver Jacks swirling around in a tightly packed mass. Jacks ranged in length from 1 to 2.5 feet and their large eyes stared at us as they swam outside the mass before disappearing within. We hovered within a couple feet of the eerie looking fish but I didn’t want to get too close – it felt like one could get sucked into the mass disappearing forever.  It was an absolutely huge school hovering a few metres from the ocean floor just beneath the water’s surface – it had to be 4 metres high.
The large turtle sat watching the school as if it too were mesmerized. A soft clicking sound emanated from the group of fish and we watched it for about 10 minutes until it slowly moved on. Next to the school of barracuda that swam around me, this was right up there as a diving highlight. WOW!
Immediately upon our ascent we had to leave our Dumaguette crew for a new boat. It was an odd transfer. The boat was full of German speaking tourists from our next resort and they all stared at us blandly. Ian and I were so high from seeing the Jacks that we were positively bouncing with energy and enthusiasm. I engaged a few people in conversation but they seemed somewhat reluctant to speak to us; eventually over the three days as we spent more time together, they became friendlier.
I asked one woman what the resort was like and she sort of shrugged and said, it’s okay. The beach is – well, there isn’t a beach. So I couldn’t help but wonder what I’d find. We had to sit on the boat and wait as the group did two dives so that was pretty boring. We couldn’t dive with them since our gear was rented from Pura Vida. I was glad we had brought sandwiches with us from the resort as it was a long long day – 10 hours till we got to Cabilao – but that dive with those Jacks made it all worth while.
As we rounded the bend of Cabilao and drew close to the shore, I was absolutely shocked when the boat dropped anchor and lowered the ladder. We were a good 75 feet from shore and the water was very rough. I looked at the crew and said – you’ve got to be kidding.  But sadly, they were  not – I now understood why the divers had left their suits and booties on. One crew member looked at my feet and said – you don’t have booties?
Great.
At least we had our bathing suits on.
I worried that Ian’s bag would get wet – it had the computer and camera in it – and wondered how our heavy backpacks would get to shore.  Ian, who is always cool in these situations, started down the ladder his bag held high over his head. I also started down and the water reached my chin but I trudged to shore, bag held high and dry. The water closer to shore was thick with floating sea grass so our legs and feet were covered in long pieces of green grass as we stepped out of the water. The beach was disgusting – thick piles of slimy sea grass with tiny bugs jumping about as we gingerly stepped along.
When I got to the shore, I looked at the woman I had spoken to earlier and told her she really downplayed the state of the beach. It was the worst boat exit and entrance to a resort I’d ever experienced. At least our bags arrived dry, carried overhead by strong crew members. We met the manager and he reassured me that we’d use the pier to leave so I wouldn’t have to worry about getting wet….
Our bungalow was on the beach and directly next to the dive shop. 
The beds were unfortunately ROCK hard but it was a solidly built room with screens and no mosquitoes. There was a super breeze coming through the windows which was a nice change. Food was served up on the cliff towering over our bungalows so three times a day we climbed several stairs – great exercise.
Our dives were not far from the resort, maybe 5 to 10 minute boat trips and we did three dives a day returning for lunch at the resort. We saw the usual fish but also some new ones – the pretty coral hawkfish and pipefish, some of which look like sticks of coral. There were different types of scorpion fish and the tiniest pygmy seahorse. Here’s a scorpion fish (they are quite poisonous) -
Ian and I thoroughly enjoyed our diving but after 30 dives, we were ready to get dry and relax. The Radisson in Cebu proved to be a fantastic way to relax. What a super hotel at a decent price.
Our trip to the Philippines is done but I suspect we’ll return on our next year off to dive some more. I leave you with a few more pictures -





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