Monday, February 13, 2012

Our diving adventures continue in the Philippines

Diving in Turtle Bay meant coastal dives with two in the morning and one in the afternoon. The boat was tiny requiring roll back entries and only had a crew of two, our dive master and the captain.  We’d go about 10 minutes down the coast, anchor, and dive along a coral encrusted wall that ran very deep. Other guests seemed to be mostly European many living in Hong Kong. Andy was snorkelling and took some photos so you can finally see us suited up:
Here’s me preparing for my rollback – right hand holding mask, left at the weight belt, fins crossed –
I’m not a fan of wall diving because I prefer hovering to diving vertically but we did see some new marine life: orang-utan crab, razor fish (they hang vertically), some different kinds of butterfly and angel fish and we were lucky to spot some turtles. As always, we saw anemone fish of all colours:
That night we went out on a night dive – entering from shore. We swam out backwards to a buoy, turned on our torches, and down we went.
Unfortunately for me, the dive was horrible. My mask fogged up the entire dive and that combined with the dark and my poor eye sight made for a pretty difficult dive. Every time the dive master wanted to show me something, I had to put a bit of water into my mask to clear it but it would soon fog up and I’d have to repeat the procedure over and over again.  We did see two turtles sleeping and another frog fish. I think I have commented on frog fish before – they are quite large, perhaps the size of a large cat or small dog, they have legs like frogs and faces like old men. They often blend into the scenery, either green like leaf coral, brown, black, or white. We also saw a crab with a huge piece of coral growing on it.
The next morning we headed out very early – 5am – for a 2.5 hour van ride to Oslob to see the whale sharks. Whale sharks are slow moving filter feeders with huge mouths and can grow up to 41 feet. The resort was charging us an arm and a leg for the dive and out of principle, I didn’t want to go. They were driving us by van for a shore entry dive so their only expense was the gas for the van and with 9 of us going, they were making a killing financially…but we were guaranteed to see whale sharks and some divers waited decades to see one, so we went.
The shore entry was most challenging – the ocean floor was uneven and the waves high so I kept getting knocked off my feet and unable to get up due to the weight of my gear. Putting on the fins was no fun.  Out on the water there were several boats of Asian tourists and it turns out, fishermen who were feeding the whale sharks shrimp. We were pretty disappointed to see this – but were committed, so off we went. The dive was interesting. The surge of the waves and current would pull us away from the whale sharks so we’d see them briefly, get pulled out along by the current then swim back. We repeated this many times. The whale sharks themselves remained on the surface as large dark shadows swimming overhead.
Fighting the current we tried to stay still, looking up as they swam above us. Visibility wasn’t great. Finally, when I saw one coming, I’d float close to the surface and about an arm’s length away from the shark and then it got interesting. The shark was truly an awesome sight to see.
Poor Ian had a horrendous time with his mask continually leaking. Every time I looked at him, his mask was 3/4 ‘s full of water. There were many other divers around and one of them kicked Ian in the face. It was quite a circus with the divers, the boats, the snorkelers and the surge. We ended up losing one of our divers but when he couldn’t find us, he just went into shore.
We were all pretty miserable afterwards. It was such a challenging dive and not fun. I just kept reminding myself that I had gotten within an arm’s length of a giant whale shark. I mean, how cool is that?
The next day we were off to Pura Vida resort, Dumaguette, on Negros. The transfer was by van, public ferry and van again. The resort was nice but when I entered our hut, I was most worried.
There were huge gaps between the doors, the windows, and the a/c. I imagined myself bug bitten each night. When I was on Malapascua, one morning I woke up with over 20 mosquito bites on my right arm. After diving they became very red and inflamed and weeks later, I still have a weird rash there (I am starting to wonder if it’s ever going to go away).
Ian and I established a bug bite preventative routine: every night Ian thoroughly sprayed me front and back with bug spray and both mosquito nettings. Ian slept without spray or netting and I think he got one tiny bite.
The sand here at Dumaguette was black from the volcano. Our first three dives were coastal with a lot of sand and coral. At one point I decided to rent a camera for the day. I’ve included photos throughout our trip to the Philippines to illustrate some of the marine life and coral that we see but I took them all in one day. Taking photos underwater is harder than I thought. For one, the flash shows up all the particles in the water and the stunning colour visible to us when diving gets washed out. And fish are fast! Many times, I only ended up with the tail end of the fish in my photo.
Our guide, Jayboy, spent a lot of time looking in the sand for small marine life which got boring at times. However, we did end up seeing some new life like Pegasus and a flamboyant cuttlefish. This is a fascinating tiny creature. It walks on the ocean floor and is brown in colour, when disturbed it changes colour to black, dark brown and white with red to ward off attackers. It was like watching something magical as it rapidly changed colour right before our eyes.
Nudibranches are also frequently seen in the Philippines. It is funny to us how divers get so excited when they come across one because for Ian and I as we have rarely been on a dive without seeing one. They can be quite colourful and different in form and are carnivorous eating sponge coral, sea slugs and their eggs, and in some cases, are cannibals. Here’s a photo of one without a shell – it’s not the greatest example in terms of colour but it’s the only one I took:
We also saw turtles and a few times, I was able to get quite close. Seeing turtles always make Ian and I smile. They are such magnificent creatures.
Our day trip was to Apo Island and one of our best trips. The sun came out and lit up the coral well and we saw many varieties of fish. It was an absolutely brilliant day.

This is a puffer that to Ian and I, looks like a seal. It’s one of our favourite fish. 
Jayboy took us to one area where streams of tiny bubbles came out of the ocean floor. It was really interesting.
I discovered that tube worms when touched disappear quickly into their tubes and Bat fish are very friendly, often following us around on dives. Jayboy pointed out a blue ribbon eel with its head sticking out of the ground and we watched a large cuttlefish change from brown to blue before our very eyes. It’s hard to believe that the two photos below are the very same fish – 

When we returned to the resort, Ian and I noticed our names on the board for two dives leaving at 6:30am the next day which was our check out day. Jayboy explained that we would travel by boat to Cabilao stopping at Balicavag for two dives. I actually thought he was joking since one, I didn’t expect to leave at 6:30am and two, had no idea we’d be diving. But Pay, the manager, confirmed it so there you have it, we were doing two more dives on route to our next island.
Since we ended up doing so many dives, Ian added to our dive package. The more you do, the cheaper they are – the only thing is you need to purchase them in advance and hope the weather and your health cooperate.
So far my ears were fine clearing without problem. I did grab a feather star by accident – it was on a rope that we were holding while Jayboy showed us something. Usually when there’s a rope, you hold onto delicately with the very tips of your fingers. However, I reached up to grab the rope without looking (probably to get out of someone’s way) and full on grabbed a feather star that was latched onto the rope. Luckily they are not poisonous but I keep waking up with puffy fingers and the red bumpy rash is very itchy. Ian is doing okay; a bit congested though so I worry a cold is brewing.
Eight more dives to go!

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