Category: Musings

New Lessons, More Adventures

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EANX finally!

For more than two years, I waited to embark into another level in my diving career.  No, I wasn’t in a rush but getting another certification to enhance skills and techniques would mean more adventures in one of my greatest love – diving!  Unlike my first two basic courses which I did alone, my EANx specialty course was with my favorite dive buddy.  Doing my first rigors in diving alone was challenging and was not easy so to speak,  but I learned so much from my efficient and ever patient mentor.  Now, after more than four years of diving and getting very much comfortable in the waters, it was all so easy. We are now better prepared for new lessons.  It felt like Angel and I were just having some fun dives in all too familiar waters in Mantangale!

After a clean up dive in Medina, our instructor was already waiting for us in MADRI when we got there after lunch.  Most important basics is still safety underwater, so much care is necessary when using enriched air.  The advantage here is increase of no stop dive time – you can stay longer at a certain depth underwater!  That means doing more while enjoying the sceneries down – photography could be more easier.

The brief literature plus the video didn’t eat much of our time, working on the written exam wasn’t much of a hassle.  Actually, we were rushing for the fun dives we had at Banaug Shoal and Lapinig Island!  One dive at the clean up was somewhat bitin, so having two more dives perfectly made our weekend getaway.  It’s like shooting two birds with one stone – dive cleanup and the lessons, plus fun dives!  🙂

Another milestone – we are now enriched air certified.  We are now on for more adventures in the depths!

Marine Debris, Anyone?

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It’s my third year in a row to participate in International Coastal Clean Up Day.  And I  was wishing I have done it sooner when I become a diver almost five years ago.  The issue of coastal protection and preservation has been a major advocacy for all aqua people, if not for individuals who have great concern for our planet.  Trash threat for our waters is a serious concern, it has caused so much harm in the marine world.  It pained me to see garbage deep down or watching documentaries about human destruction on aquatic environment.  Such shame!

Without hesitation I committed for the dive clean up together with my dive mentor’s group, of course it won’t be complete without Angel.  We crammed up our weekend for the clean up all the way to the town of Medina plus our specialty lessons in Balingoan.  Angel have to be in Cagayan de Oro on a Friday afternoon to catch the early trip to this coastal town.

On a Saturday morning, it was all still but when we got at the Medina pier, things were all ready for the activity.  How comforting that the people were all in peace, when two weeks back the town has just been besieged by NPA attack!  But on that morning, there were no traces of any bloody encounter. The preliminaries was graced by the local officials including the Mayor, who was so enthusiastic and grateful for the clean-up activity.

gathering trash !

Angel and I went to  descend right near the pier, on a sandy slope carefully not to disturb the silts.  Watching the concrete pillars with the sun rays in between made me remember Ducomi Pier. It’s like a forest scene, like big tree trunks with the sun rays penetrating in between – such a sight to behold!  The school of glistening daschylus wiggling in unison in between the pillars was a wonderful sight.  I was almost lost I forgot I was there to work, I joined Angel who was already starting to fill up his net bag with trash. I have to stay near him, as my dive computer was not working good!

debris under water...

We gathered bottles, fishing lines, hooks, plastics, sachets, wrappers, clothes, caps, tansans and more. We passed by some tires which we ignored, it was too heavy for us to bring!  Our work was punctuated with seeing colorful nudis, puffers, mantis shimp, clown fish, scorpion fish and more.  We filled at least three bagfuls of trash cruising to the rope hoisting to collect it all up.  We still went for another round when we were summoned to surface, noticing there were no more other divers in sight!

just few what was collected from the pier

An hour underwater with no less than thirty divers gathering trash did can make a difference not only for the marine life which thrived even with such nuisance debris, but also for the community.  I know the litters we picked up were just a speck of a big mountain of garbage in our seas, but I believe in many ways together with other enthusiasts in many parts of the country and the whole world, it was a great job.  There is always hope if we all join hands in working to protect our marine environment.  There is much work to do for our second home – the sea!

NB.  Photos courtesy of DiveSpecial Diving Central.

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Enchanted Blue River

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blue, blue river !

Blue river?  I was intrigued when I first heard of it,  rivers may have clear waters or worse murky, but never blue.  But this river is indeed blue!  Couple of weeks ago, I visited this best-kept secret in Hinatuan, a coastal town in Surigao Sur.  It was almost two hours from San Agustin, and as we go through the spot with those trees and vines, it felt like I’m transported into another world.  It gave me a sense of being in a city somewhere in another dimension.

The blue waters seems to beacon one –  to just jump into the river, but how mysterious!  I watched in awe – so pure, so natural,  hidden in this remote corner in Mindanao.  It was heard there were groups who tried to dive its depths. Indeed, they posted on the info board a  report of technical and cave specialty divers who went down to explore the depths of the river.  How magnificent, but unfortunately there were no details but merely brief introduction of the expedition.  😦  It looked so creepy at the river head, the dark corner mysteriously hiding  is a cave underneath!

I was still cracking my head why it is blue, when my companions were waving at me to come into the waters. Descending from the concrete steps into the shallow waters, it seemed I was overwhelmed of the wonderful sight before me.  And once in the cold waters, there was that familiar urge to see what’s beyond, the rush to just dive in to the depths. Yes, lo and behold!  A white pavement-like on its side down to the bed on a slope, with a depth of about 30 feet – that’s what made the water so blue!  🙂 The slope is formed like a cone with about two feet wide clearing on its bottom.

With visibility of about 50-60 feet, the waters was so clear and with those oversized sweetlips and rabbitfish swimming coyly, it was a wonderful sight!   Sea species claimed its abode in the river, yet the waters is brackish – such another mystery!  The waters is connected in the deep blue sea underneath, it is part of the sea camouflaging as river.  I stayed longer just floating and swam nearer into that mysterious dark corner at the river head.  Someday, somehow I wish I could penetrate its mysterious depths….

One day, I promise a return in this baffling, enchanted river in Hinatuan.


Travel Notes:

Hinatuan is about 1.5 hours from San Agustin and  1.5 hours from Bislig City, this coastal town in Surigao del Sur can be reached by bus from San Francisco, Agusan del Sur.

My route:  Cagayan de Oro – Butuan (by aircon bus – 4 hours)
Butuan to San Agustin via Los Arcos, Bayugan (by private vehicle – 2.5 hours)
San Agustin to Hinatuan (by private vehicle – 1.5 hours)

A Cruise for a Lifetime

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M/Y Hans Christian Andersen

In less than seventy-two hours, I’ll be on a cruise to a dream paradise – aboard on a beautiful yacht surrounded with blue waters.  With three priests – which includes Father President of FSUU (my alma mater), a bishop and a vicar – and a physician, it felt like I’m on pilgrimage to the holy land.  They are all from Butuan, yes all four of them from my home town. So it felt like I’m home.  More than that, I’m with my good friend and favorite dive buddy Angel to fulfill our dream to relish the splendor of the unequaled Tubbataha underwater paradise.

It would be my first time for a luxury cruise and without doubt I would love everything on this trip, I’ll be off again with one of my greatest love – diving!  And as I told Angel, I don’t want to go without him as we dreamed this together like more than two years back.  There’s no better than a friend who’ s too keen and passionate sharing a fervent wish and dream…

I’m driving myself for much work for the past days to compensate for the time I would be away, and I’m whining – why is it that there is much to do when I want to go away? On second thought I need it to get away from feeling spoiled from such opulence.  Now, as I pour my thoughts here I pause for awhile with twinkling eyes…

Our one big dream to a paradise called Tubbataha, one grand trip and our cruise for a lifetime!

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Seizing Tubbataha Dream!

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Prologue:

Measuring 99,600 hectares in size, the Tubbattaha Reef National Marine Park (TRNMP) is made up of 2 atolls rising in the middle of the Sulu Sea. A Study by Conservation International has confirmed what Scientists long theorized, that it is the nursery for fish and coral larvae that populates the Sulu-Sulawesi Triangle  – an area that not only covers the most important and productive fishing grounds of the Philippines but extends as far south as Malaysia and Indonesia.

So important is this submerged structure in the balance of the underwater eco- system that UNESCO declared it a world heritage site as far back as 1993. In 1998, Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos, a keen diver himself, created Task Force Tubbataha and a station equipped with radar and manned by zealous rangers was established and now guards the park 24/7.

Several factors are responsible for the almost virgin conditions of this underwater jewel. The convergence of currents constantly brings in a barrage of the nutrients and clean water a healthy reef and its inhabitants demand. Being the largest and almost lone structure in the middle of a vast expanse of ocean guarantees a healthy influx of pelagic visitors looking for a meal and other services an underwater community provides.

Being almost a hundred nautical miles from the nearest port, access is only through Live-aboard vessels and voyages to the park are determined by the weather. A small window-from late March to early June when calm seas and clear skies are the best and only times for divers to visit. The strong winds and rough swells the rest of the year deters both authorized and un-authorized incursions into the park and permits the reef to settle back into its natural state of regeneration. *

December 2008.  The idea came to invade the mysterious depths of Sulu seas, when Angel and I planned and pledged ourselves for Dive Tubbataha 2010.  They said it’s the holy grail for divers in the country and you can never be an accomplished one unless you explored its depths.  But more than proving to ourselves and counting sites visited, we wanted desperately to experience and catch sight of the glorious beauty of this elusive paradise – an epitome of the exquisiteness of creation!

Our plans were put in order:  dive as often our schedules and pockets can allow, earn course necessary to increase our capacity, acquire necessary gears, learn lessons from every dive we had, and more.  Enjoying every bit of the journey towards this dream.  The banner of  “Dive Tubbataha 2010” brandishing Angel’s travel log since early 2009.

But things didn’t turn out as planned and visiting the reefs last year was cancelled and deferred indefinitely. It didn’t dampen our spirits though and I always believed there is always a time for everything, a perfect time.  And trusting that the Lord always knows what’s best, that waiting is part of his answers to prayers.  And so we wait…

December 2010.    Two years exactly when Angel and I both pledged ourselves to this promise like a covenant.  The message came unexpectedly, without any hint through a priest.  I was diving one quiet Sunday for my last dive of the year, just six days before Christmas.  Fr. John Young, SJ whom I just met, simply asked if I want to join them in their Tubba trip – I was caught off guarded – surprises always come in unlikely situations.  That was my greatest gift last Christmas, indeed real gifts don’t come on packages and bows!

I have to relay the news to Angel, as always I had the last word for our dive trips – he simply threw it back to me to decide. I waited for about two weeks to listen if we’d really go. It is expensive and it would mean some preparations to be put in order in just four months – it meant stretching budget in the next months when we have other scheduled trips already.

Now, just barely seven weeks before our cruise on first week of May I can’t help being excited for the journey, though I don’t want to spill any hint of excitement!  😛  I’m writing this note to set a milestone,  the wait wasn’t really long and I thank the Lord for  granting this favor and for always working out things for me in countless times – in His own terms.

A passion burning incessantly in my inner core.  Dear Tubbataha, here we come!

*Quoted from www.tubbatahareef.org

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