Category: Travel

Blowing Bubbles in December!

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picturesque horizon from the diveshop... 🙂
I went for my last dive of the year as I promised myself,  to brace for the upcoming year ending & year beginning tasks, it was also my way of capping this year’s  adventure trips.  Mantangale would be kinda perfect – not so far, warm staff, amazing marine life and idyllic place.  Sometimes when you want something you always find ways to accommodate your whims,  and that’s what really happened last Sunday.  I squeezed my weekend – skipping laundry & community party and had my Sunday free.  I was up early to catch the 6am aircon bus but when I got to the terminal, it was brimming with passengers.  Squeezing with other travellers to get unto the bus for a seat is not my fare, but have to do it – I am expected at the dive shop at 830am!  The weather was downcast and it was drizzling when I arrived at the resort earlier than appointed time, I was able to have breakfast while observing OWC students having exercises at the pool.
Just as I thought there wasn’t much divers for the day, and I was up for some surprise when Sir Dodong announced after a call from SSB radio  that Fr. Young is joining us.  I’ve been hearing about him  as a  diver, and being the current president of my alma mater I was looking forward to finally meet him.  He arrived just as I getting dressed while talking with Sir Dodong on my latest dive trips.  So, some kind of exclusive dive for the day.
mantangale alibuag dive resort

After some preliminaries, we speed off for our first descent  at the house reef, one of my favourites.  Banaug Shoal always excite me, it’s abundant  marine biodiversity is probably one of the richest of my many encounters.  The sergeants, damsels and  snappers, which always come in throngs as you touched down on shoal’s top.  They come near you as if wanting to be feed 🙂 , so near as you stretch your hands and sometimes so near your face! But I got a lot of whistles from Sir Dodong warning me not to go far away!  The black corals, gorgonians, crinoids, colorful sponges decorated the shoal – being there felt like I was carousing in a colorlful garden.  I tried to search the walls for some critters, spotted tiny nudis and hunt for unusual specie. I went around a little bit to search for critters – groupers, variety of anemonefish, trumpet, surgeons, anthias & more.  Two big snappers keeps darting on us.  I was surrounded with colourful reefs and then found a small alibuag.  Indeed, it’s a paradise!

We got back to the bouy line, I waited and searched for the moray eel and there it was!  🙂 Hidden under a reef, a white moray showing its head and gawking at me. 🙂  As if challenging me to come nearer… While watching in awe, Sir Dodong signalled for ascent – I still wanted to stay but pointing to my SPG, my air was down to 500psi.  So slowly I ascend still watching the view below, our deepest was 32.9m for 43 minutes underwater.

all in nitrox!

We went back to the diveshop for our surface interval, MSU-IIT students who were having their OWC was preparing for their exercises.  We left with them for our second dive to Sipaka Point on a speed boat and transferred to Seareyna for the cruise.  Our second descent was a shallow one, as it was purposely for the students for their exercises.  We explored sandy, wide coral gardens decorated with colourful crinoids, sponges and gorgonians.  Spotted variety of nemos, sandperch, wrasses, fusiliers, small puffer, goatfish,  triggers and long thin sea cucumber that looks like a snake!  We found too crown of sea thorns, which I learned Fr. Young has personal hatred as he was been stung once.  I was left with him while Sir Dodong were taking documentaries for the students.

We covered a large area just going around, somewhere on a slope we stumbled a fishing line entangled among the reef, so we carefully untangled it and gather almost a 10 meter nylon line.  I took delight in touching those critters on reefs that immediately hid and disappear from view.  I remembered my diving lessons then. I picked up some trash and finally ascend after 64 mins with 17.5m as our deepest, far from the boat.

Our lunch served as our surface interval for the last dive, we joined the students again on the dive boat.  After a brief rest after lunch, we boarded the speed boat and separated from them heading for lowly Lapinig Island.  It was almost 2pm and the surface was bit choppy, we descend on a sandy slope getting deeper.  In awhile, Fr Young pointed out something which we barely got a glance from the elusive manta ray.   I spotted a big puffer which I tried to follow but keep on wiggling away from me.  🙂  There were batfish, damsels, anthias, sweetlips and a variety of anemone fish. There were colourful crinoids – black and green feather star.  There were sea fans too, I was most attracted to a lavender gorgonian!  We searched for critters on sea fans, crevices and on corals.

beautiful camiguin!

Lapining is a paradise beyond the surface, I remembered I had wonderful sightings when I had my lessons more than three years ago.  This lowly island which is hardly ever noticed by people cruising to Camiguin, has treasures beneath not everyone got the opportunity to view.  We ascend after 56 minutes with 32.5m as our deepest.  When I surfaced, the sight of the glorious Island Born of Fire right in front of me!

It has been a wonderful sojourn, three deep dives all in nitrox, a perfect way to end my diving pursuits for the year.  The mermaid in me is rejoicing, really it’s all about passion…  I’m looking forward for next year’s dive escapades with my favourite dive buddy.  No doubt 2011 is a promising year for more adventures!  🙂

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CY 2011: Quo vadis, Mermaid?

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There's life beyond the depths!

Our Tubbataha 2010 is indefinitely postponed so my soul will wait silently for the right time, I know it will be worth the wait. Despite shelving my coveted dive trip for this year, I’m on again for more adventures for 2011 planning equally amazing and off beaten dive sites… I promised myself before venturing sites outside my dear country, I need to explore more and exhaust all the rich marine biodiversity in our waters.

Together with my favorite dive buddy Angel, we are more than bullish to explore these exciting sites:

  • Apo Reef – one of the most diverse marine life comparable to the Great Barrier Reef.  My tickets for San Jose – Manila – San Jose is ready. Angel encouraged me to buy this as early as May , it was on sale!
  • Coron (again!) – for the mysterious wreck diving. I’ll never get enough of all the challenging WWII wrecks in its waters.  Admittedly, I am smitten by the rich marine life and laid back environment in Calamianes.
  • Batanes – I never knew that there is diving in this northern most islands, so when Angel told me, I was thrilled! I slapped my forehead why I haven’t thought to search diving in the islands.  I have been wanting to visit this town, but keep postponing. Now, it’s like hitting two birds with one stone – stunning landscape and mysterious unspoiled depths!  Got our tickets already, it was on seat sale!
  • Manta Bowl – A new discovery, incidentally a dive master mentioned this site to us. Our diver’s itch is pestering us again!
  • Tawi-Tawi waters – one of the red flag areas in Mindanao, this is challenging!  We planned to conquer the place this year, but failed.  So, we will finally explore it next year as my birthday trip.  We got tickets already!
  • Malapascua (again!) – we missed the treshers last summer, so we need to go there again!  Hopefully, the sharks would cooperate this time. I love the laid back life of this northernmost Cebu island. 🙂
  • Others – there are other sites to explore more, those that are less expensive and accessible to get away with leaves at work.  Like Panglao Island, Camiguin Island, Moalboal, Siquijor or even Mis Or waters.

There will be more discoveries  next year aside from our surface adventures.  And always, yes always, I’m grateful with my favorite dive buddy who’s ever resourceful and very encouraging in planning our trips.  I’m  looking  forward for all these, but  shhhhhhh – these are still secret.  Ahhh, the mermaid in me is rejoicing!

Paradise Island Dive

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crystal waters at Paradise Island Resort beach

I was missing the waters, my fins were itching wanting to flip once again, so thinking of revisiting Samal waters after more than a year revived my spirits. Angel and I had this dive trip for the month, after missing our Coron trip last month. So one Friday evening after a long day at work, I gathered up my gears and boarded an ordinary bus for Davao.  It was unfortunate that the tourist bus was already full when I got to the station.  It turned out that the ride wasn’t too cold compared to aircon ones, although there were lot of stops along the 6-hour trip, I arrived safe in Davao much earlier than Angel.  It gave me enough time to check in at DMSF, freshen up and got some rest from the long trip.

Angel and I proceed to Davao Scuba Dive thinking arrangements were made already but our contact called up to go ahead to Paradise Island Resort as we need to be back early for another appointment.  We rushed back to  Sasa wharf and cruised for the resort as it started to drizzle.  Our contact Alan was very helpful suggesting to prepare ourselves and gear up as we will do beach entry.  It was good since there were no other divers.  He briefed us shortly about the sites which is just beyond the beach area.  We were warned of the currents, but we informed him that we wanted shallow dive as Angel and I  were both having colds!

There’s one thing I don’t like much with beach entries –  carrying the gears on my back – but I was grateful, an assistant was helpful enough to carry it for me. I scampered the cemented landing as I was much behind from angel and the dive guide and descend the steps. My gears waiting for me floating on the waters, getting into my gears with the cool crystal waters felt so good. Gosh! I belong to the waters, indeed…

Our first ascend was at the coral gardens, where we found  a concrete lying angel on a steel crib.  It was submerged sometime ago as an artificial reef but sadly, we didn’t find any coral, crinoids or fishes. It was lying there more of an intrusion on the sea bed.  Farther, there were lot of branching green corals, soft corals, damsels, clown fish on anemones, puffers.  Angel spotted a moray which I missed.  Some trumpet fish, wrasses,  sergeants and sponges.  There was current indeed, and it was bit ardous catching up.  I signalled for a stop, when the guide finally waited for me with the Ok sign.  I need to slow down…   We ascend after we covered the two slopes in the area, our deepest at  14.8m after 46 minutes with 500 psi of my air.  Angel and I was sad there was much trash underwater, we gathered handfuls when we end the dive.

Angel and I spent an hour for our surface interval at the guest area – short chat with the guide, listening to the serenade, sipping our fruit shakes, people watching and still deciding how much to give for our gift to Io 🙂  We decided to postpone lunch and just went for our last dive immediately so we could leave the place early for the afternoon function. 

For our next descent, we brought our net bag for the trash and went further on the same spot top cover the last slope.  Again, there was the green hard corals scattered, corals of other specie, basket sponges, soft corals.  There were damsels, wrasses, clown fishes, sand perch and more. I spotted a sea cucumber, lot of black sea urchins and found just one crown of thorns!  then we got into a field of colorful coral garden with lot of juvenile fishes. I spend more time there exploring , hopping on the corals and picking up trash we passed by.  There was current again swimming against it, for some time we lost the guide as he went fast.  Angel and I was left alone, and just explored the scenery.  The guide appeared again and signaled for us to go back, drifting with the current was fun.  Until we got to the sandy area,  had our safety stop and finally ascend after  51 minutes with 12.2 meters as deepest, my air down to 800 psi.  Our net bag was filled with trash! 😦

We hastily had bathroom routines, pack up gears, settle our bills, some pleasantries with the shop staff and bid byes.  It started to rain again but it didn’t stop us to board the boat for our cruise back.  The two dives was more than enough to have a good relaxing weekend with Angel. We finally cruised thinking for our next afternoon activity and later for the reception party at Waterfront  Insular. 

 Angel and I was actually thinking about food!  🙂  The dinner at the Waterfront Tent, Margie’s Bakeshop or Blugrey Cafe in downtown Davao! Well, the good food and dining enthusiast in us was itching again…. 😛

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Missing the Monsters!

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Glorious Kayangan Cove!

Coron is now one of my favorite destination, discovering it in March 2008 without second thought I went back three months later to know more of the secrets of the Calamianes.  I visited it again last year with my favorite dive buddy- yes, you guess it right – to explore more of its secrets in the depths! Angel and I loved every bit of it, he swore it was his best dive experience so far and in fact it was our deepest at 114 feet!.  And I could not deny that exploring Akitsushima and Taeie Maru was exhilarating – going down and penetrating the mysterious wrecks was so challenging and enthralling!

Exploring more of the monsters was so irresistible that we planned for another Coron trip this year, I booked my tickets as early as April! Indeed, we eagerly wait for October while enjoying other dive trips.  For us, Coron waters is something special, with its limestone cliffs, crystal waters and rich marine life we wanted to experience its beauty over and over again.

I thought everything was in place, except for my leave from work but alas by end of August, my community have scheduled on the date when I will be in Coron, a spiritual retreat for us and required everyone  to come!  Remembering my trip, I was bit shaken,  I wanted to delay my response.  In my mind, I tried to justify I had my tickets already and it was scheduled long before.  I remembered I was sullen that day, hoping it will be postponed to other dates.  Actually my heart sank… Going back though, I reflected that the Lord has been so good to me, He had lavished me with wonderful trips and provided me all the resources.

In submission I prayed for grace and decided to cancel my trip and be there for the Lord – He asked just one day from me!  It was a breaking news, but I guess Angel felt relieved  because his friends will be coming with him and he is not comfortable diving together with me!  Anyhow, I would be missing the Coron wrecks this year and have to let go my CGY-MNL-CGY ticket and the amount attached to it, refunds or rebooking is not possible.  Always, there is a reason for everything and I am waiting it to unfold one day.  But again, I can look up and be thankful He emerged victorious over my much valued trip.

I’ll be in Coron again hopefully in March with or without my dive buddy – that’s a promise to myself…

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Unraveling Camotes Depths!

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Camotes islands was never in my list for this year to explore, while I have heard about it obscurely but never thought it to be a possible dive destination. On an impulse, Angel and I packed our gears for a weekend dive trip to Camotes.  It was exciting for us both, we just love off beaten paths – it is more interesting!  Discovering one new place with little known or vague facts and information is exhilarating!

Still tired from the trip and our rushed afternoon tour the day before, we drag ourselves from bed.  As usual, I woke up earlier than my buddy for the preliminaries – packing and ucam set up.  Our version of breakfast – a mug of coffee, 1 ½ piaya, I banana – to be light for the dive and to save!  🙂  We ordered Filipino breakfast takeout for our lunch from the next garden resort and pick up gears just in time when our transpo picked us up.  We arrived at Ocean Deep 15 minutes ahead of our appointment, I was hoping we could meet the owner but didn’t.  So, we assembled the gears and I was aghast that the dive master and the receptionist did the carrying of the paraphernalia to the boat!  Far cry from previous dive shops we got into. It was about 100 meters to the boat, Angel and I had no plans to carry our 3 tanks each, sorry… 😛

We cruised to our first site at Tulang Island for Lawis almost an hour – we planned for a maximum deep of 35 meters, since it‘s a wall it would be manageable.  We did roll-back entry and when we descend, I needed 2 more weights!  We

got into some slope and the wall – what strikes me most is that there was lot of sea fans scattered around of different colors and sizes like it’s a garden.  There were anthias, scorpionfish, camouflaging clams, hard and soft corals,

fusiliers, barrel sponge, damsels, colorful nudi, anemones, clown fish and crown of thorns!  We did see lot of this sea stars and I was apalled, I was wondering if there were initiatives by the locals to protect the marine environment from this menace.  We ascend after 46 minutes having our deepest at 33 metres.

We took refuge at the white beach of Tulang Island for our surface interval, a peaceful stretch of white sand.  The divemaster took a break and left us on our own so we took a refreshing dip at the cool crystal waters, searching for shells and stones for my souvenir. 🙂   An hour later we moved on to our next descent at The Wall which we stayed for

clownfish on an anemone

56 minutes at maximum depth of 26.7 meters. Again, it was a wall with some sandy slope decorated with a variety

healthy corals

and large expanse of corals, sponges, crinoids and variety of colorful fish juveniles.  We ascend and exited at another spot at site no. 4.

Our late lunch served as our surface interval for our last dive,  as we cruised back near the Mangodlong Rock Resort.  Without consulting my dive computer we descend for our last dive at Lucbon Shoal, in awhile it kept blinking – Error!  Our surface interval wasn’t enough L  We got down to a wide coral gardens where we had an average of 20 meters as our deepest.  Variety of hard corals – there was a wide table top coral, staghorns and other kinds of

crown of sea thorns 😦

branching species in different shades and colors.  But sadly, the crown of thorns had attacked this area and it was so frustrating to watch the corals turning grey and brown in death.  What a disaster!  In my assessment, about ¼ of the area has been devoured by the sea stars.  I found this so alarming, and I was wondering if the local government or authorities have done something to save the environs.  Even the dive operators and resorts around the islands have the responsibility to protect the marine resources, after all they’re making business from it!  We ascend after an hour as Angel was getting low on air.

We cruised back to the beach area of the resort and was grateful we got back earlier as expected.  Hey, I went ahead not wanting to see who’s gonna carry the tanks back to the diveshop 😛  After settling bills, packing gears and a brief wait of our transpo, we were back at our lodgings before it gets dark.  It was such a full day but surviving the almost unknown sites with my favorite dive buddy was pleasing enough, no complaints except for the menacing crown of thorns slowly destroying the underwater paradise in Camotes waters.

The underwater scenes in Camotes didn’t disappoint us, now and then Angel and I will continue to discover more of our country’s enchanting paradise deep down.  The exquisiteness of the marine world and seeing more places in Philippines will always be our inspiration… 🙂

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