Anilao Diving Again!

Well, we have had the joy and privelage of another wonderful dive weekend here in the Philippines.

Although the diving was great, the weekend was rather sad.  It's was officially the last dive trip with Karin and Sadri, as they are heading to Vienna soon after their stint in the Philippines. We will really, really miss them!

Once thing is definitely certain, living as an expat means making great friendships, but also, saying many goodbyes.

All in fun was had by everyone.  The dive weekend started at 5.15am, getting up and doing the final packing.  Our pickup was at 5.45am.  The drive to Anilao was quicker than ususal, including the standard stop and McDonalds for a snack.

The accomodation was a little rougher than the previous places we had stayed, which added to the adventure (we stayed at ScubaBro, which used to be known as the Outrigger).  It was an adventure when everyone's gear was rearranged and/or missing the second morning of diving. We actually found mine on another boat. One of the other groups diving there had understood it to be theirs...hahaha.

Apo Reef Underwater Sights

At the end of April we went to an island just South of Luzon. Just off Mindoro is a reef called Apo Reef with an island in the middle. We didn't stay at the island, but rather slept overnight under the stars on an awesome house boat. The diving there was really spectacular and our Swiss guide Michael really knew the dive sites!

 We did our first night dive - quite an experience - a wreck dive, a deep dive and a bunch of other fun dives. 

Here's a few pics care of our friends the Knappets :-)

Barracuda...I sincerely hope I spelled that correctly!

Apo Reef 2

So our dive instructor gave us a bunch of photo and video from her camera. The video below is what I used to think were Angel fish, but discovered are actually Moorish Idols! Again, I'm still learning my sea creatures!

El Nido - Apulit 3

Meals at Apulit were wonderful! There was so much food and such tasty food too! I had prawns every meal almost and there was a chocolate fountain each meal too! Each night over the weekend we were at Apulit, a wonderful group of musicians and dancers from the university entertained us with traditional Filipino music. It was really interesting to watch and listen to! 

Traditional Artists

El Nido - Apulit Island 2

The one thing I was amazed to see swimming underneath our cabin, was baby black tip sharks. They would swim right up to the beach too. They were more scared of us, than we were of them! A few times we saw them when snorkelling.

Baby black tip shark

 The snorkelling was amazing and the pictures just can't do it justice, but hopefully they can give an idea.

El Nido - Apulit Island 1

This is just a little snapshot of our wonderful trip to Apulit Island.

View from our balcony! It was like being in a postcard!

El Nido - Apulit Island 4 - Underwater Shots

Thanks to our wonderful friends, the Isenhowers, we had the chance to take some shots underwater. Truly, Palawan has some stunning sea life!

Nemo's cousin

Boracay Baby!

We went to Boracay for the weekend with a wonderful bunch of friends. You can fly to Caticlan or Kalibo. Our flight was scheduled through Kalibo, which meant we had to take a bus ride from Kalibo to Caticlan boat station and from there we had to take a boat across the channel to Boracay. Kalibo is the bigger of the two airports. It's actually an international airport strangely enough. It really is a small airport, so it was surprising to find out it's an international airport. 

The crowd...or at least most of them. 

Quick Video for all

Hi family and friends

It seems the activities of life have kept us from posting.  As such, I took a few minutes this evening to try my hand at putting a quick video together of some trips.

Thanks to Sadri and incedo.ph for the video (my rip of your DVD was not the best, and may ask for the actual original footage next time).

Anyhow, I will try to keep such info videos coming.

Legaspi, Donsol and Whale Sharks

This past weekend, we went to an area at the South of the island of Luzon, around a town called Legaspi. Our flight departed from the new terminal at Manila International Airport. It seems completely bizarre that all international flights are not directed through the new terminal. It seems that Cebu Pacific is basically running and using the new terminal, for domestic and international flights. I would think the Philippines would make a much better impression to foreign visitors, if all international flights began to be directed through this terminal. 

This is a picture of one of the ATM's at the airport. Check out the communication devices on top of the ATM, along with a toilet roll or two. Not sure how secure this ATM really is...lol.

This is a part of the new terminal, with a bunch of very tired travellers sleeping in the airport.