Barry briefs us before we go onto the boat.
I woke up around 2 AM at night to the stumbling sounds of my drunk neighbor getting into his room. I would normally just fall back to sleep but he decided to play music loudly. I tried sleeping through the music but the thin bamboo walls don’t do anything to dampen the sounds; it was just too loud. I knocked on his wall and door but there was no response. Eventually, Sara and I got the guys attention to turn off his music; no respect.
We eventually met at the Sea Dog dive shop at 8 AM to setup for our three dives today. After setting up my underwater camera, I noticed my camera’s flash wouldn’t fire so I just left my camera in my dive bag. Martine, Erich, Sara, and I went where we met up with Fred and our dive guide Barry. Barry was fairly informal about diving and a little disorganized. We didn’t sign any liability forms, he didn’t check our scuba certification cards, and he took my entire dive bag onto the boat where we set up our gear; you usually just bring what you need. Barry said our first dive site was a secret one that he found.
Barry sets anchor at the first dive site.
Erich grows a fin on his head when you put saltwater on him.
We traveled to the first dive site on a small power boat for about 10 minutes. The dive site was just at the base of a big limestone island rock. We dived the wall where I buddied up with Sara, Martine with Erich, and Barry with Fred. After we descended, we swam along the rock wall. Visibility was about 50 feet. Barry swam quite fast and was actually difficult to keep up with him. Erich and Martine dived at a casual pace while Sara and I tried to keep in sight of them and Barry. Eventually, Sara and I lost sight of Barry and Fred and then lost sight of Erich and Martine. I’ve always dived at a casual pace because it’s hard to find things if you don’t and what’s the rush?
When Sara and I surfaced we Barry and Fred were already on the boat waiting. Erich and Martine were not in sight and once we got onto the boat we drove out to look for them. They surfaced on the other side of the island. My first impression of Barry wasn’t that good—as a guide, he should be showing us the dive site and what’s there. He just swam fast out leaving us behind.
Sara comforts Martine.
At the second dive site, Barry said there is a good amount of coral and something he wouldn’t tell us because he wanted to surprise us. Similar to the previous dive, Barry and Fred swam off ahead of everyone while Erich, Martine, Sara and I went at our own pace. We didn’t see much at the dive site that was impressive; the highlight of the dive actually was when Erich stole Sara’s fins and put them on his hands. I’ve never laughed so hard underwater before. Too bad I didn’t have my camera.
For lunch, we hung out at a beautiful white sand beach on some desolate island. One good thing about Barry is that his wife cooks really good food. We ate pork in a nice sauce with rice and a salad. After about an hour of hanging out on the beach and me eating two large plates of food, we went out to our last dive. Barry briefed us on the dive site saying that the visibility isn’t as good as the last sites and there isn’t as much coral. So why are we doing this site?
Sponge coral.
The small nudibranch I caught floating around.
The dive site was okay. Barry and Fred descended before I got into the water and as usual they went quickly ahead of the rest of the group. What’s the rush? Sara, Erich, Martine and I took our time and went at our own pace. We found a lobster, a small nudibranch, a flatworm, and a few clams. The nudibranch I found was floating in the water and I managed to catch it on my hand. I decided to take my camera underwater because having it even without the flash is better than nothing at all.
Back at the dive shop we rinsed and stored our gear. I paid by credit card which was a very laborious task for Barry’s wife to do. Since they didn’t have a land line, they had to text the information over. Primitive, but at least we could us our credit cards because there’s no ATM around. Unfortunately, I never got a discount for having my own dive gear. All that work carrying the stuff for nothing. After we settled everything at Sea Dog, we all made our way to Art Cafe to hang out and get a coffee.
At Art Cafe, I met two other Dutch travelers Timo and Nina. I struck up a conversation with Timo because I noticed he had a Lomo LC-A camera with him which isn’t common and takes unique stylized photos. I learned we share similar interests in a certain type of photography. Its good to meet a photographer who enjoys the creative uses of film and the camera in photography; the predictability of digital photos can be so uninteresting.
Erich, Martine, Sara, and I scheduled an island hopping excursion with Timo and Nina. We chose “trip B” which would take us to five different islands where we would hang out on white sand beaches, snorkel, and even go inside a cave. Sounded exciting and its good to have a change from diving. Diving in El Nido was unimpressive compared to Alona Beach or any other places I’ve dived in the Philippines.
Sara during dinner.
For dinner, we ate at a Dutch owned restaurant that was quite good. I ate garlic fish with garlic rice. For some reason, I really had a craving for garlic. While waiting for our food, Erich and I came up with a new game to pass the time—breastketball. It simply was just throwing small wads of paper into Martine’s cleavage. After dinner, we bought a bottle of Tanduay rum and a liter of Coke. We drank it on our porch. It was a quiet, mellow night.
- jason
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