Diving and the Rush of Traveling

Warning signs in the bunk room of the ferry.

I had a busy schedule today because I had to do a dive with Eric in the morning to afternoon and then get ready for a trip with Eric, Vilma, Kenny and I planned to Boracay. We needed to be at the pier in Tagbilaran by 4:30 PM which meant we had to leave Alona Beach by 4 PM.

I did an intro scuba dive with Eric this morning because he wanted to see the local reef at Alona Beach. He dived before, but needed a refresher on some skills he’d forgot. Eric did fine in the water as he’s comfortable in it. We dived at the local Sanctuary in the early afternoon which was quite nice. We first descended into the shallows to make sure he was comfortable. Then, we went over the wall and descended right above a large school of jacks. It was awesome and he was impressed by all the fish. At the end of the dive, he seemed quite happy to have done the dive.

2 PM: After the dive, I had to clean up, drive back to my house, and pack for our trip to Boracay. Everything was a little bit of a rush. Preparing for a short trip to a local island is easy but I was planning on possibly staying in Cebu after Boracay for a job my friend in the US got me in touch with. I planned on being away for about a month so I had to give my landlord an early rent check, clean up my place a little, and pack most my stuff sans scuba gear. After packing, I drove back to Alona Beach where I had to go to the bank and drop off my motorbike to Rubi who I was renting it from. Too much to do in too little time.

A restaurant near the pier during sunset.

We were able to take a van at 4 PM to the pier which was a lot faster than taking a tricycle. At the pier, all the ferries were sold out and 5:30 PM was the last scheduled trip to Cebu. What do we do? Someone we met mentioned taking an overnight shipping boat over to Cebu. This didn’t sound that comfortable to do but it was our only logical option. We decided to take a boat that would leave at 10 PM and arrive in Cebu by 3 AM but we can stay and sleep on the boat until 6 AM.

Eric buying tickets to the overnight ferry to Cebu. The ferries are actually large cargo ships with bunk beds.

There was about 4 hours of time before we could board the boat. We “killed time” by eating dinner at a Swiss restaurant and taking a tricycle to BQ mall where we watched the latest Mummy film. The movie was cheesy, the theater was cold, and I fell asleep in most of the movie. Back at the pier we boarded the boat which was a large cargo shipping boat with hundreds of bunk beds. It was clean and comfortable enough to sleep in.


- jason