So we get up at 430 in the morning to do the thresher shark dive...ughhh, so getting up before sunrise is not my thing, you know you meet these people that get up early to take sunrise pictures, yeah that's not me...but to see thresher sharks I make an exception ( we're actually going to do it for the 4th time tommorrow) still 430 is early, except for Erica, who seems to get up at that time, all the time, WEIRD!! We hop on the boat and get to the dive site just after daybreak, and of course I'm taking sunrise pictures, cause what the hell, who would believe it. In the water and down to about 90ft and bingo just like you ordered it up...thresher sharks. Very cool and well it wakes you up pretty quick. This is me underwater; mutter, mutter, somewhat grumpy mutter, I'm telling you there better be sharks on this dive OR ELSE!! not that I know what else. Then boom 2 sharks about 8 or 10 ft long , just swimming around, they hang out for a couple minutes then leave. Then more swimming and we see a couple more, some get pretty close, maybe 10-15ft away. they seem curious, if screaming about how cool this is wouldn't scare them away, I would be screaming how cool this is!!and by the way you can hear screaming underwater, Carrie yelled at me the other day just as a thresher shark was swimming over my head that I hadn't noticed, and I heard her and saw the shark...probably the only time I liked being yelled at. We've done the shark dive 3 more times and saw sharks everytime, ok so here's the deal... they feed at night, deep, like 300 or 400ft deep and then come up shallow in the morning to get cleaned, so we are seeing them at cleaning stations that they use all the time at this shoal, and they are there every day, amazing.
We did a nitrox course here, which means we are breathing gas that has more o2 and less nitrogen, which means we can stay down longer and be exposed to less nitrogen ( bad thing!!) So we have been doing some nitrox dives and some regular compressed air dives. Hmmm. this is kind of even boring me. We are starting to slow down and get tired, we've been diving 2 or3 times every day since we've been here except !! for the 2 days it poured rain here and we're not talking thunder showers , we're talking rain straight for 2 days. And what do you do in tropical paradise when it rains for 2 days, well we read alot and start drinking at the restaurant around 2 and not alot else, we did a couple of dives but being on a boat in the rain is less than fun and really quite cold , which is something we were trying to avoid by coming to a tropical paradise. Anyways we are just going to do the 2 early dives tommorrow, our last day of diving here, so I will get on again and blog about other stuff, or if your lucky maybe my wonderful wife will give you some of her insights into travel and diving here in malapasqua.
love and warm thoughts from malapasqua
carrie, erica and glen
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
malapascua
OK let's see, it's around 8 pm on monday and we're going to do the thresher shark dive tommorrow morning at 530am..this is going to be great!!!! then it's off for a 2 dive day trip ahh I cannot wait. We saw a seamoth today, very cool, sort of looks like a seahorse with too many after market parts, can't really swim properly, just sort of bumps along the bottom.
Travel has been somewhat difficult here, the distances are far and there are not a lot of airports and things have been late. The slow boat from el nido (8 hours ) was 3 hrs late, so again we were looking for a place to stay in coron after dark. OK so the diving in coron was pretty good, lots of wrecks, not sure we're big wreck fans...dive deep for a short amount of time and then come up, looking at pretty much nothing, But we did dive barracuda lake, so... 30ft of fresh water at about 85F, then 30 ft of brackish water at about 105F, and the rest sea water at 82F. Sort of like the grand canyon underwater with shrimp and catfish and really hot water, very beautiful.
We stayed in coron for 4 days and decided to jet to malapascua to see the sharks. So you take a van from town and travel for about 45 minutes to the airport, which is just on the other side of the broken cattle crossing. We had this 5 hr lay over in manila before our flight to cebu ( yes there again ) but it turns out our flight was 4 hrs late , so there was some rushing involved. Overnight in cebu after getting some more money ( they only took cash jn coron) snacks and yes ..vodka. The next morning we got a van for a 3 hr ride to maya, a 1/2 hr boat to malapascua and we're here!!! That's all for travel , we're here till we fly to japan...so a week.
Again for you non divers, this is just blah, blah , blah. The diving hasn't been great, there's alot of divers here, enough that we have come up with a underwater sign for cluster fuck. The visibility has been average, but we have been seeing really cool stuff...we have been seeing pipefish so regularly that it's almost boring, but it's not. We saw a burrowing sea cucumber, well lots of them, a long lure frogfish, ornate ghost pipefish, ornate filefish, seriously stuff from the dive magazines you just never see.
Ok it's 9pm now and I need to go to bed, and well I'm at the bar outside our hotel and it's starting to rain, so way I go. Now that we have a somewhat regular schedule we will blog more.
Love and warm thoughts from Malapasqua
Carrie, Erica and Glen
Travel has been somewhat difficult here, the distances are far and there are not a lot of airports and things have been late. The slow boat from el nido (8 hours ) was 3 hrs late, so again we were looking for a place to stay in coron after dark. OK so the diving in coron was pretty good, lots of wrecks, not sure we're big wreck fans...dive deep for a short amount of time and then come up, looking at pretty much nothing, But we did dive barracuda lake, so... 30ft of fresh water at about 85F, then 30 ft of brackish water at about 105F, and the rest sea water at 82F. Sort of like the grand canyon underwater with shrimp and catfish and really hot water, very beautiful.
We stayed in coron for 4 days and decided to jet to malapascua to see the sharks. So you take a van from town and travel for about 45 minutes to the airport, which is just on the other side of the broken cattle crossing. We had this 5 hr lay over in manila before our flight to cebu ( yes there again ) but it turns out our flight was 4 hrs late , so there was some rushing involved. Overnight in cebu after getting some more money ( they only took cash jn coron) snacks and yes ..vodka. The next morning we got a van for a 3 hr ride to maya, a 1/2 hr boat to malapascua and we're here!!! That's all for travel , we're here till we fly to japan...so a week.
Again for you non divers, this is just blah, blah , blah. The diving hasn't been great, there's alot of divers here, enough that we have come up with a underwater sign for cluster fuck. The visibility has been average, but we have been seeing really cool stuff...we have been seeing pipefish so regularly that it's almost boring, but it's not. We saw a burrowing sea cucumber, well lots of them, a long lure frogfish, ornate ghost pipefish, ornate filefish, seriously stuff from the dive magazines you just never see.
Ok it's 9pm now and I need to go to bed, and well I'm at the bar outside our hotel and it's starting to rain, so way I go. Now that we have a somewhat regular schedule we will blog more.
Love and warm thoughts from Malapasqua
Carrie, Erica and Glen
Friday, March 23, 2012
Cock Fighting
Cock Fighting is big in the Philippines.
You wouldn't think this would have any impact on our travels, as going to a cock-fight is not on our list of things to do. You would be wrong.
It turns out the people over the fence from our current lodgings raise roosters for cock fighting. There are a number of roosters, each with their own little hut on the property. All of them trying to out-crow eachother beginning at about 4:00 am!
You wouldn't think this would have any impact on our travels, as going to a cock-fight is not on our list of things to do. You would be wrong.
It turns out the people over the fence from our current lodgings raise roosters for cock fighting. There are a number of roosters, each with their own little hut on the property. All of them trying to out-crow eachother beginning at about 4:00 am!
Monday, March 19, 2012
Cebu & El Nido
Glen has already posted a bit about our trip so far, so I'll try not to repeat.
We are currently at the port, waiting to board 'The Jessebel' for and eight hour boat ride up the coast to Coron. A short while ago, they announced a delay of boarding time until 9:00, which amounts to a two hour delay, and means we will be searching for a room in the dark again tonight. Bummer. (Not to mention, a nagging worry about what might be mechanically wrong with the Jessebel to cause the delay in the first place.) There are a few boats that ply the waterways between El Nido and Coron, but the Jessebel is the only one that runs on Tuesday. Also, we picked it because it looks like it has a more protected indoor area, so hopefully we will arrive in Coron with dry backpacks. We saw a picture of the Jessebel on a poster, and she looked like a lovely boat. We saw her on the shoreline last night, and she looks much less sea-worthy than in the poster. Guess the poster has been around a while! Guess I'll check to see if there are life jackets when we get onboard!
Back to the beginning:
We spent one day and two nights in Cebu City. (I hate cities in developing countrie.) It was pretty nice as far as cities go, and was amazingly clean and felt safe. However, really NOTHING to do there but go to the mall, Which we did. (Not to shop, but just to pass time.) We ended up eating lunch at a Philippino fast food place. Erica had some delicious Pork on a Stick. Glen and I choose 'sizzling pork', which turned out to be suspicious bits of pork, mostly innard type stuff, which came on a sizzling hot plate. (think fajita's.) I picked out as much as I could handle. Glen ate less. A little while later we were walking through the food court at the mall and saw this fabulous stall that was selling succulent looking pork, right off the whole roasted pig. (I sure wish we had seen that first!) When we went to the airport, there was a 'drive-through' stand selling roast pork as well. I am hoping we run into this again, as I would LOVE to have some!
El Nido,
After our trying arrival, and ridiculously expensive room the first night, we got up in the morning and looked for a cheaper room. Found one right away, and moved our stuff. Erica and I enjoyed a short cool-down in the swimming pool before checking out, so that we could get our money's worth out of that pricey room.
With no plans for the day, we checked out the village. (Wonderful) Booked dives and a boat tour of the Bacuit Archipelago. (In our book of 1000 places to see before you die.) With most of the day still before us, we all went to get a massage. About $12.00 US for a one-hour massage. Since many places were closed in the afternoon heat, we stirred a woman in a small hut from her nap, she sent a little girl to get two more women, and we all enjoyed a massage at the same time. All three of us were in a tiny little room, about 8 x 12 feet in size. But it was a fabulous massage and we all felt great.
On Sunday, we went diving. Saw some cool stuff and had a great time.
Yesterday, we took our boat trip "Tour c" in the Bacuit Archipelago. Despite a few problems with getting the boat started after our stops. It was a great day of snorkeling, swimming, awesome scenery, and a delicious lunch of fresh fish, grilled on the beach, with yummy local papayas and banana's along side. We all managed to keep from getting sunburned, despite a long day in the sun and on the water.
Well, that is about it for now. Despite my doubts about the "Jessebel", I am looking forward to our boat trip up the coast of Palawan to Coron. Will try to blog again soon, so you will all know we made it safely!
We are currently at the port, waiting to board 'The Jessebel' for and eight hour boat ride up the coast to Coron. A short while ago, they announced a delay of boarding time until 9:00, which amounts to a two hour delay, and means we will be searching for a room in the dark again tonight. Bummer. (Not to mention, a nagging worry about what might be mechanically wrong with the Jessebel to cause the delay in the first place.) There are a few boats that ply the waterways between El Nido and Coron, but the Jessebel is the only one that runs on Tuesday. Also, we picked it because it looks like it has a more protected indoor area, so hopefully we will arrive in Coron with dry backpacks. We saw a picture of the Jessebel on a poster, and she looked like a lovely boat. We saw her on the shoreline last night, and she looks much less sea-worthy than in the poster. Guess the poster has been around a while! Guess I'll check to see if there are life jackets when we get onboard!
Back to the beginning:
We spent one day and two nights in Cebu City. (I hate cities in developing countrie.) It was pretty nice as far as cities go, and was amazingly clean and felt safe. However, really NOTHING to do there but go to the mall, Which we did. (Not to shop, but just to pass time.) We ended up eating lunch at a Philippino fast food place. Erica had some delicious Pork on a Stick. Glen and I choose 'sizzling pork', which turned out to be suspicious bits of pork, mostly innard type stuff, which came on a sizzling hot plate. (think fajita's.) I picked out as much as I could handle. Glen ate less. A little while later we were walking through the food court at the mall and saw this fabulous stall that was selling succulent looking pork, right off the whole roasted pig. (I sure wish we had seen that first!) When we went to the airport, there was a 'drive-through' stand selling roast pork as well. I am hoping we run into this again, as I would LOVE to have some!
El Nido,
After our trying arrival, and ridiculously expensive room the first night, we got up in the morning and looked for a cheaper room. Found one right away, and moved our stuff. Erica and I enjoyed a short cool-down in the swimming pool before checking out, so that we could get our money's worth out of that pricey room.
With no plans for the day, we checked out the village. (Wonderful) Booked dives and a boat tour of the Bacuit Archipelago. (In our book of 1000 places to see before you die.) With most of the day still before us, we all went to get a massage. About $12.00 US for a one-hour massage. Since many places were closed in the afternoon heat, we stirred a woman in a small hut from her nap, she sent a little girl to get two more women, and we all enjoyed a massage at the same time. All three of us were in a tiny little room, about 8 x 12 feet in size. But it was a fabulous massage and we all felt great.
On Sunday, we went diving. Saw some cool stuff and had a great time.
Yesterday, we took our boat trip "Tour c" in the Bacuit Archipelago. Despite a few problems with getting the boat started after our stops. It was a great day of snorkeling, swimming, awesome scenery, and a delicious lunch of fresh fish, grilled on the beach, with yummy local papayas and banana's along side. We all managed to keep from getting sunburned, despite a long day in the sun and on the water.
Well, that is about it for now. Despite my doubts about the "Jessebel", I am looking forward to our boat trip up the coast of Palawan to Coron. Will try to blog again soon, so you will all know we made it safely!
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Saying Hi to Phil
I know this just means I'm the most clever dude ever... Ok whatever....so where should I start? Well I'm going to start in the middle some where, because that's what Glen does. So we're on a flight from Cebu to puerto princessa on palawan and the flight attendant says " please may have your attention , it is fun game time on Cebu airlines flight 709 " this is the funniest thing I have heard in years. If you show them your passport and boarding pass first you win a Cebu Pacific fridge magnet or....! If you show your drivers license first you win..... Cebu Pacific designer sunglasses, this is the coolest airline EVER !!!!!!! Ok I had to get that out and ... we're back to the beginning....
Hi everyone, welcome back to our blog, thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read about us and our travels through the world and the world through our eyes...which to be honest is...just our interpretation of the things we experience, good or bad AND hopefully funny.
So let 's start with getting here.....uhhh yeah, let's just say it's long and mind numbing. We flew into Cebu around midnight... did the whole phillipine immigration thing. How long are you here? the rest of my life. Are you bringing any drugs into the phillipines? Yes hundreds of pounds of really bad drugs. Allright , enjoy your stay in the Phillipines.Erica met up with us... we're actually in the seoul, south korea airport and we know Erica is there somewhere...so we're wondering around, and I say , "why don't we just walk around and look for a blonde girl ? , I mean how many can there be?" I don't know, is that bad? Is it racial profiling....whatever, we saw A blonde girl waving and ...well it was Erica.
Ok just some bullet points here...It's ridiculously clean here, streets, floors , people everything. People are wonderful, friendly and helpful and speak english. So we spent a couple of days in Cebu to recover from our flights and then hopped another flight to palawan, where it turned out the tour we planned on going to, the underground river, was booked for the next 6 days...so we hopped on a mini van for El nido. 6 hours and no ass later, ok granted I didnt have a lot of ass to start with, but still. IT"S MY ASS!!!
Hmmm. trying to find accommodations in the dark in a town you've never been to is... STUPID!!!!So after hiking around for over an hour ( yes I used the hiking word ) pause for effect...So.. there is only one hotel here that charges over 100 dollars a night, and well.. after an hour Glen had had enough.
So that's where we are now, we found a place for less than half the price and sort of settled into El Nido. It's beautiful here, right on the ocean, the town is small , but vibrant and exciting and with enough of a rural feel to it , to make it feel out of the way.
OK I know this is what you have been waiting for, all you non diver types, close your eyes. We dove today... and saw , a turtle, an octopus, squid, a crocodilefish ( yeah baby google that!!) scorpionfish, blue ribbon eel and ... TA DAAAHH..A PIPEFISH !! Ok maybe not a big to you but, very cool to us Allright getting tired and well... less funny.
Love and warm thoughts from El nido
carrie, erica and glen
Hi everyone, welcome back to our blog, thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read about us and our travels through the world and the world through our eyes...which to be honest is...just our interpretation of the things we experience, good or bad AND hopefully funny.
So let 's start with getting here.....uhhh yeah, let's just say it's long and mind numbing. We flew into Cebu around midnight... did the whole phillipine immigration thing. How long are you here? the rest of my life. Are you bringing any drugs into the phillipines? Yes hundreds of pounds of really bad drugs. Allright , enjoy your stay in the Phillipines.Erica met up with us... we're actually in the seoul, south korea airport and we know Erica is there somewhere...so we're wondering around, and I say , "why don't we just walk around and look for a blonde girl ? , I mean how many can there be?" I don't know, is that bad? Is it racial profiling....whatever, we saw A blonde girl waving and ...well it was Erica.
Ok just some bullet points here...It's ridiculously clean here, streets, floors , people everything. People are wonderful, friendly and helpful and speak english. So we spent a couple of days in Cebu to recover from our flights and then hopped another flight to palawan, where it turned out the tour we planned on going to, the underground river, was booked for the next 6 days...so we hopped on a mini van for El nido. 6 hours and no ass later, ok granted I didnt have a lot of ass to start with, but still. IT"S MY ASS!!!
Hmmm. trying to find accommodations in the dark in a town you've never been to is... STUPID!!!!So after hiking around for over an hour ( yes I used the hiking word ) pause for effect...So.. there is only one hotel here that charges over 100 dollars a night, and well.. after an hour Glen had had enough.
So that's where we are now, we found a place for less than half the price and sort of settled into El Nido. It's beautiful here, right on the ocean, the town is small , but vibrant and exciting and with enough of a rural feel to it , to make it feel out of the way.
OK I know this is what you have been waiting for, all you non diver types, close your eyes. We dove today... and saw , a turtle, an octopus, squid, a crocodilefish ( yeah baby google that!!) scorpionfish, blue ribbon eel and ... TA DAAAHH..A PIPEFISH !! Ok maybe not a big to you but, very cool to us Allright getting tired and well... less funny.
Love and warm thoughts from El nido
carrie, erica and glen
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