Final Full day (Pics still from day 1)

I'm obsessed with these blue fish.  They were everywhere.

The multitude of fishes.

Underwater selfie.

Another turtle swimming.  I have better pics, this one was kinda far away.

I thought the sunken palm tree leaf was cool.

There was a lot of yellow in this picture, I thought it was neat.

The itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow poka dot... fish.

This fish looks like some of the coral.

This bro needs a name.  He is pretty awesome.

Coral.

More coral.

Bright blue fish again!

This is what the ocean floor looks like in some places.  And my dive buddy checking it out.

Sometimes in the middle of the muck and sand, you find something colorful.

This is the boat we did most of our dives from.  Nothing special, but got the job done.

Today was a nice break from all the dives.  I have to admit, I don't think I like diving enough to do four a day.  We woke up really early because we went to a different island.  We ate breakfast around 5 and left around 6.  We got on our bus which I will show a picture of later.  We drove to the ferry and then took the ferry to the island.  Then we drove some more.  We waited and took a little transport cab, kind of like what they have in Disney World Magic Kingdom parking lots, and finally found our way to the beach with out snorkel gear.  What were we there to see?  Whale sharks.  There is a place where they feed whale sharks so that they can charge tourists to come see them.  Even though it was all staged, it was still pretty awesome.  The whale sharks are wild, but just like every living thing, you know where your food is.  They had no fear of people and would just swim around waiting for the boat to feed them.  I think I have lots of good pics, but I had to go back to the lower resolution on GoPro because it keeps breaking.  I really want to fix that.  I should be able to record at whatever resolution I need.  Still, there should be some good photos.  It was a group of six of us.  When we finished, we took the transport unit back to the place the bus was parked and ate lunch.  I bought two wrap things because I didn't want to sit in wet pants.  I had to buy two because they aren't as big as the one I brought with me.  (That I stole.)  I think I may sew them together when I get back and make a giant one.  I'd like to have a giant one.  They were also three dollars.  So no harm done.  I had somewhat of a dry skirt on the way home.

We took the bus back and arrived sometime early afternoon.  I took a mini shower to get all the salt water off and then signed up for a massage.  I read some in my book, took a nap, and then got the massage.  It was awesome.  I need to get more massages.  I wanted to do the full body/ 60 minute one, but with the sunburn and jelly fish stings, I stuck to the head, neck, and back for 30 minutes.

I'm working on the pictures.  My files on my computer are a mess because I'm new to the app that lets you pull pictures from video and everything is in video.  So it's taking a while.  I'll get there.  I finally got through the first day.  I think my underwater photography skills improved during this trip, so I expect them to get better.  Still, you are somewhat dependent on the visibility of the water and a constantly breaking GoPro, so they will be as good as they are and that is it.  My phone pics still need to be downloaded and I know I have some good ones on there.

All in all, it's been okay.  I can't say I'm thrilled with this vacation, but it's been a good break.  I think the whole resort atmosphere is throwing me off.  The staff literally caters to my every need and it's all about self-indulgence.  I'd rather be out, hitting the pavement with my own two feet and learning something about the place I'm in.  I haven't learned anything about the Philippines, really, so it's a little disappointing.  Resorts are an artificial environment and I don't love that.  I guess I can say I learned about the ocean around here.  It's polluted, dirty, contains some really cool coral, is a great source of income for the people, and has strong currents.  So that's something.  I have appreciated getting to do a different kind of travel than what I'm used to, so I'm grateful for that.

Tomorrow is our last day here.  We have the morning to go out and see things, since our flight doesn't take off until later afternoon.  I won't be able to blog tomorrow, so you'll just have to check back over the weekend and see what I post.  I'll tell more about the trip as I go through my files and straighten out all the photos.

Last day of diving

All these pictures are still from the first day.  Today was fun, we went to Apo island.  We got to ride in the big boat, not just the small speed boat.  Apo is a beautiful island.  When people say "trapped on a deserted tropical island" Apo would fit that bill.  The reefs were huge.  All the dives around Dumaguete have been small things here and there.  But Apo has gigantic reef structures.  It was worth the extra money to include that in our trip.  The first dive went over a cliff that was filled with reefs.  That was the best one.  It was beautiful.

The second dive wasn't as good, but it was still amazing.  My camera, again broke.  I don't know what is wrong with it, but it kept saying SD card error.  I had reset it in the morning and it worked alright for the first dive (thank goodness), but it stopped working on the second.

We ate lunch following the second dive and the staff on the boat put out plates with different types of food and we served ourselves buffet style.  The had the best chocolate cake for dessert.  It was super dense, almost like eating cake fudge.  That's the way I like it.  After lunch, we were serenaded by the staff singing and playing the guitar.  It was interesting.  They played "we all live in a yellow submarine" and I thought it was an interesting choice.  Some people chose to jump into the water and swim during this time.  The water was beautifully clear.

Our last dive was also good, but my camera took another pooper!  I had reset it again during lunch.  So I don't know what is going on with it.  That will have to wait until I get back to Guam to figure out.  At least I was able to get the full first dive and partials of the next two.  We are supposed to go see whale sharks tomorrow, though, so I don't know what I'm going to do if it doesn't work.

Then we came home and did a night dive.  I'm glad we re-did it.  They took us to the same spot, which was alright, but it gave me a chance to dive it again without the current.  It was a crazy ride on Monday when we did it.  This time, we actually had the opportunity to look around instead of focusing on how to not get swept away.  Our guide this time was a little difficult to follow.  I would think I was heading in the right direction with everyone behind me but then I would turn around and they were gone.  When I led, I guess it was my fault for not checking behind me often enough.  But sometimes we would be about parallel and it would still happen.  I'd see his light far off and then think, great, now I have to chase him down.  Still, it was fun.

Dinner tonight was BBQ Filipino style.  It was alright.  The food is good, but nothing here stood out to me as outstanding.  I plan on writing an entire bog post dedicated to the food here, so I won't go into details here.

Ear update.  My ear has been fine since that first dive.  It was a little sore the rest of the day, but Tuesday and Wednesday it was fine.  I noticed, however, that on the night dive it appeared a little hard to clear.  At dinner it seemed to hurt a bit when I touched it.  Now I feel like it is swelling shut!  I googled it and I think I have swimmer's ear.  I'll have to wait and see how I feel tomorrow, but so far, all signs point in that direction.  I don't think it is a pressure injury because there isn't a whole lot of pain or other things associated with it.  At least not yet.  I just hope it is swimmer's ear because then I can still fly home on time.

It's an early day tomorrow, so just the basics again.

Second day of Diving

Lion fish just chilling.

The coral here is really colorful.  I thought this contained a nice variety.

How many tiny blue fish do you see?

This is the coolest fish.  It has brown spots, but a yellow dorsal fin and purple tail.  It looks like a stegosaurus.

These purple fish were my favorite.  They look blue underwater but the red filter makes them purple again.  There were swarms of them and you just swam right through.

Peek a boo!

I filmed myself falling into the water.  This is slash down.

This clown fish lived in that squishy thing with his family (kids not pictured).  He was really mad we were so close and tried to attack us.  We fled in terror.

I think I have a better picture of this somewhere, but there are striped fish that all like to live on that one plant.  The other's done have them.

Count the tiny blue fish.

See the small, white, tube like fish living in the anemone?

That funny looking seaweed isn't seaweed. It's garden eels.  They just float like that.  Hundreds or thousands of them.  I couldn't get a great picture because the go in there hole if you get too close.

All these pictures are from the first day of diving.  The second day of diving is in the books.  Four dives today.  0800, 1030, 1400, 1600.  It was a lot.  I woke up around 0530 and went to watch the sunrise.  I forgot I was going to go for a run until I was already dressed, so I was like, eh.  I did go for another walk, Carina went for a run.  Around 0700 I ate breakfast.  Waffles.  It was good, but the topping they put on was cold.  Who puts cold berries and fruits on top of a waffle?  At least we know.  We went on our first dive and it was good.  We came back and turned right around for our second.  On the second dive, we combined with another group for the boat trip.  That dive was also a good dive.  I liked it better than the first.  We broke for lunch and I don't remember what I ate.  Carrot soup was involved.  The on to the afternoon dives.  The group again joined us for the third dive, but the fourth was just two other people and us.  Currents weren't bad today.  They were there, but they weren't pushing us around like they did the first day.  My GoPro broke on the first afternoon dive.  I don't know what's wrong with it, but I think the SD card went bad.  I am going to see if I can purchase one from the resort tomorrow.  Ahhh.  No wonder I've been having problems with the videos, they are probably all corrupted.  So I don't have any pictures from the afternoon dives.  On the fourth dive, since I didn't have a camera, I just swam around a lot.  I enjoyed the swimming aspect of it.  At one point, while waiting for the others I decided to just swim in circles because I liked swimming with the fishes.  Then I decided not to because going crazy underwater is a sign that you need medical attention.  So I didn't want to panic anyone.

The thing I learned today when we combined with the other group is that there are some serious divers in the world.  These people literally go on weeks long vacations and travel around a country to all the different dive spots.  I like diving, but for me it is a diversion, not a life pursuit.  I'm enjoying this trip, but it would be more fun if we only did three dives a day... or two.  I realized today that I'm not hardcore about diving.  It is fun.  I really enjoyed the fourth dive, but I enjoyed it because I enjoyed swimming underwater, not because I wanted to see coral.  I like current dives because then you get to challenge yourself against the current.  It's more fun that way.  Oh yeah, and diving you get to see some stuff, too.  We'll see how tomorrow goes.

I'm trying to think of other things, but you are literally diving all day.  There isn't much conversation underwater, so not much to write about.  We saw lots of cool fish that I don't remember the names of.  No giant sea turtles today, just a little one.  This place has a lot of unusual looking creatures.  They are small and difficult to find, but cool to see.  I have multiple jellyfish stings and sunburn.  That's about all I know.  I need to get to bed now.  I will try to post more pics tomorrow.