Coron - Malapascua Dive Safari 2013

Dive, Dive, Dive, is that all you’re thinking of? 

Yeah, coz there was a time in my life when all I was thinking of was girls, girls, girls… then tennis, tennis, tennis… then wife, wife, wife… then kids, kids, kids… and the list goes on.

So now, before we get to the commode and diaper phase of life let’s think, breath, dream and go scuba diving.

I’m not trying to justify the present hype of the sport that has me steeped and marinated. FYI, I’ve been a sea creature all my life even to the point of literally hauling the sea into our living room including critters, sand, water and fantasies.

One thing that has been a boon to my sport is the addition of two equally sea-mesmerized guys who refuse to be full-time landlubbers. Just imagine me thinking something up and these guys chiming in in perfect harmony. What else can this old doggie do?

Well, I’ll leave out the tales of the planning phase of this safari and go directly to the events that took place. The photos will conveniently eliminate the boredom of the narration.

this map shows the route from the kingdom of siam to mactan cebu then to coron then back to mactan cebu then to malapascua island then back to mactan cebu and home to bangkok.

this was the plane that took as to and from coron

that's one of Rocksteady's dive boats - "three little birds" that we had for ourselves for the whole time

 the rocksteady dive shop is owned and managed by Karin - a frau sea-struck diver. we had Kenneth as our dive master. the photo above shows D3 (Jun Budayao) D1 (shokoy) and D2 (Cheery Bacabis).

the crane of the Akisushima

these are her anti-aircraft guns

that's D2 going through a port to the hold of the ship while praying that she doesn't meet Ursula inside.

that's her inspecting some embedded critter

the massive winch of Akitsushima

D3 - Junjun Budayao in the engine room of the Taiei Maru

lunch break of a typical pinoy meal... yum yum

a stairway into the hold of Taiei Maru

an openning into the deck of Taiei Maru

a giant slug

beautiful corals on the Lusong gunboat

an easy swim through the Lusong wreck

in the background is Mt. Tapias with a cross and 720 steps to the top. It was one goal we intended to conquer before leaving Coron

three monkeys clowning on top of mt tapias overlooking coron

just showing off our t-shirts

it isn't difficult to fit the luggage in the overhead bins, but Junjun just wanted this pretty lady by his side hence his call for assistance. this was on the trip from Coron to Cebu.

the bus - Ceres Liner, that took us from Cebu city to the northernmost town of Cebu island - Maya.

we got to Maya at 8+ pm and there were no more boats to the island of Malapascua. we hired this pumpboat to take us across the choppy sea. it took us some 45 minutes in the dark night. at this point D2 regretted that she took Bonamine before the bus ride. it made her groggy and she had to fight off the effects to stay awake.

the following morning we were up at 4:30 and boarded this dive boat for the 45-minute ride to monad shoal halfway between Malapascua and Ormoc Leyte (the island in the horizon)

at Monad Shoal and the sun is barely out. we dived down to 35 meters on a ledge in a cliff full of corals to wait for the sharks to arrive.

at this depth it is still dark and still photography is poor without strobe lights, which we were forbidden to use because it might scare the sharks away.

at the sight of the graceful yet dangerous scavengers I felt like whooping with delight. my breathing picked up a bit and i feared i would run out of air a little faster than the other divers. later they admitted having the same thoughts.

divers ascending by the cliff after the shark encounter

this pesky snapper kept swimming in front of my lens while the sharks were parading before us. i had to snap its photo just to satisfy him. 

a colorful nudie that i met on the way up.

that's the hand sign for "shark" and we were certified thresher shark divers. the white guy is Jerry, a Brit who married a native pinay on the isle of Malapascua.

we just can't get over the thrill

comparing videos on the way back to the isle after the shark dive

that's the isle of Malapascua (meaning: bad-luck christmas)

second dive of the day and Cheery cant wait to go down deep

my quest for the elusive pygmy sea horse resumes

Eureka!

this photo shows that i finally found it. thanks to a mask with bifocal lenses that i found at the Oceanic dive shop in Bangkok.

some soft bubble corals(Plerogyra sinousa)

a damsel fish trying to blend into the corals

a lion fish very much at  home in Philippine waters and yet is a scourge to marine life in the US east coast.

this octopussy managed to fit into this tiny cranny

a lonely nudi branch

this flat worm not quite flat

never mind the native resting on his boat, but let the background scene take your breath away.

another dive boat with surface-feeding bottom-dwellers

good bye Malapascua, I'll be your date one more time before my days on this planet end.

satisfied and thrilled by our dives in Malapascua we board the same rented boat and head back to Daan Bantayan for the trip back to Cebu. this time diver2 didn't take her bonamine.

rest in peace my friends of the deep blue sea. you were created way down the food chain and i cant change that. i'll see your kin in my next dives and tell them of your fate.

our bus ride back to Cebu city took quite a long time because we had an accident with the other car quite damaged. it's only good they had some tagalog movies that kept diver3 amused.

the lonely road at night

POEA, OWWA ... if you're an OFW you'll know what these guys went through. i refused to get into this corruption prone system and chose instead to pay the hefty travel tax and terminal fee, which is equally corruption-ridden. no escape for the poor filipino people *sigh*

while still in Bangkok this birthday girl was imagining a candle-lit banquet in some trendy resto with some thick steaks and a bottle of fine wine. due to our tight schedule and the late bus we ended up celebrating her 'tieth birthday in a fastfood steak house named "Jonies" at the SM mall. whoever you are Jonie, you've got to know that you still saved diver2's birthday.

words can't describe this treat

that's our usual starbucks toast to celebrate the great dives we had and to keep us awake for the rest of the day.

we disconnected from each other at the pre-departure area before boarding for the return trip to Bangkok

diver2 misses the jelly fish verry much

dreaming of the next dive safari as the plane
brought us back to reality. Jesus, you are the giver of 
every good and perfect blessing and we return our praise
and thanks to you.