Nerd at 25 meters below sea level

Honestly I need to admit being in a bit of a panic mode to try to see every last thing there is to offer in this region. I just returned from a diving trip to Philippines with a group of friends this time investing a proper full week rather than a hasty weekend getaway.

Unfortunately not my picture,
but pretty much the same experience
(free pic from EzineMark.com)

There are absolutely stunning dive sites in the Philippines. I visited two diving locations in the Visayas region (access through Cebu city): Balicasag island off Bohol and four different sites around Apo island. There were heaps of coral, both soft and hard, and bustling marine life in both locations. I saw massive schools of Jack Fish swirling in true National-Geographic-photo manner. I had also the pleasure of spotting my first sea snakes (Banded Sea Snakes are apparently 3 times more poisonous than Cobras), first Scorpion Fish (both leaf and with out leaf varieties), first Mantis Shrimp among number of old acquaintances such as turtles, Parrot Fish, Snappers, Garden Eels, Groupers, Flounders, Nudibranches and so forth. Another scuba related first-time-evers were diving in stronger currents, diving deeper then ever before, diving away from the reefs into the blue to seek out the big schools of big fish and diving with a group of closest friends. Still no sharks though... 

Roof of our little room, which is directly above the dive shop
and literally 3 minutes away from the Chapel reef

Special mention goes out to Apo island, which is somewhat remote destination off the bigger island of Negros. You need to travel with a medium sized catamaran from miniscule Malatapay village to an island with limited electricity (true test on how can nerd survive without wifi!) and pretty basic accommodation options but with truly mindblowing reefs starting just directly off the shore. Absolutely very picturesque location. I felt truly reluctant to ascent from my final dive into the Visayan Sea. I would have wanted to stay underneath in the magical otherworldly depths until I would have been forced to surface. On Apo we were pretty much the only customers on the whole island due to the rainy season, which didn't bother us during our back to back dives at all. We had truly wonderful weather the whole time.

However when starting our homewards journey on Saturday morning, we were greeted by dark skies, howling winds and heavy rain. The sea next to our hotel was so ruff that there was no way of climbing into any boats from there. We started to wonder whether it is safe to venture out to the sea at all and if we are going to miss our flight back home. We were suggested to hike across the island over two hills to go and ask the boat captain himself on if there is any way off the island. Getting to the other side fully soaked we noticed that the sea was indeed calmer on the east shore due to coverage provided by the island itself. However the captain told us matter-of-factly that there is typhoon Luis ranked at Signal 1 (* running rampart on the island of Negroes and it might continue for several days. To our surprise the captain still continued loading the boat and shoving us one by one into a small paddle boat to get into the same catamaran we crossed the 45 min distance on few days before. The sea was pretty ruff indeed, but not overly scary. The only half scary thing was the captain wearing an old scuba mask and laughing maniacally while driving the group of tourists into the eye of the typhoon and potentially to their wet graves. But instead of a grave, we reached the opposite shore safely. Royally soaked, but safely.

*) Googled Typhoon signaling system afterwards and Signal 1 it is actually the lowest level of warning for tropical storms and typhoons. Sounds scary enough though especially after the sad events in 2013.