The islands are getting smaller

Since today will be mostly a travel day we decided it would be a good opportunity to fill everyone in on what this trip to the Philippines is all about. The hunt for this "vacation/internship" started 2 years ago when we got back from Fiji. We enjoyed that vacation so much and the diving was so unbelievable we knew we would have to return. I immediately started researching how to go back to the south pacific for longer, cheaper and fit in more dives. This is when I discovered scuba diving internships, they were relatively inexpensive and include as many dives as one would desire. I contacted TSD almost 2 years ago for the Philippine dive internship and have been waiting for this day ever since. To date we have collected many dive certifications with our highest level as rescue divers, others include basic, advanced, nitrox, and shark awareness. An accumulation of tropical and cold water dives has landed me at 84 dives and Jeff at 101 dives(I did not partake in the ice dive or others with similar water temps- Burr). After the month of diving in the Philippines, we will complete another 50-80 dives including our certifications as dive masters, under water photography, and equipement specialist. There are many skills and tests necessary to complete the dive master certification which will lead to many days of reading the encyclopedia of dive theory along with water time to perfect our skills. This certification is the first professional level certification offered by PADI allowing us to lead divers on trips and assist instructors during classes. Jeff and I have an idea what this month will entail yet I imagine it is just the tip of the ice berg (or top of the palm tree).

Today our first flight will leave Hawaii at 12 PM Hawaii time and head to Seoul, Korea (flight time= 10.5 hours). We will have a 2 hour lay over and then start our next flight to Cebu, Philippines (flight time= 4 hours). Arrival in Cebu is at 11:30 PM their time therefore we have hotel reservations and transport set up for the night. The next morning someone from the dive shop will personally pick us up from Cebu and escort us to the dive resort on the island in the Philippines called Malapascua (this is a very tiny island). Some interesting facts, there are no ATMs, doctors, or roads on Malapascua. Although it seems the size of the island does not stop the divers from having a lot of fun, judging by the pictures on the intern website.

Based on our timeline we will be traveling for a couple days until we reach a WiFi source therefore do not be alarmed if there is a couple day delay before the next blog entry. We time traveled back 5 hours from WI when we were in Hawaii and we will now enter the future about 14 hours ahead of WI time when we reach the Philippine (crossing the international dateline). Definitely trying to see how much we can confuse our internal clock. There is WiFi on the island at the dive shop but we are unsure if there is WiFi at the intern housing. Get ready for some brief blog interruptions that will return with amazing underwater pictures.

I would like to thank everyone for the blog viewing support, Jeff and I are excited to report that our blog is now over 1000 views !!! We also are excited to report we have viewers in different countries including Russia, Australia, Canada, Fiji, Germany, Columbia and Hong Kong.

We have enclosed some pictures of the "Blue Room" at Karen's house where we have stayed for the last week.