Jeff had another early morning since Carrie had not seen any sharks yesterday she decided to make one of her advanced dives, a naturalist dive to attempt the shark dive again. He headed off to the dive shop at 4:30 am. When he arrived, he was happy to hear that they were diving on Old Monad which has been having a lot more activity lately. Just as they were loading up the boat, a man looking very confused was standing in front of the dive listing board. The instructor asked him if he needed some help. Come to find out this guy, Daryl, had spoke with the dive shop a couple of days ago and was supposed to be on the shark dive but was not listed. The instructor decided to help out Daryl and they got him some rental gear. Since all of the other groups on the boat were diving Nitrox, he was added to Jeff's group. On the boat ride out the instructor spoke to Daryl a little and found out that he had just recently done his open water and advanced courses. His total number of dives was only about 10, this meant they needed to keep a closer eye on him since this was a 24 meter dive. When they got to the dive site there was quite a bit of surface current, this is not uncommon for this site. What this meant is that they needed to hang on to the mooring line and descend quickly to get below the current. The instructor jumped in the water followed by Carrie, Daryl then Jeff. They were all at the front of the boat by the line and the instructor said "let's go". Jeff was keeping an eye on Daryl and as soon as he started to descend Daryl sucked in some water so he obviously needed a second to catch his breath which is fine if he hangs on to the line. Unfortunately, at the same time the mooring line came off of the boat due to the waves. The instructor and Carrie had already started down and due to the current they were pulling the mooring bouy underwater, Jeff quickly grabbed the end of the rope. He held on to the rope with his right hand extending as far as he could reach into the water while trying to get Daryl to grab a hold of the rope or at least Jeff's left hand. Daryl quickly started to drift away at which point Jeff informed him to swim back and grab the rope, Daryl swam back towards Jeff then just stopped, he would then just drift away again. This repeated a couple times till Jeff got impatient and told Daryl to give him his hand, but as soon as Jeff would grab Daryl's hand he would spit out his regulator and need his hand back. By this point Jeff was thinking "great what kind of dumpty is this guy" then when Jeff had finally had enough Daryl says "ok let's go". After that they descended grabbed the rope and followed it down, I have no idea what his problem was on the surface but he sure was a pain. The dive that followed that circus was a rather excellent dive, it began by seeing a thresher shark while descending, followed by at least 3 devil rays. They saw a couple more sharks then the grand finale rolled in, a giant manta ray with about a 5 meter wing span. It glided right over the cleaning station then buzzed along the side of the group very close to Jeff and Daryl. After the dive everyone was very excited about seeing the manta and Daryl did comment that he could not see the rope before they descended so he did not know what Jeff was talking about. The instructor did also comment that he was just about to come up and tell Jeff to put Daryl back on the boat. That would not have been a good dive to have to sit on the boat and miss.
After Jeff's amazing morning shark dive, we had a little time off to explore the festival.
The festival is now in full swing. We strolled through the market area which was now filled with stands selling just about everything. It was surprising to see and feel the hometown festival feeling I am used to with a Filipino twist of course. Very shortly after reaching the town and festival area, we came across stands with small plastic bags containing blue cotton candy, popcorn, and other usual festival foods. Then we encountered many tables set up with games and prizes to win. Close by this stand had dolls, toy guns, and other party favors. As we continued our walk, we were passed by at least 3 different men carrying about 6 dozen different ballons from disney princesses, sharks, and other animated characters. It was a bit of sensory overload with so many things to see in every direction. We only had a little time to take it all in before we needed to find a spot to view the boat parade that was to start at 1100. The dive shop also will have a boat in the parade. It was very nice to hear that the dive shop restaurant closed from 1100 to 1300 to allow the staff to be part of the shop's boat display. Some locals told us the best spot to view the parade is the beach in front of town. We waited by the beach close to town but at even 1115 new boats were still arriving and just starting to decorate. The parade was operating on island time. The sun was very hot and the shaded spots were very limited on this side therefore we were not sure how long we could bare the heat. Just then a man carrying a large woven box on his back walked down the beach while ringing a bell. I was certain that this was an internationally translatable sight and surely this was an "ice cream truck". Jeff a little unsure, allowed me to go with my instincts and sure enough for 10 pesos each we got a little ice cream treat with a light layer of chocolate and a few peanuts on the outside. To me this was definitely a festival and I was enjoying the sights and treats. Being desparate for shade we headed back to the other side to seek out a cooler place to watch the boat parade. As we ventured back through the festival, our eyes were caught by the sight of little baby chicks that were dyed pink, blue, and green. They looked fake at first, like toy bobble head chicks. Yet with a closer look they were truely real colored chicks. This seemed very odd but then I started to think about it and it is really not much different than our gold fish in a bag that could be won by carnival games in the states. The gold fish unfortunately never lasted long but a chick if well taken care of, could be quite a beneficial pet on this remote island.
Besides all the practicing dance groups, each group also had a little girl around 12 years old dressed up and practicing as well. Later to find out that each village was competing and the best princess would be queen of Malapascua. This seemed very much like a pageant practice that could be seen back home. Even watching the girls practice their pose and speechs while wearing beautiful yet dreadfully heavy dresses in this heat, I could not help but see the parallels from the Miss contests back home. I really hoped that I would be able to go to at least part of the princess or dance competition this weekend.
Jeff and I both were on the 1430 dive to Bantigue. I was on a fun dive, Molly was the leader while Garret and myself followed along. When the boat guy picked up my BCD to nicely help me into my equipment (they are not expected to help the interns but I definitely appreciate it) he commented that it was heavy and I may not need that much weight. During this internship my weights are always being adjusted depending on if I am practicing skills in 3 meters of water in which I am overweighted, or if another customer needs one of my 2 lb weights so I become over weighted since I use 3 lbs as a substitute. So when Edgar said I was overweighted I did not think too much of it as I have become more accustomed to diving with more weight than ideal. During the dive I did discover my bouyancy was a little difficult to maintain a comfortable balance. Later I realized I still had an extra weight on my tank that I should have removed, this was left on from my skills session the other day. It is impressive that Edgar caught the weight was off. Regardless, the extra weight did not interfere with my fun dive. Molly is great at finding all kinds of litte creatures such as pipe fish, mantis shrimp, coral banded shrimp, and many other marine life. I am still better at spotting the bigger more obvious things like the large cuttle fish I found on this dive. Really both sets of eyes are valuable to spot alot on a dive and there are so many creatures I am sure we miss even on our best spotting days. While I was on a fun dive Jeff was on his last assist of the advanced course with Carrie. They were doing the navigation dive, Jeff was there to swim along with Carrie as she navigated a reciprocal heading and a square. He was in charge of counting fin kicks and tapping her on the shoulder when it was time to turn so that she could focus on the compass. After her skills were all done, Jeff led the group around for a short tour. They found a whip coral shrimp and a cleaning station where a lizard fish was getting a thorough scrubbing. All in all it was a good dive for everyone.
After cleaning up from the dive and eating dinner we headed over to Oscar's above the dive shop. Since Carrie had now completed her advanced course there would be a shark bite shot for her tonight. We intended on staying only for the congratulations but before we knew it it was nearly midnight. We both had shark dives in the morning and had intended on calling it an early night. This tends to be far more difficult than one would think since everytime you turn around someone is trying to talk to you about something and wants to have just one more drink. Eventually we made it out of there and crashed on the bed when we got to the room, another long day.
Edging on week 3 of being on Malapascua island it has surprisingly become very comfortable for both Jeff and I to live here. It is very interesting how almost anywhere can feel like home especially if a daily routine is set up and as locals start to acknowledge us as neighbors. People start to really get to know each other and are able to notice when I am not acting myself, nervous or sick and in the same the people know when I am in a great mood. The dive shop restaurant, bar, boat, and equipment staff all know me by name and I know their names as well. The little inside jokes and fun chatter has just begun. Having the comradery with the interns along with new local friends, makes everyday a more enjoyable adventure. The little room we sleep in and the zigzag dirt paths we take each day, now put a smile on my face as we pass the same little children playing. We have become regulars at the same 2-3 restaurants we like best with our favorite servers. The little shop across from our place knows us and we know them since they weekly wash our laundry and we provide steady business for ChocoMucho candy bars and the occasional refreshing beverage. The puppy I play with at the shop next door, the cat at Malditos restaurant, and the puppies that playfully chase me on my walk back home, all adds to the day. It is really quite interesting how quickly a place that only 3 weeks ago was a huge culture shock for me, is now my little home in Malapascua, Philippines.
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