We'll miss you Malapascua

We slept in a little bit this morning since our boat ride to leave the island was not until noon. When we did get up we started with a little bit of packing then headed off to Oscars for breakfast. We got to eat breakfast with a couple of the other interns which was nice. It was definitely a little sad knowing we would be saying good bye in a few hours. After breakfast we went off to the room to pack up all of our stuff, our friend from the dive shop, Jun Jun, showed up shortly after to get our bags and bring them to the shop for us. We snapped a few pictures of what had been our home for the last month and said good bye to our little simple room. We went back to Oscars to wait out the last hour hoping to catch as many people as possible to say goodbye to. While Jeff was gathering pictures and scuba info from Ryan and Garret, I went around and snapped a few pictures of the dive shop area. I even went next door to say goodbye to my little puppy friend Boracay that was always next door to the shop. She was a very cute but naughty puppy as she would often come and steal peoples slippers (flip-flops) that were left outside the dive shop. I went around and said my goodbyes to everyone I could find. By chance I even saw the little girl Quinn who had been my dance student at the disco weeks ago. Before I knew it the clock struck 12 and it was time to board the boat. As we left it was sad to see the island get smaller in the distance, as this had not really been a vacation, it was far more like a short term home. This really reiterated what Jeff and I had been telling people since we decided to move, we really enjoy and appreciate the island life. Now Oahu is very much so a different island than little Malapascua but it is a step in the direction that we want to go. It is all about finding a happy medium between the busy city and the secluded island village.
After about 25 minutes, we reached the Maya port on Cebu where we had arranged for a van to pick us up. This was the first car we had seen in a month and once inside the largest dose of air conditioning as well. It was a very bumpy 3 hour car ride to Cebu city, through a maze of villages and one lane roads due to the forever ongoing road construction. My stomach was not feeling so well this morning and the bumpy ride was not helping. The driver dropped us off at Bella Vista which was the hotel we stayed at the first night we arrived in Cebu. It felt very strange that it had already been a month since the last time we were in this hotel. After we dropped off our bags in the room, we had to grab a taxi to the SM mall so that Jeff could pick up his passport. We had sent the passports to Cebu city 2 weeks ago in order to extend our visas. The owner of the dive shop had picked mine up and brought it back to the dive shop but Jeff's passport was not available for pickup at that time. When we arrived at this mall it was absolutely massive, It was four stories and three wings of store after store. I later found out tht SM stands for super mall and boy was it ever. After a short search for a directory, we came cross an information booth and asked them for a map. They of course were all out of maps but she did point us in the right direction to find the travel agency that we needed. Fortunately when we arrived they had Jeff's passport and we could then focus on finding somewhere to eat. There were several restaurants and there was a food court, I found the food court to be rather confusing. There were at least 20 different places to choose from and all of them had large kettles of different kinds of food to build a plate from. They did not really have any prices on anything though and we were unsure what a lot of the food was. It did not help that by this point we were both very hungry and not in the right mental state to make a decision in this overwhelming enviroment. Eventually we chose to just eat at a Thai restaurant. The food was good but nothing to get excited about. We did not spend a lot of time in the SM since Nick, who had been one of the instructors when we started, had forgotten 2 boxes at the dive shop when he left for Cebu this morning. They sent the boxes with us and we were to meet up with him later tonight so he could reclaim it from us. We did not have a cell phone and when we had called his phone from the hotel he did not answer, so we did not want to be away for too long in case he showed up at the hotel. Interesting fact, in the Philippines cell phones do not have voicemail, so we could not even leave a message for him.
When we got back to the hotel he had called and left a message for us that they would stop by around 1800. Which it was now about 1815, they ensured us that nobody had stopped by looking for us so we went to the room grabbed our Ipad and took advantage of the wifi in the lobby while we waited. They showed up around 1900 which is surely island time for 1800. They were nice enough to buy us a beer for bringing their stuff down to Cebu. It was nice to sit and talk to Nick and his longtime girlfriend Lana. They are actually getting ready to buy their own resort, which from the sounds of it will be the kind of place we would like to visit. Their plan is to have a place that will not only have nice sand beaches but also offer up as many adventure sports as the geographical location will allow. It was a very nice laid back evening to end our last night in the Philippines. We then retired to our room where we had cranked up the air conditioning. We had been so used to sleeping in a super hot room with only a fan and on a 4" thick foam excuse for a mattress. In our room here it was nice and cool with what seemed at the time like the most comfortble mattress and blanket in the world. I knew I was going to get a good nights sleep tonight.

An American Birthday abroad

After sleeping in for a little this morning, it was soon time to get to the dive shop for a 9 AM departure, we were headed to Gato island and the Dona Marilyn wreck for a day of diving. This would be the first day trip Jeff and I would be going on together and it was my birthday. Betty also came with which added to the fun. With Betty there I would have someone to soak up the sun with on the boat while Jeff hid in the shade from the evil sun rays. Betty showed up at the dive shop and had brought me a birthday gift, a ChocoMucho bar in peanut butter, my new favorite. I thought this was a very nice gesture, we had also brought ChocoMucho bars to share with the boat staff. We all had a nice boat ride out to the Dona Marilyn wreck. As Betty and I chatted on the boat, I learned she is from a town in England that has a reality show much like the Hills here in the states. Betty is a very real, funny, down to earth person which made it interesting to hear she is from a town that is very into superficial looks and status. I definitely want to check out the show and see what living in that part of England looks like. When Jeff and I signed up for the dive internship I formed a mental picture of the people, island, and our requirements, this turned out to be very different from our actual experience. I had pictured interns that were much younger than us, more so just out of high school deciding what they wanted to do for a living. Instead most interns were like us and had a career that they were leaving either temporary or possibly permanently to seek out travel and a dive career. Even the younger interns were very mature and level headed, this included Ryan who appeared to be 12 and could barely read/see. As being his elders we all urged him to get glasses only to find out he had contacts which he refused to wear. It was refreshing to be among other people that were in a similar boat as Jeff and I, following our travel dreams. Our group was a lot of fun and I will definitely miss them. My initial vision of this internship may have been different but the actual experience had far exceeded my expectations.
Soon it was time to get ready to dive. Last time this dive did not go so well for me but I was confident that this time would be different. I had talked to a couple of the instructors about the dive and Kurt had given me a tip on how to go down the line by crossing my arms in front of me and letting the rope slide between my body and my right arm. He had thought the apprehension I experienced last time may have been due to vertigo and descending in this matter would ensure that my feet were well below. This would possibly help my body adjust to descending into constant blue without having a reference point until the wreck is seen many meters below. As I jumped in and approached the line, I tried to remember Kurt's advice as we descended down the line. It definitely helped but if it decreased my vertigo I am not sure, but for one thing it distracted me from staring into the blue and instead I concentrated on my arm placement on the rope. I had wondered if this was a real tip from Kurt or just a distraction method. Regardless it worked brilliantly and before I knew it I was at 28 meters deep and enjoying my swim around the Dona Marilyn.
The Dona Marilyn is a 98 foot Filipino ferry that was sunk over 20 years ago by Typhoon Ruby. It now lies on its starboard side almost completely intact at 32 meters and is home to many hard and soft corals along with a vast array of marine life. It was amazing to dive deep to shallow around the wreck enjoying the view of attached corals that now decorate the ship's exterior and interior. It was fun to take my torch and peer into the port holes to see what still remained in the ship. As we dove around the wreck, we could identify the wheel house, mast and many other ship features that were now camouflaged with beautiful, colorful coral and home to sweet lips, nudibranches, and other marine creatures. There was quite a bit of current on the wreck today which made it a little difficult towards the end of the dive when we were inspecting the top of the wreck. It was best to stay as close to the wreck as possible and tuck behind anything that protruded to shield us from the current and to make staying in one place easier. It was very neat to watch all of the soft corals sway in the current, almost like a field of wheat grass blowing in the wind. That is if the grass were pink, white and yellow of course. I thought the visibility was better today but after talking to one of the local divemasters he said the visibility during other months is far superior. Either way to me it was a great dive and I felt good to make my mends with the Dona Marilyn.
For our surface interval I had packed Jeff, Betty and myself lunch instead of getting the usual sandwiches from the dive shop. Our lunch was provided thanks to a dive guest (Rebecca) that had left me three bowl of noodle meals. Rebecca had said that these were the good ones, from Japan. She had been worried about eating foods from the Philippines and had packed her bags full of these noodle bowl meals to last for her week long vacation. Later to find out that her hotel room did not have hot water to prepare these meals. I think she quickly realized the food is very safe and would provide a larger variety than the noodle bowls everyday, every meal for a week. This was a perfect lunch for us on the boat as the crew always makes up hot water for tea. It was a little tricky as I had never eattan one of these noodle bowl meals and the directions were in Japanese. I could follow the pictures relatively well but it did help that another dive guest on the boat had eattan these before and read Japanese, he gave us a leason in preparing our lunch. We each had a different flavor and the bowl yielded a hefty portion of noodles that satisfied our post dive hunger. As for the taste, I would eat one again but would rather eat the Filipino food than noodle bowls during my stay. While we were eating, the boat continued on to Gato island where our second dive would be. When we arrived we still had a little more surface time left so Betty and I decided to jump in and enjoy the water. I absolutely love being in the water and was happy Betty was as interested in playing around in the water, just for fun, on the surface. Soon after we jumped in, came a splash entrance into the water from Jeff and a couple other guests, we had started a surface swimming trend. Eventually it was time to get on the boat and kitted up for our next dive. We jumped up and got ready for our next adventure.
We dove down and the aquarium begins immedietly as you submerge. The beauty of the corals and marine life that were surrounding us were awe inspiring. Gato island was like our own private scuba diver's playground. There was a rather strong current around the island today which made it a little more difficult to slow down and look at all the beautiful corals and fish. We found ourselves tucking behind large coral heads just to slow our momentum enough that we could attempt to take in everything that was around us. As we were buzzing along in the current, we came across a group of 4 or 5 large pregnant white tip sharks. We found a spot to kneel down in the sand so that we could watch these sharks as they rest on the bottom. Due to the heavy current the sharks were able to stop moving and rest on the bottom. Normally this type of shark would not be able to breath if it stopped swimming but in this case the heavy current forced enough water across their gills that they could breath. Each shark had at least one if not two or three remoras attached to it as they rested. It was very neat to watch as they would swim up and reposition every now and then. They actually allowed us to get pretty close, we kept our distance anyway as we did not want to spook them. I later found out that as we were first kneeling down to look at the sharks, the current had pushed Jeff into a sea urchin and he too had his taste of an urchin to the knee. His reaction to it was much the same as mine, it hurt for only 2-3 minutes then after that he did not hardly feel it. After about 10 minutes the dive guide motioned that it was time to head to shallower water. It was right about then that I spotted a large cuttlefish out by the sharks, I pointed it out to Jeff and it took him a minute or so to find it. The cuttlefish was rather well camouflaged, we then pointed it out to the guide and Jeff went to get some pictures of it. After he was done with pictures, we went to catch up with the group. Much to our amazement the russian couple that was in our dive group were way ahead of the guide and fighting the current to head back the direction that we had come from. Normally Gato is done as a drift dive where you just go along with the current on the entire dive and the boat picks you up at the end. We had no choice but to follow along as the guide attempted to catch the 2 russians that were fighting the current. He made several attempts to get their attention but the couple never turned around. So the three of us fought the current all the way back around the tip of the island to where we had started the dive. At this point the couple had stopped, I would assume they stopped because this is where the boat had been anchored when we jumped in the water. The reality is that they could not have gone much further as they were just about out of air from having had to work so hard against the current. I think there was a realization of serious error on the Russian's part when he surfaced and found that the boat was no longer anchored where it had been earlier. The dive guide explained to him that we were not supposed to swim back to the boat but it was a drift dive, the man appologized but I do not think he quite understood how bad of a decision that he had made to swim off without the guide. The boat came and picked us up, then shortly after we went and picked up the second group that Betty was in. Then it was time to lay out in the sun for the 40 minute boat ride back to the dive shop. I think most of us slept on the boat ride back, between the high current diving and the amount of sun we soaked up we were pretty exhausted.
After returnng to the dive shop, we cleaned up our dive gear in the wash bins for the last time. We went back to the room to get cleaned up and ready for my birthday party tonight. First we had to meet at Oscars and make sure all of the instructors and interns knew that the plan was to meet at the Other Place around 1900. We decided to talk to the kitchen staff at Oscars and find out if we could buy cheese for the burgers we planned on having at the Other Place (since they are almost always out of cheese). They informed us that they would have to charge us 50 php per slice and that we would be better off trying to buy cheese from Ging Ging's. So a little bit before 1900 we headed off to the Other Place to get the party started, on the way Jeff stopped off at Ging Ging's and was able to buy a 6 pack of cheese slices for 70 php, he bought 2. We then gave the cheese over to July and had her start making burgers and fries. People started slowly rolling in, as they would arrive I would welcome them and in Filipino tradition and buy them a drink. Since I had received that very generous $100 tip I told July that drinks could go on my tab until it reached 3000 php. With drinks costing 50-90 php this allowed the tab to run almost the full evening. We had a very impressive turn out as all of the instructors other than Dan and the new course director showed up to the party. At one point early on, Jeff had disappeared for about 20 minutes, he had said he ws going to drop off something in the room but it seemed like he was gone a long time. When he returned he had put together my ChocoMucho cake. He had broken the candy bars into bite size pieces then arranged the white ones in the middle so that it said BB (my initials), he then arranged the darker ones around the outside as a border. It was the best ChocoMucho cake Malapascua island had ever seen. We all sat around and told dive stories and talked about places we had been. A little later in the night Onjay, a friend we had met during our stay, showed up with ice cream cones. How cool is that a birthday party in the Philippines and I still get burgers and ice cream. I was very happy for that treat. About 45 minutes later Onjay's friend Marja, who we had gotten to know also, showed up with 2 pizzas. The pizzas were excellent and disappeared in record time. Before they vanished she showed me that she had made one of them special for me since she knew I really liked cheese. Marja had loaded the pizza with as many kinds of cheese as she could find, it was perfect. Towards the end of the night I went and checked on our tab to see how we had done on spending. 3120 php, which ended up being our total at the end of the night. It was perfect between the tab, the Choco Mucho's and the tip we gave July, my $100 covered it all. Overall I was very happy with my Filipino birthday party, I felt I had a very good turn out of guests. A couple of the interns even commented that they had never seen that many instructors turn up for an event outside of Oscars. I also appreciated the ice cream and pizza, it was a very American, Filipino birthday and my new Filipino friends were the ones helping supply some of my hometown favorite party foods. We also had a few games of charades and I may or may not have busted out some dance moves to Britney Spears "Hit me baby one more time". What a great last evening in Malapascua, Philippines.