tubbataha: the pilgrimage begins

the mecca for divers will once again come alive this summer as tubbataha season begins this march. avid divers long to experience tubbataha, whether for the first time or over and over again. i believe one is never truly a diver unless they've gone to tubbataha.


i had my first tubbataha experience last year, during the last transition trip of the oceanic explorer, june 6-13, which sailed from puerto princesa, palawan to 4 days in tubbataha, a day in cuyo islands & a day in apo reef.

6 days. 27 dives. over 2500 pictures and videos from my camera alone.


the tubba life: wake up. eat. dive. eat. sleep. dive. eat. sleep. dive. eat. sleep. dive. eat. sleep. dive. eat. drink. sleep.


the day starts with a 6am wake up call to a light breakfast and dive briefing. its on to the first dive by 7am, back to the boat by 830am for a heavy breakfast, then take a nap for about an hour before going to the 2nd dive at 10am. after the second dive, its back to the boat for lunch, then squeeze in an hour-long nap and dive again by 2pm. after diving, its eating time again and an opportunity to take a few minutes nap before jumping back into the water by 4pm. back to the boat to eat and sleep and get ready for the night dive by 6pm. after the night dive its time for dinner (and drinking if we still have the energy) and sleep to do this over and over again for 6 days.





i'm proud to say i did not miss any of the 27 dives. but i had to pass on the drinking every night.

tubbataha was amazing. everything super sized, the reef, the fishes and other sea creatures, the corals...schools of fishes came in thousands or more and visibility was great. there were several times i thought i was just 50 or 60 feet but when i checked my dive computer, i was at 130! awesome!







and of course sharks were everywhere! white tip, black tip, gray reef -- contrary to popular belief sharks do not attack people on sight, they're just like regular fishes who swim away when you go near them. during the first two days I was so gung-ho on chasing them sharks but got tired in the next few days. but there was this one time i was chasing a shark to take a picture of it and it was swimming away from me, then suddenly it made a u-turn and swam towards me! scary! i made a full stop and swam backwards. haha, serves me right!





next stop was cuyo island. coming from amazing tubbataha, cuyo seems colorless, bland and unexciting, with not much marine life.


but cuyo had its own delights. the reef was flat and wide with large table corals and upon closer inspection, interesting macro creatures and corals. and the reef was deep! and just to prove me wrong some more, i experienced the strong currents of cuyo and the most intense thermocline i've had in the trip. water temperature dropped from 86 degrees to 81 degrees in a matter of seconds! cuyo was an interesting and fun dive.


after cuyo we sailed to nearby quiminatin island. i had fun above and underwater this time since the island had a small patch of white sand beach where I was able to lounge around in. from the deck of the boat, i jumped and swam to shore!


the 2 dives at quiminatin was fun, although it was sad to see that the corals suffered much damage from dynamite fishing from a few years back, corals are starting to thrive again.


after the dive at quiminatin siland, we once again sailed in the night to the last stop for the transition trip: apo reef.


apo reef was a fitting end to my dive adventure. like a tubbataha redux, i feasted my eyes on giant corals, sharks and excellent visibility. i stretched my 4 dives for as long as i could, diving until I had no more air on my tank because it may take a while before i can once again take on this adventure.






every year i long to be in tubbataha, but i have to give way to new adventures and experiences. maybe sometime soon, i will go back.



a few slots are still open for the 2009 tubbataha season:

From tubba

reservations can also be made as early as now for 2010: www.expeditionfleet.com

i left my Y in cebu

i Y cebu.

i am a proud ‘bisdak’.

(bisdak means bisayang-dako, loosely translated: one who grew up in the visayas, in my case cebu)

although it is no longer accurate for me to say that I spent most of my life in cebu since I left my beloved hometown when I was 14 years old to live in manila, cebu is still closest to my heart. aside from it being the place where most of my relatives are, it is where I spent my formative years in and where I developed my love for traveling and the outdoors.

so why do i Y cebu so? let me count the ways (and take note coz you might just find yourself in that side of the world)…

• the city in itself is a delight. it is as lively as manila, less the pollution, population & traffic and with nicer people. I enjoy going to carbon (the biggest public market in the city), the old churches (sto. nino, cebu cathedral, sto. rosario) and the 'touristy' places (fort san pedro, plaza independencia, taoist temple, magellan's cross) as much as i enjoy going to the night spots in and around the city.


• in cebu you find the yummiest lechon ever - the cebu lechon, whether it be cnt or allejo (branded lechon stores) or the lechon sold in the area of jai-alai, nothing can top cebu lechon - ask anthony bourdain. to truly experience the gastronomical delights in cebu, i never pass up a chicharon or meal of barbecue & pu-so (hanging rice or boiled rice wrapped in woven coconut leaves) sold in almost in every corner of the city and always make it a point to visit larsian - a whole block of barbeque stands in uptown cebu) near fuente osmena.


• sinulog, in my own humble opinion, is the best festival in the country. people from all over the country, (heck, from all over the world!) troop to cebu every third sunday of january to party! one has to experience sinulog in order to know what i mean.


• beaches abound cebu. nearest ones are in mactan island and olango (where the fish and bird sanctuary are). i have only been to a number of them - on the south side there's argao, badian (do a side trip to kawasan falls), moalboal (great diving - comparable to apo island), up north there's bantayan & malapascua (for the thresher sharks and mantas).

• from cebu you can get to anywhere - jump on a ferry and you'll be in bohol or negros in a matter of hours, dumaguete and leyte is just a few hours of road trip+ro-ro away.

i can go on and on about cebu but i also admit that I can still be a tourist to some parts of my home province. cebu is packed with beautiful sights from end to end! having left cebu at a young age, and just going home every now and then for family gatherings, there are a lot of hidden pleasures I have yet to discover. and i realized, sadly, i don't even have pretty pictures of the city. what an abomination! this cannot be. i will rectify this soon.

I left my Y in cebu and there it will stay.

www.cebu.gov.ph
www.cebucitytourism.com

zambales secret: anawangin cove + capones lighthouse sidetrip

i am a bit frustrated lately since I have not been to an out of town trip ever since my january surfing trip to crystal beach. partly of my own doing because i enrolled in basic photography class for five saturdays until the first week of march, so weekend road trips are out of the question for now. the day trip i was looking forward to - hot air balloon festival in clark - i was not able to go to because of work. =(

so until i finally finish my 5-weekend photography class, i content myself with researching on new places to discover, planning trips for the summer (and the rest of the year) and reminiscing about the places i have been to and long to go back to, one of which is anawangin in zambales.

anawangin is one of zambales' secret spots - well not so secret anymore i guess. it used to be known to a handful, mostly mountaineers who trek through Mt. Pundaquit (a 5-hour trek) or Mt. Balingkilat (a 2-day trek) and commences in paradise that is anawangin cove. nowadays, even adventurous beach bummers are in on this secret and head to anawangin for a weekend of serenity in the sun, sand & sea.

i have been to anawangin a total of three times last year - march during holy week, may to end the summer & november. it is so accessible and easy to find - from subic, it is around an hour away, taking the straight road to iba, zambales and the only major turn is upon entry to san antonio to reach brgy. pundaquit. bancas can be hired for around P800-P2500 depending on the size of the banca, the number of the passengers and the stops you want to take (capones or camara island stopover), this is where haggling skills come into play. after a 30-minute picturesque banca ride from the shores of barangay pundaquit, the banca makes a turn and from afar you glimpse the white sandy beach and the pine trees of anawangin cove set against mountain ranges.

anawangin is not for the resort-type, 5-star hotel vacationers as there are no resorts in the cove. there are makeshift restrooms -4 plyboards nailed together to provide privacy from the rest of the camp but offers a view of the blue skies or moonlit sky while you are doing your thing . there is weak or no cellphone signal at all, no electricity, just the light provided by the moon & the stars at night, no sari-sari stores or restaurants, just your personal provisions and food that you cook on your campfire. but the essentials are there, sun, sand, sea, pine trees, hillsides and deep well water. on the right side of the cove the caretakers charge P150/person, while on the middle part they charge P50. they say this is for keeping the cove clean and maintaining the deepwell. but P50 or P150 is a small price to pay for paradise. these caretakers sell potable drinking water, sometimes ice and chopped wood for cooking & bonfire if you don't fancy walking around the forest and collecting dry twigs & leaves.

necessities to bring for an enjoyable anawangin trip - tents, sleeping bags, light jacket, flashlight, drinking water (lots of it), food & utensils, first-aid kit, off lotion (although i haven't encountered any mosquitos the three times i was there), waterproof blanket or bag to keep essential things dry, like cameras! of course never forget the cameras! non-essentials but nice to have - marshmallows for bonfire, board-games, rubber shoes for trekking the nearby hillsides, acoustic guitar, body board or skim-board, a nice big ice chest filled with ice, sodas & alcohol!

to maximize an overnight trip to anawangin, arrive early, before sunrise and leave early afternoon-around after lunch the next day while the sea is still calm and to give you time to detour to capones island to visit the lighthouse. a stopover to capones can be tricky, you have to ask your boatman of the wave and tide conditions since the shore on capones is rocky and difficult to dock during low tide or strong waves. but once you manage to reach the shore and take the kinda steep climb to the lighthouse, your efforts will be rewarded with a unencumbered view of endless horizon on one side and the majestic mountains of zambales on the other. the lighthouse itself also provides an interesting subject in photographs.

i can't get enough of anawangin and i definitely will go back. maybe the next time i go i should try trekking via mt. pundaquit. anyone interested?

indayguapa: my wandering sole

through the years, i have unknowingly gained the reputation of being always on-the-go, always up to something and constantly planning trips and adventures to experience. i say unknowingly because i do not go out of my way to be and do these things. its in my nature to move - i cannot sit still, i cannot NOT experience new things, i simply cannot bear to let adventure pass me by.

looking back at the past couple of years (just the couple of years and nothing later coz that would be a litany of travels), i realized that the reputation is well-deserved, i have really been to a lot of places - albeit mostly in and around our wonderful country, and experienced stuff that i could store into my box of 'the last time i did something for the first time' or in my chest of 'things i love doing over and over again'.

2007 brought me home to cebu a total of 6 times! for sinulog, for family reunions and mostly for frolicking in its beautiful beaches and as stopover to other destinations. moalboal, malapascua & bohol offered great diving, bantayan was reminiscent of boracay in the yesteryears - quiet, serene & clean. i had numerous diving trips for this year too - apo island in dumaguete (with side trip to pulang bato falls), wreck diving in subic and of course the easily accessible batangas with numerous resort choices like balai, dive & trek, outrigger, pier uno & the lesser known but quite lovely vista aplaya. for this year, i drove as far as palaui in cagayan valley and in nearby quick-vacation destinations like tagaytay for food tripping, taal for wakeboarding, clark for hot air balloonfest and zambales for beach-bumming & surfing. i also went on a quick trip to boracay and this was also the year i discovered the 'boracay' of cavite - the calumpang marine base beach on a cove near puerto azul and inside a military base which is open to the public for a mere P50 entrance fee.

i thought i couldn't top my '07 but 2008 proved to be another year of endless travels and 'first times'. i had return trips to cebu for sinulog and family vacations - to olango island in mactan for bird-watching, went back to clark for my 2nd year of hot air balloon fest, anilao for diving - tried planet dive and solana for the first time. for holy week i did a fun and uncharted road trip with my friends which took us camping in anawangin in zambales as our first stop, dropped by capones before heading to do another overnighter on one of the uninhabited islands of the 100 islands in pangasinan, then to la union for surfing and had our last stop in bulacan for the holy week salubong. as a break from the tiring but fun road trip, i rediscovered metro manila - spent a day in quiapo and la mesa ecopark in the succeeding weekends. no sooner had i recovered from the holy week road trip, i was off to donsol in sorsogon to go swimming with the whalesharks.

a highlight of this year is my first tubbattaha live-aboard trip - 7 days of unadulterated diving - flew to palawan to catch apo explorer, spent 7 days on the boat cruising from tubbattaha, cuyo and quiminatin islands, apo reef and then back to batangas. i took a short break from travel and tested my physical strength and endurance at the TNF100, a 100km race through the hills and mountainsides of cavite and batangas, and survived. but i really cannot stay put for long, in to time i was organizing dive trips to galera and verde island, was invited by my good friend kat to her hometown in davao for kadayawan and arranged a trek to pinatubo & side trip to the taksiyapo wall in tarlac for my best girl friends. i was quite content to sit out the remainder of the year since i've had my fair share of traveling already and loads of work came in during the last quarter (yes, despite all the trips, i work hard too!) but wanderlust truly finds me, a few days before the year ended i was invited to visit the mangyans in foothills of mount halcon in mindoro.

my only regret about all my wanderings is that i did not blog about it. yes i uploaded tons of pictures and short description from my various travels in my social networking pages, although i willingly share my suggestions for things to do, places to see & information, details and budgets for trips when friends ask for it, i just realized that it was a bit selfish of me to keep it to a chosen few. but it is never too late to change, hence this blog.

there's still so much to do and so many places to see right here in the philippines. my wandering sole has brought me to the farthest corners and yet i remain insatiable. maybe its high time to plan bigger, grander things. maybe i should go a little further. instead of round-the-corner, why not round-the-world.

oh yes, why truly not.