Downs and Ups

Today started with another excellent breakfast before we met Leo, the owner of our tour company, our guide for the day, andour dive instructor. Picking us up from the luxury of our first few days (minus the sunburn), he drove us down the road to another place: Planet Dive, known for their backyard access of the Anilao Marine Reserve. It's a lot closer to nature and felt wonderfully real.


From the deck.



As soon as we got here, we dropped our stuff, donned our suits, and went down to the deck below to be introduced to SCUBA. We weren't actually going to do any work; the amazing way this excursion works is that you suit up without fins and get dragged along by a dive master holding a handle on your tank. He then shoves you up, down, and around so that you can look at all the amazing things underwater. And amazing they were.

We saw the widest range of colors there is to see in the world. Electric blue starfish, Nemo fishes, black frog fishes that walk on the ground, a school of baby barracuda, a gigantic silver school of jack fishes, wrasse fishes (look that one up, it looks like a Lisa Frank binder spit up a fin-ny friend), wavy clam shell that could fit a golden retriever covered in all sorts of wonderful texture... We could even touch the spotted flesh of that clam before it got cranky and sucked all its insides back in. Corals and anenomes galore. And  the most incredible part was that it was only 30 feet down and starts when you get about waist deep in water. BAM! Duck your head underwater to practice breathing through a hose and you see colorful fish.

Just fascinating.

We were underwater for 30 minutes before we had to go back up and out of the water. Just because we couldn't resist, we put on fins and did a little snorkeling in the same area we just were in, taking time to play in the shallower parts of the reef and bother the fishes with my terrible fin kicking.

After another delicious lunch where I ate way too much, we got ambitious and decided to go on a hike to the top of the island with Leo. "Short" he said. "A little steep." ...

He's lucky I didn't toss my cookies along the way.

He's very patient, luckily, because it was completely worth it in the end.






That little wake of the boat is right about where our first resort was.




My subtle t-shirt. Can you even tell I'm in the picture?? I'm right next to Mark.


Cow!! Moo!

An easy run downhill and we rewarded ourselves with a lounge on the deck, watching the sun set and waiting for dinner.







To cap off a wonderful day, Leo got some of the guys hanging around to knock down some green coconut for our enjoyment. Some quick work with a small machete...



And we were enjoying some very refreshing juice.



A pretty wonderful day, really.

And time for some well-deserved sleep.

Shh!!!

Zzzz...