We happened to pass a small shop whilst idling down the streets of El Nido and, written on a blackboard was the phrase "Affordable day of diving - no PADI Certification required"

HELLO!!!!

DIVING!!!

We walked into the shop and Yoshi, an ex-Tokyo, Japanese (surprised?), pen-pusher sized us up for wetsuits, weights and other SCUBA what-nots for a day that featured (at least for me) 2, one hour long, thirty feet deep dives. Thirty feet is the max that you can go, assisted by a trained frog-man type.

The first session we both completed in turn. First I went in and Yoshi took me through the safety precautions. You know, how NOT to breathe in seawater if you lose your regulator, how NOT to have your sinus cavities in your head implode every 3 feet, how to keep breathing despite being THIRTY FEET BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE SEA (did I mention we went thirty feet below the surface of the sea yet?). That sort of boring rigmarole. Blah blah blah. Whatever mate, I'm an Australian. Sort-of.

Then Yoshi finished the training by holding my hand as we slowly swam out to coral magnificence THIRTY FEET BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE SEA.

It was utterly beyond description - even for me - and only really ruined by being completely in love to the point of dreamy extacy and then turning to find you are holding hands with a wrinkly but spry forty-something Japanese man and NOT your loving wife who made all this come true.

We surfaced - slowly enough so that the air trapped in the bronchials in my lungs did not explode (the bends) - and I sat on the snow-white, powdery beach, nestled amongst angry station-stones of razor sharp rocks covered in tangled, rain-forest. I made a magnificent sand castle whilst Yoshi stole Nuttter for her intro into a different magical world.

Porl on Miniloc Island

Unfortunately, Nuttter's right ear did not seem to adjust too well to being taken THIRTY FEET BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE SEA so for the rest of the day and even now as she sleeps beside me, her right ear "feels like there is a small balloon inside it".

This feeling is slowly dissipating and we are assured will be gone - at worst - in 3 (gulp) days, thank the lord who made eardrums!. But sadly this prevented her from wanting (understandably) to go for the second dive.

Boo. :-(

The second dive was from the boat. Yeah, you have all seen it, the backward-roll thing into the sea! Jacques Cousteau PAH!. I've done it!!!

Yoshi and I then descended once more THIRTY FEET BELOW..... you get it. This time we were amongst giant fields of cabbage shaped coral that would have been enough to behold if it were not for a school of (curse alert!) fucking thousands and thousands and thousands of beautiful Yellow-Striped Whiptails (Sea Bream family) that swam around us for ages.

Completely uninterested in making contact with us and explaining the secret of life, the universe and everything, You can tell they all smuggly know the answer to that question but they won't share it the smug little things.

These happy fish perfectly swished through the ether whilst I looked like a complete drunkard in a gravity fee environment, struggling to turn right-side-up to reach that pint of Boddingtons. Oh god, why did I just mention a real beer.

We spent an hour down there, Yoshi and I, like two very big, black, ugly-looking fish with monstrous deformities on our backs instead of elegant fins and - of course - spouting turbulent fractal blooms of molten glass, powering away from us up to the surface, THIRTY FEET... sorry.

Yoshi would occasionally wave his big metal rod at me (please- children might be reading this so keep the "that's what she said" comment to yourselves boys) and would point out various wonders of nature. He also had one of those kiddy's magnet-drawing, sketch-pad thingies and would let me know what fish was what and which thing was male or female.

Barracuda, crocodile needle fish chasing schools of neons for lunch, Red and White Snapper, Angel Fish and Parrot Fish galore. Stupid really. I will scoff at any aquarium for the rest of my life.

Little flowering polyps I could touch that would violently shoot back into crevices and holes in the enormous coral structures and then gingerly creep back out.

Damn! It is so amazing.

We surfaced and checked on poor nuttter. Stuck on a small boat not even comfortable enough to snorkel where we were anchored. So sad.

Then we motored back to town through a torrential tropical rainstorm that has not let up since!!!

We changed, Nutter improved a bit more and we most had to swim back to town through the rain for dinner. Pizza of all things. Welcomingly good as it turned out and then a native acoustic guitarist and his odd American electric guitar soloist companion got up and started serenading one and all.

Mariaand El Nido Beach

After three tunes I sucked up some Dutch courage and went up there and banged away at the random percussion with them! Yay! I think the Dutch courage came from Jockam and Sussana, two awesome Amsterdamians we met that were really helpful and fun, let us know the secrets of El Nido's restaurants and tours.

So I am still wired from it all and of course just want to dive again and again now that I have seen that brilliant world.

It is about midnight, the French family in the cottage next have discovered a cockroach or something and are yelling and jumping around. I daren't laugh at them. We have had a couple of big scary insect moments during the trip but thankfully my lightning-like Australian reflexes and my always handy flip-flops usually save the day- that is - when the 7-8 inch long geckos don't. Those beautiful but secretive lizards tend to keep a pretty good tab on the big nasty creepy things.

The really big geckos make an awesome sound, once or twice a night, I am trying to get some audio of it but it's tough, sometimes it seems right next our heads and realistically, we both don't quite feel at home without one these days!!

Apparently they are worth 500pesos each on the street! Hmmmmm.

The rain is expected to continue tomorrow so we may lay low, especially if Nuttter's ear is still even slightly dodgy.

Hoping to upload a few more pictures ASAP! And then we are just about done. Reality returns sharply in the form of 20 hous on a plane in a few days time.

I care not. This has been an event that has brightened my world view and released a lot of tension that came from stuff I don't think I could ever look at, or get so wound up about, the same way again.

Love!

written by  Groovespook on July 30, 2010 from El Nido, Philippines
from the travel blog: Nuttter and Groovespook go Philippine island hopping
Send a Compliment

---

sorry to sound like "mother" but do make sure Maria gets something for her ear in Manilla before her flight! XX

written by  Louise Gordon on July 31, 2010

---

Don't forget to sample some balot, before you return home.

written by  Stu on August 1, 2010

comment on this...