The Philippines: Puerto Galera, Coron
Back in the Philippines Molly is ready to go back to Norway, so we head south on our own from Manila by bus to Batangas where we catch a ferry to Puerto Galera (Sabang beach). It's hot again and the water is beautifully clear and inviting so it's time to dive. Our trip on the ferry over got a little bit exciting, while cruising along the captain of the ferry was not paying too much attention and didn't notice the big gas tanker heading straight for us and it was not until the crew member up front started shouting out he finally changed direction while the other ship honked his horn.
Well, we were now safe and sound in Puerto Galera and enjoying lot's of diving and more diving, we found a nice room overlooking the ocean and it was peaceful here. It is sad that each time we wanted to go eat we had to fight our way through the girlie bars that try to get you to come in where the girl are lined up, some dancing on the bar, with loud music and the drunks stumbling around. Some people do not mind but if you stay a while it starts to get on your nerves! We went to the beach every once in a while but mostly we were there for the diving and that was really good. We dived the following sites: Escarceo, Sabang wreck, Monkey beach, Shark cave, the canyons, Kilima bay wall, Alma Jane wreck, night dive at Sabang wreck, the Boulders, and Tangat wreck. Things to see: Flamboyant cuttlefish, white-tip sharks, cuttlefish, schools of snappers, titan triggerfish, octopus, rockmover wrasse, sweetlips, mantis shrimps, lot's of different types of frogfish, seahorses, sea hare, nudibranchs (nembrotha, halgerda, chromodoris, hypselodoris and many more!) :-)
We had hoped at this time to go to a small place called Anilao but we could never seem to get a hold of anyone there, so instead, after many days of trying, we headed for Manila where we caught a flight to Coron on Busuanga to do some wreck diving (WW2 ships). Landing was amazing, we passed some small and very green tropical islands which were ringed with coral reefs and the most beautiful blue water that rose up gently to pearly white sand. We landed on a dirt runway, very exciting, picked up our luggage and exited to wide open spaces and one truck as the only transport. We met a English couple going to the same place so we piled in and off along a dirt road, this is a very pretty island with some dense forest area but most of the land was grassy rolling hills, ranch country.
After a bumpy ride we made it to Coron where we walked between the houses to reach the hotel. We stayed at Sea dive resort which is located on the water overlooking the water, rolling hills and islands surrounding us. It was beautiful and the first night we got the most fantastic sunset, the sky turned red with the rolling hills in the back with a bit of fog hanging in between the hills with the red reflecting in the water with shadows being cast from the long piers with small houses on them.
The next day we head for some diving and sad to say this is where the nightmare begins!! After a long boatride we made it out the WW2 wreck the Tangat where we had an interesting dive and later went on to the Olympia Maru which was also a good dive and we headed back to the hotel (this was when we noticed that people were being served beer right after long and deep dives, which is not very good for you as it can cause decompression sickness). We were off again the next day and here things started going wrong, first the crew had a big birthday party and were all pretty hung over, they brought very little food and what they brought was really bad (not even edible), they then forgot to bring water so we had to borrow from the other boat (they did however remember the beer). We got to our first dive site, the Akitsushima and were to dive with a dive guide who seem a bit unsure of himself. Before we jumped in the water we found out that one of the divers was a open water diver (only allowed to go to 18 meters max) and the wreck started at about 20 meters and she was at the same time asking to penetrate the wreck. We complained to the head dive instructor that we were not happy with this. We were told that she would could not penetrate the wreck so we jumped in the water and started the dive. When we got to the wreck the dive guide started going the wrong way to the underside of the ship, we got him going the right way but he started going deep and to our amazement the open water diver followed as we headed off following one of the masts away from the wreck. At around 30 meters we stopped while the other kept going until the dive guide finally turned around (by then he had taken an open water diver to 36 meter). We continued our dive when we noticed that the dive guide entered the wreck with the open water diver!! On our ascent to the surface we passed two groups of divers sharing air (they had run out of air), as we arrived at the shot tanks (one or two tanks of air hanging from the boat at 5 meter in case someone runs out of air) we found not one, but four divers using the tanks, bad, very bad.
We were pissed off and had some harsh words with the dive leader and we got to dive with a different dive instructor, and not in the same group as the open water diver. Off we went to the next dive site, we got ready and were about to jump in when we noticed the current was running very, very fast and no one had checked, by this time two divers had jumped in and were hanging on to a rope so that they would not be swept away (one of the people in the water was Jorunn), things were in a panic to get the divers out of the water but after what seemed like ages we got both divers on board and moved on to a new dive site, the Olymic Maru. Did I mention the food was terrible so we were a bit hungry !!! After the dive we headed for the hotel with a lot of the divers having beers as soon as they got out of the water and drinking up to 3 or 4 on the way back. Halfway back the motor stops and lucky for us the other boat was there to tow us back, but the trip took several hours.
Back at the hotel we headed for the restaurant for food. The hotel is out on the water right across the water from where the freighters arrive and there are two things that made staying here a nightmare, the first is a karaoke bar that stays open to the early hours with the music on full blast even when there is no one there (sound carries really good over water). Second on the same pier is also a slaughter house for pigs, yes that's right for hours on end we heard the pigs squealing loudly before they were killed. To say the least this was horrible and sadly we could not leave as there were very few flights and they were full because it was Easter, and the ferry didn't leave for another 4 days.
In the meantime we were not feeling great, but at least we found a good French restaurant to eat at (they even had chocolate mousse) so we varied between the hotel and the restaurant. The qualitity of the food was amazing, especially considering that this was a remote island, with no ATMs. Sadly disaster happens again, we were back in the water and had another wreck dive at Kogyo Maru where we dived a conservative dive and felt OK, but Jorunn was still very exhausted. A trip to the doctor was not the best, he told her she had an irregular heartbeat, and should check this in Manila. That evening an English women started feeling very bad and had to see a doctor who later put her in a decompression chamber as she had signs of decompression sickness and had to spend several hours in the chamber. Jorunn was also feeling so bad and exhausted that the doctor gave her oxygen. Luckily she didn't have any other signs of decompression sickness. Looking back at this experience now, we probably did too much diving over a longer period, and we never dive this much on our trips now! Also Jorunn probably had anxiety because of all the stress, and also anxiety of getting decompression sickness, with the claustrophobia of spending hours in a small chamber.
We still had to wait a few days for the ferry so we took a day out on a snorkelling and beach tour, it is a very pretty area with lot's of clear blue water and volcanic islands with hidden inland lakes and great snorkelling, a really nice relaxing time after all the drama. I did one more dive which was a bit strange, you had to carry your gear up the steep side of a hill and then down a very tricky and difficult area to reach a inland lake called Barracuda lake (it once had a barracuda but it's gone now). Here we found young kids playing in a crystal clear lake. We got our gear on, bathing suit only, and dived into the clear water, after a while we noticed the water getting warm and the visibility had gone down, soon the temperature was up to 37 Celsius and getting hotter as we were diving into an area with a volcanic vent at the bottom. After a bit we started back to cooler water and the difficult trip to the boat and later the hotel. Luckily the ferry left the next day and we could finally leave.
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