Day 13: Bye Bye Boracay!
Posted by Brandon Lagao | Posted in The Prodigal Lumpia | Posted on 5/15/2009 11:14:00 PM
I like to wait until the last minute to get things done. Some call it procrastination, but I like to think of it as efficiency. There is no room for failure and I get things done in a shorter amount of time. Staying true to who I am, I decided to do this PADI certification course very last minute. Like if I fail, there is no redo and I have just wasted a good bit of money. The course takes 3-4 days typically and I started it with only 3 days left in Boracay. In that time we have to do 4 open water dives(ocean), 5 confined dives(pool), 5 chapters in a book as well as DVD's to watch on each chapter, 4 quizzes, a 200 meter no-stop swim and 10 minute float, and a final exam. And not to mention, it takes typically 4 days to do it with more than one student. But with all that said and done...I passed! I am now an Open Water Diver. It wasn't easy but after a jam packed day today, I took my final exam and got an 88%. We started at 9am and I wasn't done until 8pm. Crazy.
We went on our 3rd dive at about 1pm to a dive site called "Friday's Rock". The viz still wasn't that great, but it was the best so far. We went down to 17 meters/56 feet and went around this big rock covered in coral. Our maximum depth that we are allowed to go at our level is 18 meters so we were just about there. I saw a puffer fish, lion fish, which are dangerous if you touch, a school of Snapper that were huge, a crazy scorpion fish that camouflaged itself to look exactly like the rock, and a Titan Trigger fish. Right before the dive, our instructor told us about the Trigger fish and how they are at the site, but hard to find. He also let us know that they are super aggressive when they just laid eggs, but assured us that it's only mating season. So when we saw them my first reaction was to panic, haha. Those bastards can bite through your wetsuit and supposedly hurt pretty bad, so I didn't spend much time watching them. I just swam away as fast as possible, which isn't the correct thing to do. I can only imagine my reaction after the first time I see a shark. After we were done I got seasick, but did everything in my power to hold in my lunch.
On our second dive of the day and final dive of the course, we went on a Fun Dive to "Santo's Place" since we had finished all our skills previously. This one was the best yet! The viz was 10+ meters and even though the certified divers at my level can't go deeper then 18 meters, our instructor took us to 22 meters/72 feet...and for good reason. Some of the other divers spent a lot of time by this one coral and Phil decided to take us down deeper to see it as well. On the coral we're Pygmy Seahorse, which I later learned is one of the two rarest things you can sea here in Boracay. They were difficult to spot, but luckily I was able to stay neutrally buoyant enough to stay still and wait for them to pop out. All the other divers seemed to have an out of the ordinary dive as well cause they got to swim with Sea Turtles and other not so common sea creatures.
As I was signing my final paperwork it started pouring rain. Since it was my last night here, that was cool by me. I spent the rest of the night hanging out with Julie and some of her friends. It turns out I am a pretty good promo guy for San Miguel, haha. As sad as I am to have to leave Boracay, I am also glad at the same time. It's harder than I thought to travel on your own and I am looking forward to spending time with people who love me, my family.
We went on our 3rd dive at about 1pm to a dive site called "Friday's Rock". The viz still wasn't that great, but it was the best so far. We went down to 17 meters/56 feet and went around this big rock covered in coral. Our maximum depth that we are allowed to go at our level is 18 meters so we were just about there. I saw a puffer fish, lion fish, which are dangerous if you touch, a school of Snapper that were huge, a crazy scorpion fish that camouflaged itself to look exactly like the rock, and a Titan Trigger fish. Right before the dive, our instructor told us about the Trigger fish and how they are at the site, but hard to find. He also let us know that they are super aggressive when they just laid eggs, but assured us that it's only mating season. So when we saw them my first reaction was to panic, haha. Those bastards can bite through your wetsuit and supposedly hurt pretty bad, so I didn't spend much time watching them. I just swam away as fast as possible, which isn't the correct thing to do. I can only imagine my reaction after the first time I see a shark. After we were done I got seasick, but did everything in my power to hold in my lunch.
On our second dive of the day and final dive of the course, we went on a Fun Dive to "Santo's Place" since we had finished all our skills previously. This one was the best yet! The viz was 10+ meters and even though the certified divers at my level can't go deeper then 18 meters, our instructor took us to 22 meters/72 feet...and for good reason. Some of the other divers spent a lot of time by this one coral and Phil decided to take us down deeper to see it as well. On the coral we're Pygmy Seahorse, which I later learned is one of the two rarest things you can sea here in Boracay. They were difficult to spot, but luckily I was able to stay neutrally buoyant enough to stay still and wait for them to pop out. All the other divers seemed to have an out of the ordinary dive as well cause they got to swim with Sea Turtles and other not so common sea creatures.
As I was signing my final paperwork it started pouring rain. Since it was my last night here, that was cool by me. I spent the rest of the night hanging out with Julie and some of her friends. It turns out I am a pretty good promo guy for San Miguel, haha. As sad as I am to have to leave Boracay, I am also glad at the same time. It's harder than I thought to travel on your own and I am looking forward to spending time with people who love me, my family.
diving sounded like so much fun!!! way to be brave and "swim with the fishes". :)