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Where
Am I Archive
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Crazymalc goes Scuba Diving2nd December 2005 Emma and Linda decided that San Joaquin would be a good spot to do a dive. Toto , one of the very helpful locals and a top guy as well*, rang up a few of his mates and sorted out a place for us to stay and a place for us to dive. We all met up in Iloilo city for some lunch, before taking the two hour Jeepney ride southwest to San Joaquin. On the way we stopped at the historic Miagao Church. Miagao Church was originally built in 1797 and since then:
Who'd want to be a church? Not me, that's for sure. The church was restored to its former glory in 1962. Since then, it has been recognized as one of only four World Heritage Sites in The Philippines. I'm not entirely sure what being a "World Heritage Site" entitles you to, but I suspect it has something to do with cheap bus fares. After another hour or so on the Jeepney, we arrived at the Tobog beach resort in San Joaquin. The Tobog beach resort has seen better days. We were the only ones there, apart from a family that arrived on Sunday The cabin we stayed in was in a sorry state of repair. I decided to sleep on the dining room table since there wasn't much room in the bedroom. Glenn, whose feet you can just see in the photo, slept on a ledge. I'm not sure how he managed not to fall off, but he seemed happy enough. It was still a lot of fun staying there though, despite the basic living conditions. The beach wasn't half bad either... We stayed up late and talked and drank. Ciaran, the volunteer from Ireland, drank a little too much and managed to fall into a hole. The most serious of his injuries was a rather nasty cut to his chin. If Dr. Robin had been with us, I'm sure he would of put some stitches in. The next day we met up with our dive instructor Gert. Gert is originally from Belgium and has been living in The Philippines for about three years. The training was brief ("do breath, don't panic, don't die") but sufficient. We all piled into Gert's jeepney and headed off to our diving spot, which was at the southern tip of Panay. At one point, a local gentleman poked his head into the jeepney, looked amazed and said "Oaaioooauo**, sooo men-ee!" I think the people of Dumangas are getting use to us white volunteers and we don't get stared at quite so much. In these southern areas of Panay though it is a different story. We arrived at a small village where our diving boat was docked. A crowd soon gathered to look at the collection of white folk. Gert said that this usually happens when white people are around. It made me feel like a celebrity all over again. We headed out on Gert's boat to our diving spot. We all had a dive, except for Alison who wasn't too keen. Pictures of all the volunteers diving can be found here. Great writers, like Bob Dylan, can describe situations without having to resort to pictures.
Me?, I'm not so lucky. The internet has ruined me. I can just link to a silly picture, and have the picture describe the situation for me. Now, I obviously couldn't take my digital camera underwater with me so I'm going to have to resort to writing to describe what I saw. Lemme think... It was wet. There were fish. Meh. I'm just not going to be able to it justice. Let's just say that the water was almost crystal clear and there were many beautiful tropical fish swimming in and out of the spectacular coral. After we had finished diving, we headed back to shore where Gert had organised some lunch for us. Another crowd gathered to watch us munch on our food. We were all pretty tired by the time Gert dropped us back at Tobog. On the Sunday, we just hung out on the beach and slept. Gert had told us that there would be a jeepney passing by at about 4 o'clock that would get us back to Iloilo. When it arrived, there was already six people hanging off the back and about five people on the roof. Somehow we managed to pack ourselves in. I rode on the roof with Rowen and Alison. All in all, another fun weekend with the volunteers. The scuba diving itself was 2,700 pesos ($NZ 67.50). Transport and food came in at about 1,000 pesos ($NZ 25.00). * I
have to say that because I know he reads this site. ;)
Questions? Comments? Try contacting
me. (c)
2005 and 2006 Malcolm Trevena.
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