A birthday like no other
We got up early today, at 7:30am, because it was a special day. It was Gina’s birthday, and we’d planned to do something cool for it: scuba diving. After having breakfast, we hopped on our bikes and drove to the dive shop, only 10 minutes away or so. The 3 of us tried our suits and gear on, then loaded it onto the truck, and were on our way. Of course, we had a small photo shoot to showcase how good(?) we looked in our dive gear. Gotta have fun when you can!
If you’re in the area and want to try scuba diving, check Apo Divers out here, we had a cool experience.
As always with Siquijor, when you go off the main road, you’re usually in for a bumpy ride, especially on scooters. Nevertheless, when we arrived we donned our equipment and performed a shore dive (walking into the water). I didn’t expect much, but boy was I surprised. In fact, in terms of the coral reef’s colour and diversity, it was probably the best I’d seen so far. The marine life itself was pretty awesome too. After reaching 32 metres deep, we headed back up and went to the next site.
A kerfuffle
It was only a short drive away…or so we thought. We’d parked at the edge of a cliff and had to walk through an old man’s garden. Then, with all our heavy gear on, we had to basically abseil down a very steep path using a line of tyres and rope to help us. What a kerfuffle it was. Anyway, when we finally reached the bottom, we got ourselves in and had a great time. Again, the scenery was remarkable down there; such beautiful corals and sea life. I really was surprised. We had a lot of fun messing around, and dived for over an hour; that’s rare!
Check out another of our scuba diving adventures here!
After we’d finished we had to wrangle with the ascent up the rubber tyres and steep dirt hill that we’d come down before. This time, though, we were wet through and even heavier. We drove too Lazi and had a buffet lunch, before continuing to our final dive. Thankfully there was no mountain climbing required as we were right by the sea. The dive master did slip over on the rocks though, so not without its dangers. For this dive, we had to swim for 20 minutes along the coast to reach a huge stone pier. This was itself an entirely different ecosystem, full of creatures clinging to the concrete pillars supporting the pier. There were some truly strange looking creatures; what a great world we live in.
One thing we’ll never forget is that after showing us the little, fragile, delicate creatures, our dive master would swim off and whip up a current, sending the poor critters sailing through the water. It still makes us laugh now. When we got back to shore we drove back to the dive shop, filled in our logbooks, got our GoPro footage, and thanked them for the dive. It had been a really wicked day, and I’m sure a birthday she’ll not forget soon.
A feast fit for a king
On the way back to the hostel, we picked up some eggplant omelettes, our new favourite food. It really was an interesting and nutritious combination. These omelettes were to go with huge amount of fish we’d acquired from the local fishermen. Whatever they catch in the morning, they’ll offer it to anyone who wants to buy it. We decided to buy a whopper. 6kgs of fish, cooked to perfection by the hostel staff, especially for Gina’s birthday. It did not disappoint.
In fact, I’d be confident in saying it’s the tastiest fish I’ve ever tasted. I couldn’t believe how amazing it tasted. Elliot and Charlotte had sorted the birthday cake, and so it was brought out after the main meal with a few candles. What a feast we’d had. Hell, it was a birthday I wouldn’t forget either! After the meal was over and done with, everyone sort of floated off to do their own thing for the night because it was getting late. What a great day it had been!
