travel + photography
We’ve told you: Moalboal is one of our absolute favorites in the country.
We had one reason for visiting the town: to see the sardine run. At the end of two dives—one at Pescador Island and one at the reefs just off Panagsama Beach—we were left awestruck. It was, by far, one of the best dives we’ve ever had. It’s right up there with seeing such trophy creatures as the thresher shark in Malapascua, and lots and lots of sea turtles in Apo Island.
No, Moalboal was not part of any plan.
We would be spending three weeks in Cebu, yes, so we knew we would be visiting the town eventually. We just did not plan on doing it that soon.
We were inside a bus approaching Cebu City, having just come from a week-long stay in ATM-less thresher-shark-filled Malapascua Island. We only had P20 left in our pockets, which could carry us only as far as the nearest mall to replenish our funds. It was nearing dark, we had already been traveling for more than five hours, and we had psyched ourselves to collapse into sleep as soon as we arrived—which, until that moment, was supposed to be less than an hour away.
Apparently, that did not happen.
Somewhere along Mandaue before the bus could even reach the terminal, we decided that, yes, we would be going to Moalboal that same day. This meant another three hours on the road. But what the heck! We wanted to see the sardine run!
We had a lot of reservations before finally taking the plunge—literally—to Monad Shoal in Malapascua, northern Cebu to see its thresher sharks.
We’ve been here in Apo Island since yesterday, and there has been no shortage of amazing sights since. But this one—taken this afternoon during our second dive at Rock’s Point—has got to be THE BEST of them all.
Our dive master Jed spotted this enormous sea turtle sitting on soft coral at a depth of about 10 meters, keeping the three of us busy for the next five minutes. We’ve done two dives today and saw a total of six turtles in all, plus three more yesterday when we were snorkeling. Forgive us for gushing too much but Apo Island is just SO AMAZING!
Btw this is a screenshot from a video taken with the equally amazing GoPro Hero 3. Loving this powerhouse so far! So glad we got it just in time for our year’s first dive. :)
Here’s a rough cut of our two dives at Chapel’s Point & West Rock Point:
Today we went back to school. Our classroom was about 20 feet deep, our tools heavy and bulky and very complicated. Screw this, pull that, inflate this, release that. Right now, our muscles are aching from all the finning and kneeling we had to do. Our minds are reeling from all the jargon and the exercises we had to master. But we are thrilled more than anything.
