Padre Burgos, Southern Leyte

I hope you all had a great Christmas.

Mine was spent diving at the southern tip of the island of Leyte after arriving at Pete's Dive Resort one day prior to Chrismas. I was not a stow-away on the ferry from Cebu City to Hilongos for long since the ferry tickets were collected shortly after departure. I simply paid the fare with all the other passengers who also had paid extra to get past security without a ticket. Jeepneys and vans were waiting when the ferry arrived in Hilongos at 4:30am, so it was just a matter of transferring rides until I got to Padre Burgos about 6:30am.

Pete's Dive Resort is definitely not on the tourist route and is in a pretty remote area. The dive sites of Sogod Bay are still being discovered since there are only 3 dive operators in the area. I rode a mountain bike through Padre Burgos the day I arrived and stopped to chat and drink beer offered by the locals who asked many questions as to where I was from and why I was there, etc. My days were spent diving in the morning and betting on cockfights in the afternoon. The cockfights are to the death, which usually occurs within 5 minutes since the knives placed on the rooster's leg are laced with poison just prior to the fight.

The SCUBA diving was especially good - too many fish and corals to list......except for the whale sharks that we dove with on Christmas Day. Even though the whale sharks only feed on plankton, it's quite alarming to suddenly come face to face with a whale shark that is swimming directly at you with it's mouth wide open!!!

I left the resort today and traveled from the southern to northern Leyte (about 3.5 hours). Tomorrow, I fly from Tacloban to Coron, via Manila. The island of Leyte is beautiful, especially around Sogod Bay. Wish me luck with the deep wreck dives (my ears are plugging up).

I hope you all have a great New Year's!!!

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