Scuba Diving!

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No pictures, again. Sorry folks. I promise as soon as I can find a place that will make a CD for me, I will put up pictures. Just updating since the last entry. I am now PADI underwater certified- yay!! It was so exciting to get the certification- well, okay, the quizzes and test and studying was a little stressful since I haven't had to use my brain in that capacity in a while. But other than that, it was fun to just play in the ocean and learn how to use all the equipment.

On Sunday, we went out for our first real dive and saw some really cool things. We saw sea turtles!!!!!! It was AMAZING! I couldn't believe they were just swimming around. There was one that was less than 4 feet away from us just sitting on the reef, until it realized how close we were. Then it swam away to the surface to get a sip of air and went back down. After this dive, we did our 200meter swim without our wetsuits and both Noam and I got all these jellyfish stings! It wasn't such a pleasant way to end the day, but I guess it comes with swimming in the ocean.

This morning we did a famous dive for the area that we were in, Panagsama Beach, Moalboal, Cebu. The dive spot is called Pescador Island and although the water got a bit choppy towards the end, the reef wall was incredible! To be swimming with all these tropical fish was so cool! I've never seen such vivid and bright purples and yellows and oranges. Then our guide pointed out some fish that completely blended in with the wall. I couldn't believe he could see them. The visibility wasn't that great because the water was so choppy.

So that's what I've been doing since the last week, much better than the whorehouse and feeling sick :p Tomorrow I leave for Bohol, a neighboring island to the east of Cebu for some day treks to the Chocolate Hills (how could I pass up a place named after one of my favorite food groups?) and hopefully do a bit more diving. Unfortunately the weather here has been a bit on and off cloudy and hot. Fortunately though, all the rain and typhoon stuff hasn't hit where I've been so far. I can't believe how many people are dead and missing in Luzon from the last typhoon (over 1000). It's really scary to think that I'm in the same country, yet at the same time, I really haven't felt the effects of it yet, and hope not to! I'll keep my fingers crossed!

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