Cebu, Philippines

The previous post re: HK seems ti have got lost in cyberspace :-( can't be arsed doing it again, it was a classic and I'll never post something that good again:-P
Anyway, I've come to the island of Cebu, in the Philippines. After a few days in the city, I bought a guide book to work out what the hell to do and decided upon Moalboal, on the south east coast. "diving, eating and drinking" as described in the book. That's me!
2 hrs in a taxi and arrived to this.

A completely flat calm waveless ocean, with corals and fish a few yards off the shore.
Have basically come here to dive, and little else. I'm still here, sat here using the hotel wifi to post this. Have done 20 dives here and will get a few more in before I leave in 4 days' time.
It's a wonderful relaxing place, where the diving takes precedent. Early rises, early bedtimes, 2 dives a day. Apart from an ear infection, it's all been good.

Above, one of the local dive boats.

Me and Woodbridge (the little hippo) preparing for a dive.

The local dive sites of which I've now done most, pescador island being the highlight, with a population of half a billion sardines which having recently
flourished after a net fishing ban, are starting to attract predators such as jack, tuna, barracuda and these fellas, the thresher shark.




That's not my pic, still haven't bought an underwater camera, but that was taken at the site I've been diving. The sardines block out the sun sometimes and no picture could ever give you an impression of just how many and how awe inspiring this cloud of fish are. Other highlights have been the frogfish:




And the Pygmy seahorse:




But I could fill thousands of pages talking about the life underwater here; just crazy amounts of corals (hard n soft), sponges, algae, turtles, thousands of species of tropical fish etc etc etc.
Wonderful. I didn't think I'd dive anywhere better than the Maldives; I was wrong.




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