Philippines- Apo island & the goodbye fiesta

Between two dives we wandered around the small island. On its highest point, next to the lighthouse, we admired the spectacular view and the other villages- they are so pure, untouched and natural.
On our last night- to thank everybody for their hospitality- we had a mini-fiesta, sat all our filipino friends around a table and had a "last supper"; chicken, pizza (yes, you read right!!) and delicious mango float.
This was the last great laugh of our DMT, followed on the next morning by heavy hearted goodbyes. Apo Island, Apo Team, Apo- you truly are our Filipino home.

Philippines- Aliguay

The divemaster training is very hard. In fact we were kind of forced to go to Aliguay, a small island in northern Mindanao, one of the worst places on earth ( as you can see on the pictures). :-)

Philippines- Apo Island

Apo Island is the one and only destination for us in the Philippines this time. In fact we have started our Divemaster training here beginning of February. It is much fun but also quite demanding; guiding, practicing skills, mapping a dive site, reading the manuals and helping out in the shop is part of our job. 

Apo Island is a small (only 74 ha!!) island in the south of Negros oriental. Living here means having only 3 hours of electricity a day, semi-fresh water, cold showers only and roosters as alarm clocks (starting at 4 am!!)…. and almost no internet which explains the absence of new posts on our blog. Sorry for that!

But these are just random facts- in reality the island is magnificent. We dive several times a day and by now know the different dive sites quite well. The people on the island are amazingly friendly, knowing us by our names (even though we might not know them)…actually we feel totally at home here. Staying at Mario’s place does help to feel comfortable. The staff – Mario, Mila, Theresa, Belma, Li An, Anabel and the divemasters Jeed, MacMac and Archer - has almost become our Filipino familyJ and jamming with the guys in the evening is great fun.

By the way, you may all have dogs and cats as pets, we feel like the turtles are ours because every time we get in/under the water they seem to come and welcome usJ