What an amazing sleep! I woke up once or twice throughout the night but turned over and fell back asleep immediately. I passed out around 8:00PM so it was no surprise that I was well awake at 4:00AM. I tried to get back to sleep but had zero luck. I was enjoying a hot cup of coffee by 5:15AM.
Around 6:00AM, I started gathering the few things I’d need for my dive trip. I had to be at the dive shop by 7:50AM. I set off around 7:35AM and was one of the last divers to show up. We were making our way to Pamilacan Island, which was a different island from the day before. I was looking at diving on both islands so I got the names confused. I was thankful that I had decided to go snorkeling the day before at Balicasag Island as it gave me the opportunity to see both neighboring islands!
My gear was already in a crate from my refresher dive so all I really needed to do was get on the boat. We took a small boat out to a bigger boat where everything was waiting for us. There were ten divers plus three instructors, three boatmen and the captain of the boat.
Pamilacan Island is about an hour away from Panglao, the small island attached to Bohol. It was a lovely day and you could feel everyone’s excitement. I was grateful to have my diving partner from the refresher course on the boat with me, as we were the only two singles though we got to know the rest of the boat fairly quickly. For the dives, we were divided into groups of three or four with one instructor. I didn’t get to dive with my dive partner because she wasn't an advanced diver but it was fun to come back on the boat after each dive and discuss what we saw.
We did two dives near Pamilacan Island and the third dive was done in front of White Beach. White Beach is much longer than Alona Beach and looked nicer as well. Had my volcano trip worked out, I was booked to stay on White Beach for two nights only. That was going to be my beach time. I didn’t really consider diving in the Philippines prior to arrival.
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| Banded Sea Snake |
The diving was phenomenal! We saw one sea turtle on each of the dives. We saw banded sea snakes on two of our dives and one got way to close for comfort. We saw clams and crabs and squids and eels and lion fish and frogfish, which may have been my first time to see frogfish. We saw them on two different dives.
We arrived back to Alona Beach around 3:30PM. My tummy was grumbling! We didn’t need to unload our gear nor were we responsible for cleaning it! Woot! I had my instructor, Vanessa, help me with my dive logs and sign and stamp them for me. I was then on my way back to my room grinning from ear to ear.
I had dinner at the Seven Seas Restobar. It was my second time to eat there. I had a bacon cheeseburger and two happy hour beers. (610PHP) They forgot to charge me for one beer and I found myself at the counter paying for the extra beer. I am not sure why I felt the need to be so honest. Had it been a regularly priced beer, I may have kept my mouth shut! Ha! The food was delicious, again. Western food done well!
I went back to my room, did a bit of reading but could barely keep my eyes open. My lights were out by 8:00PM. I had a nice long sleep the night prior and I think earplugs were the key. I am not sure why I didn’t think to pull them out a few nights earlier.
It was my last night at the Alona Hidden Dream Resort for now, as I would be returning for one night before making way over to Oslob. The ferry pickup is right in front of the hotel at 5:25AM so I thought I’d best book one more night as close to the pickup point as possible. I was hoping the last night there would bring me another night of solid rest.
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