CANYONING AT KAWASAN FALLS AND MOALBOAL

day one hundred and fifteen: january 22, 2015: canyoning at kawasan falls

Our friends, Gerard and Kieu at GQTrippin, visited the Philippines a couple months ago and posted about their canyoning adventure at Kawasan Falls. After seeing their photos, Jonathan was ready to sign up immediately but I still needed a little more convincing.  Jumping off a cliff, multiple times (!) just sounds so scary!

Since we decided not to snorkel with the whale sharks in Oslob, we had a free day in Cebu and decided to go for it. Also, I didn't really have a choice, since Jonathan and Jamie wanted to do it and I couldn't be left out!

We decided to book with Cyan Adventures, since Gerard and Kieu had an awesome experience with them. It was super easy to make a reservation and they were even able to arrange transportation for us from Cebu City to Moalboal, which is about a 3 hour drive one way. 

We met up with the group - 2 guides: John and JoMare, 2 other guests: Mark and Monica, from the Bay Area - at about 10am, got decked out in our gear -- wetsuit, life-vest, booties, and helmet and off we went! At first, it seemed a little silly  to be wearing all this stuff, but I think we were all thankful at the end of the day.

My nerves were already starting to go but after a quick 5 minute walk, it was already time for the first jump. I thought I would have had longer to mentally prepare! A bunch of people were crowded at a ledge and as you peered over, you looked over what seemed like a pretty narrow slot into the canyon below. Eeek!

At every jump, John explained where to exactly put your feet on the rock and where to jump below then he would count, "1, 2, 3, JUMP!". I think he had to count 3 times for me before I actually did it...but the first jump which was about 20 feet was awesome!   

I immediately was super happy to be with Cyan Adventures because we saw other groups that were about 15+ people and all they were given were life-vests and a helmet. We were a small group and seemed to be more equipped for the day ahead of us. And, it didn't seem like the other guides weren't doing much explaining or prep, unlike John, with their guests -- they just brought them to the ledge and then told them to jump.   

Over the course of the day, John and JoMare, carefully led us through the canyon, where we floated down the river, swam, hiked around some boulders, and jumped in the canyon a handful of other times down to Kawasan Falls. The smallest jump was around 10 feet, with optional jumps ranging from 33 ft - 40 ft. All the jumps always had ways to walk down, if you didn't want to jump. Yes, I took advantage of this. :)

As we made our way down the river, the scenery would vary from hanging vines, cave formations, and stalactites -- then there is the amazing color from the river adding to the view!

Jonathan and Jamie did all the higher jumps, one even requiring them to jump from a tree!

Before we knew it, we had reached the beautiful Kawasan Falls where we stopped for a photo then made our way to lunch. 

Overall, we were all really happy with the experience and highly recommend it to anyone visiting the Moalboal area.

Before heading back to Cebu City, we stopped at Panagsama Beach to snorkel with the resident sardines who showed up there about 2 years ago and never left. We rented equipment from Cyan Adventures and swam about 100 feet from the beach and saw thousands, if not millions, of sardines just hanging out. Of course, your natural instinct is to chase after them and they all just swim away in a big bunch together. So beautiful!

Disclaimer: We received a discounted rate with Cyan Adventures. As always, our thoughts and opinions are our own. Thank you Cyan Adventures for an awesome day at Kawasan Falls!

Photos and videos courtesy of Cyan Adventures. 

BOHOL

day one hundred and ten: january 17, 2015: surigao city to bohol

Today we flew from Surigao to Cebu City and quickly found out it was the Sinulog Festival, one of the biggest festivals in the Philippines celebrating the Santo Niño, the infant child Jesus, who many Filipino Catholics believe to be miraculous. Unfortunately, we planned poorly and didn't have anywhere to store our luggage -- so we headed to our next destination, Bohol, via ferry.

day one hundred and eleven: january 18, 2015: bohol

We booked a tour through the hotel to explore Bohol for the day. In eight hours, we visited 6 different highlights. First was the Tarsier Conservation Center. These little guys are the world's smallest primate. Sadly, they're endangered now, due to their habitats being destroyed by humans. Upon our arrival we learned a few things about the tarsiers. For one, tarsiers have extremely large eyes. Each eye is heavier than the brain. They have the largest eyes relative to their body of all mammals. Another crazy thing they can do is rotate their head 180 degrees without moving the rest of their body. Unfortunately, they are also nocturnal and they sleep during the day. That means that humans visiting and watching them during the day is actually disrupting their sleep. Some of the ones we saw were sleeping, but when people were noisy they would slowly open their eyes. It reminded me of my college days trying to stay awake in a lecture. It was kind of disheartening to see actually. There are signs to keep quiet and not to use flash photography. Apparently when tarsiers are exposed to flashes of light while trying to sleep they sometimes commit suicide by banging their head against a tree. They're also known to attempt suicide when put in captivity. Although seeing them "in the wild" was cool, I don't think I would encourage other people to visit as it doesn't seem to be healthy of the tarsiers ("in the wild" is in quotations because this conservation center/area seemed more concerned with keeping tourism alive than actually saving the tarsiers).

Our next stop was the Bohol Butterfly Conservation Center. Included in the admission price is a tour guide. Ours was actually pretty entertaining and funny and we learned a lot thru the displays (some of which had live caterpillars and to-be butterflies and moths in cocoons). Sadly, I don't think we were there in the right season, so there weren't many butterflies in the gardens.

On display were quite a few preserved specimens of butterflies and some that were actually both male and female. Above you can see a male butterfly (not sure on the species) and below you can see one that is both male and female. No that doesn't mean they can reproduce with themselves. Its more like a genetic disorder that rarely occurs.

As I mentioned earlier, we did get to see some live cocoons and there was even one that had just recently broken free from its cocoon.

Next up, the Chocolate Hills. This is an area we were really looking forward to. Unfortunately, I would have to say we were a little bit disappointed. Most of the pictures that you see posted are like those we've posted below. What you don't see are the crowds of people and the fact that the hills aren't actually that interesting to look at. 

Next stop, the bamboo hanging bridge. It's really just that...a bridge made of bamboo supported by metal cables.

The first time we passed the man-made forest, we actually didn't know we had passed it. So we ended up turning around and going back and then realizing that it was  a series of planted trees along a section of the road. 

The last stop of the tour was supposed to be a buffet lunch that costs 400 PHP per person on a boat that travels down the river while you eat. After seeing what it was, we decided to push on and head back toward the hotel and find somewhere better to enjoy lunch. Our guide brought us to the Bohol Bee Farm, which set the stage for many more meals during our time in Bohol. Our first night in Bohol, we stumbled upon the Bohol Bee Farm location on Alona Beach and had some amazing ice cream. We were pleasantly surprised that their actual location is much larger and also has a hotel/resort portion too. After arriving and walking the grounds, we actually wished we had stayed there for a few nights. It was a beautiful spot. And to top it off, the food was organic, fresh and really tasty too.

cabcab with pesto
and green tomatoes

garden salad
with edible flowers

spicy honey pizza

grilled marlin with rice
and fresh lumpia

fish taco in a cassava cone

cassava lasagna

day one hundred and twelve: january 19, 2015: island hopping in bohol

Today we opted for an island hopping tour with the hopes of also seeing dolphins on the way. We headed out super early in the morning, which is supposedly the best time to see the dolphins. Sadly, we weren't lucky enough to see them. After our search for the dolphins ended, we arrived at Balicasag Island. Included in the price of the tour was a small paddle boat transfer to the snorkeling area just off the shore. If you decided to take this tour, make sure you get good snorkeling gear. The masks and snorkels that were provided to us were pretty gnarly and definitely not clean. We decided to only use the masks and ditch the snorkels since there appeared to be some sort of mold possibly growing inside. Eek!

We only got to choose one spot to go to and opted for the area where we could hope to see sea turles, which was much deeper than the area where most of the other groups were going to. We ended up spotting four sea turtles and swimming with them for a bit. That definitely made up for the lack of dolphins on our way out to the island. We also got to see quite a few jellyfish, almost all of who stung us while we were swimming with the turtles. We ended our snorkel in the shallows of the reef where most of the other visitors were standing on the reef as their guides picked up starfish and showed them around. Definitely not good coral reef etiquette. It's always disappointing to see this.

Next on the tour, Isola di Francesco also known as Virgin Island Sandbar. This quiet little stop is actually a privately owned island, known as a place for meditation and reflection. The owner is fairly religious and there are plenty of indicators on the island including signage that states "Enjoy HIS beach" and religious statues scattered on the island. 

Over the next day or so we enjoyed several meals at the Bohol Bee Farm location on Alona Beach and took full advantage of their Scrabble board. Little did we know, my dad is a near expert Scrabble player, always taking advantage of adding S's and other single letters to the ends of existing words while also adding a new word. He sure can score in Scrabble!

day one hundred and thirteen: january 20, 2015: alona beach

Without any activities planned for our last day in Bohol, we encouraged Jamie to do a discovery dive to see if she would enjoy scuba diving. Verdict: she did! So hopefully that means she will be able to get certified back in the states and join us underwater somewhere around the world.

day one hundred and fourteen: january 21, 2015: cebu city

After a casual breakfast, we headed back to Cebu City on the ferry. After checking in at our hotel, we headed out for some lechon, which Cebu is known for, at Zubuchon, made famous by Anthony Bordain. It did not disappoint. Sorry, we didn't take any photos so I guess you'll just have to go try it for yourselves.

RAJA AMPAT - DIVING

Over the period of 11 days, I dove anywhere from 2-4 dives a day. Before the trip, I had been to many places to dive and had honestly been getting a little bit tired of diving, thinking I had seen everything I wanted to see underwater. I was really only in search of diving with the "big" things like sharks (which we did in Fiji), mantas, whale sharks, etc. After reading about the biodiversity that existed in Raja Ampat, I wanted to check it out for myself. The statistics stated that over 1,400 fish species live in the region and more than 500 species of coral. I think it's typical for a one week dive trip, that you would see maybe a handful of really cool things. Well, after the first day of diving in Raja Ampat I had already seen some of the coolest things I'd ever seen and a lot of it had to do with just the immense amount of biodiversity.

Honestly, great photos with the GoPro were hard to come by, but there are some below. Instead, I opted for video to try to capture what I saw underwater. I saw the most "cool" things I've ever seen underwater all on this trip and most of them multiple times on different dives. There was one dive where we were surrounded by a massive school of small fish and watching them move around and between us was absolutely insane. The video just does not do it justice. When I came up from the dive, the first words out of my mouth were, "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen on a dive."

Let's just say...I will be back. And not only that! But Allie decided to try diving and ended up doing not just one, but FOUR dives over the course of the trip. Anyways, here's a video I put together to try to summarize some of the "cool" things I got to see and then some photos below. Enjoy!