Eat, Sleep, Dive

Okay, okay, so first of all, I must admit I have been procrastinating slightly in writing our next blog post. Thank you to everyone for patiently waiting! Sorry to keep the suspense on what we have been up to as of late.
Last week, before arriving in El Nido, which is where we are now, Andrew and I spent 4 days in Puerto Galera, with the sole purpose being to get out PADI open water dive certificate. We talked to a few people with dive shop recommendations, and after a little searching we walked into South Sea Divers, the "cozy" dive shop. We were greeted by Sky, the American owner and 30 yr resident of the Philippines. He had that "super chill" thing goin on, but we could tell he takes his diving seriously. We booked in to start our course immediately. With 5 videos, 4 quizzes, and 1 final exam ahead of us, not including the actual diving, we knew the next few days would be busy. Who would have thought we would be doing homework during our travels?! We spent 3 hours the first morning in the pool, learning all the skills, and getting a feel for the equipment. Those first few breaths underwater in the pool were quite exhilarating, and even more so once we got into the ocean. Andrew and I were laughing later that day about how it took us both a few quick inhale-exhales to just calm down and relax underwater. Its both strange and absolutely wonderful to not have to come up for air. After 3 hours in the pool, we emerged blue-lipped(and having to pee!!) for a well deserved lunch. We filled our bellies with beef curry and rice, then made our way back to South Sea for some, uh, VERY exciting videos. I may be being slightly sarcastic ;)
Our second day we did our first ocean dive. It's a pretty shallow dive, and we spent most of the time practicing the skills we learnt in the pool. At the end of the first dive though, we did get to swim around and just enjoy the underwater scenery. Dive ended, which meant lunchtime, more videos, some quizzes, and then dive number two! More skills, but this time a bit of a deeper dive, with even more fish and plant-life to see. I don't know all the names of the fish we seen, but to name a few, Angel fish, Clown fish (Nemo!), some Moray Eels, a few little water snakes(one super poisonous snake!)some big Groupers, and tons more colorful and funky looking fish. It's an amazing feeling to be surrounded by the ocean wildlife. I think I recall Andrew saying "I seen some coral down there that looked like a deer shed!!". Always a hunter :) It's safe to say we were both smiling ear to ear behind that regulator, just elated to be finally diving. We did 2 more dives the next day, wrote our final and received our PADI certificates! We had one more day in Puerto Galera, and one free fun dive to enjoy!
18 meters underwater is an unreal place to be, so we are pretty excited to continue our diving in Thailand with our Advanced open water dive course. We really want to get a night dive in as well, and there is even an underwater photography course that I think would be fun! Needless to say, I don't think we'll be getting bored with Scuba anytime soon! Ps thanks to everyone who encouraged us to take the course. Money very well spent.

That brings us to El Nido. A mystifying little place surrounded by looming limestone cliffs and filled with island-hopping backpackers. It's been a fine place to be this last week, and with 3 more days to go, the adventure continues. Boat tours, snorkeling, camping on the beach over-night, and riding motorbikes to an absolutely empty and beautiful beach, to name a few. But more on that later. It's 4am here, and I really should try to get back to sleep!

Oh, and a shout-out to my Dad on his birthday! Love you Dad. Andy, Danni, and I will be singing Happy Birthday at the top of our lungs during breakfast!

Cheers Everyone!

One more thing! I have tried putting pictures directly on the blog, but the IPad seems to enjoy being difficult. I continue to add them to my Facebook page though, so if you don't have Facebook, maybe bug someone who does to show you! Get a better idea of the who/what/where. Thanks!