Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Bye bye Paradise...

These were from our last day in El Nido...we went out for an awesome dive with a Romanian guy, Nepalese girl, Greek dude and our Brit dive master. Honestly, I've never seen bluer/greener water in my life and the underwater visibility was incredible. The coral and fish here were incredible (albeit for the "Crown of Thorns" that have recently swept in...). I saw fish and coral I've never even dreamed possible - things that even the most imaginative DreamWorks animator couldn't come up with. Was so proud of Helen...she got to dive without a license (or training for that matter...I would guess this is not legal in other parts of the world) and I got down to 22 meters and did three dives (45 minutes, 52 minutes and 62 minutes, respectively). I sure miss this place one month later...If anyone ever wants to go, know I'll gladly be your guide :)

AND

I've been totally slackin on this blog since I got my new camera. It's so easy to carry around! And I'm not afraid of dropping it/breaking it/getting it stolen when I'm out. Soon though...

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Panos for the $$ shot.
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Just what I'm craving after 65 minutes under water....cough cough cough.
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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

H in the Van

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Puerto Princesa, Philippines

Puerto Princesa is great for two reasons: proximity to the Underground River and fresh-water pearls. After a long day at the river with our new Filipino friends Sheila, Sam, Alan and Joana they took us to a local pearl market where we bought pearl earrings for (I kid you not), $0.75 a piece. Sheila showed us how to tell if they were real or not: bite them or scratch them on a hard surface. They were real.

After the market we went to a local "nice" restaurant and engorged on every Filipino dish available. Some famous Filipino dishes included Chicken Adobo, some fried "pig face" dish (that was actually pretty good), and TONS of fish (Grouper, Marlin, Snapper, etc.). Possibly my favorite dish was a spicy vegetable dish Gising-Gising (literally translates to "Wake Up, Wake Up.") San Miguel beer is from the Philippines (lots of people don't know that) and we drank our hearts out. For $0.50 a bottle how can you not? They even had "San Miguel Negra" which is rare even in the Philippines according to Sam, but it was like heaven in a bottle. Filipino food is super salty and the next morning we were all super swollen. But the grand total of our meal (and we made several comments about how we ordered WAY too much food for seven people) was about $7 a person. Assah!

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Our hotel dining room in P.P.
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Butterflies everywhere...
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Tricycles everywhere...
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Our new friends! From left: Sam, Helen, Joan, Sheila and Joana
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pearls (don't worry I probably bought you some...)

Friday, August 6, 2010

Puerto Princesa Underground River

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Journey to the Underground River

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Just your every day, garden-variety Monitor lizard. "Bite your head off, man."
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Sabang, Philippines

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Hong Kong Phooey

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