My goal was to always take the time this weekend to write a post about the amazing trip some friends (and now new friends) took two weeks ago to Malapascua, a small island near Cebu, Philippines. Sadly, we now have another typhoon headed our way, so I doubt I’ll do this trip justice. I’m still traumatized from Mawar, but whatevs, back to the latest adventure — and it was just that.

If you’re a diver and have been wondering if the island is worth the flight, the 4 hour bumpy van drive and then the 45 minute boat ride — yes! It most definitely is. We were blown away by the threshers; they swam so close to us, but we were even more blown away by everything else we saw: a tiger shark (on two different dives), clownfish hatching, just about every type of pipefish you could imagine, frogfish, leaf fish, seahorses, mandarin mating, and tons more. Every dive was amazing. I’d go back tomorrow if I could.

But oh those threshers. Before I got hooked on diving, I had no idea how many types of sharks there are. Thresher sharks are a deep water species, which is why they have such big funny eyes. They use those gorgeous long tails to stun their prey. Because they’re deep water animals (going down to 1,800 feet — deepest I’m certified to go is 130 feet), we rarely get to see them as recreational divers, but for some reason they’re almost guaranteed to spot early morning at a sunken island near Malapascua. They come up to the shallows (between 40 and 90 feet) to get cleaned by the wrasses that thrive there. When we booked our trip, we thought we’d see them in the distance — boy were we ever in for a treat. They were every where swimming in between us. Ina, Rod, Kim (two new friends) and I lucked out because our guide took us away from the other divers. We had one so close to us, we could touch it (we didn’t). Ina got amazing footage (not posted here). The sheer joy (mixed in with a little bit of oh shit) of having solo time with this gorgeous being, who was just as intrigued by us as we were it (I saw its goodies, but I can’t tell male/female shark bits) was beyond words.

The dive before that one was where we saw our first tiger shark and a bunch of white tips. LOL even with the tiger shark being in the distance, it definitely cast a larger shadow than its cousins. A few days later, we got to see a tiger again. This time I was behind everyone dilly dallying (the fishies amaze me) on our way back to the boat. I felt something nearby, looked up and about 10 feet away from me was a tiger swimming along. We had eye contact for a few seconds before I quietly tinged my tank (lord knows I didn’t want to startle it). I looked behind me and everyone was swimming toward the boat, while I’m there hovering with this beauty. They truly are pretty sharks (while also quite intimidating). It turned off into the distance and then I banged like crazy so everyone else could see. What a rush that was. Sorry the only tiger pic we have is of the one in the distance, which I’m not posting because you can’t see its stripes, but lol there are plenty of videos of them you can google.

Okay, we’re getting some rain and wind in, which is distracting me, so I’m going to blast you with pics and captions.

There were all sorts of jellyfish, including these cool ones that had rainbow lights. Ina’s camera died, so no pics of them, but Benny captured a box jellyfish (yes, we steered clear of it)

and we saw several electric (also called disco) clams. Rod had the best underwater gesture for them, which I’ll just leave up to your imagination.

We had fun on land as well. There are no cars on the island, and one day after we were finished with our dives, I got talked into a scooter ride with some of the boat crew. Jon and Matt (another new friend) rented bikes, while Ina and I hopped on the back of seasoned drivers (but Jon and Matt did just fine). Um, they decided that the boat captain was the only one who could handle my fat ass on the back.

I’m the one waving a hand behind the man in yellow shirt

The food, people, sun rise and sun sets were all amazing. Our lodging, not so much. Long story short there was an overbooking, so we got to stay in concrete huts that were an adventure, but they were on the beach, so that was a plus.

And, I so enjoyed getting to relive the trip again while quickly typing up to share with all of you. I’ve gotta get back to my storm prep and move my car. There’s a construction site and a shack someone is trying to renovate where there was jungle last typhoon. Both are precariously close to our parking lot and neither have tied down the loose lumber and pipes they have all over the place, plus scaffolding is up still. I’m pretty sure some of that will go flying, so my little Rav will be far away from that nonsense.

If wifi stays with us, I’m sensing my next post will be about Typhoon Sinlaku — let’s hope she fizzles out and doesn’t give me much to write about.

Wishing I was back to doing this trip with this wonderful group of fellow divers, and the dive crew who led us to all the magic.