No Need for Counting Sheep

Piera said that she is going to stop diving because her ears are hurting her so much.  One less person on the boat this morning… so now there is just me and one other couple from Switzerland.

They had the awesome eggplant for breakfast.  It is so delicious.  I also grabbed an extra banana to eat at the surface interval.

Kati has three kids now.  I cannot believe it.  I need to find out if she will be diving anytime.  I remember she was a very good spotter.

I did all four dives again today.  I was the only diver in the afternoon/evening.  They do not have nitrox here so I have to watch my bottom time.

We did some muck diving for the night dive.  There was a party going on in the bay and there was some really loud karaoke going one.  Well, I guess it is Saturday night.  I really had fun shooting “Shawn the Sheep”.

We had a sashimi appetizer that was to die for.  Chocolate ice cream for dessert was amazing!

I fell asleep with my finger on the “next” button on my MacBook Pro looking thru photos.  This is the good kind of exhausted.  I guess I don’t need to count sheep, just look at Shawn the Sheep.

Nudis…

36 - Nembrotha kubaryana

37 - Phyllodesmium briareum

38 - Chromodoris willani

39 - Jorunna sp. 4

Lindy suggests Thordisa sp. 11

40 - Phyllodesmium lizardensis

41 - Hypselodoris whitei

42 - Phyllidia picta

43 - Phyllidia ocellata

44 - Jorunna sp. 8

45 - Goniobranchus coi

46 - Phyllodesmium tuberculatum

47 - Goniobranchus geometricus

48 - Gymnodoris sp. 18

49 - Chromodoris kalawakan

50 - Murphydoris maracabranchia

I called this one "deranged Snoopy".

51 - Aplysia parvula

52 - Thorunna furtiva

53 - Siphopteron tigranum

54 - Tenellia sp.

55 - Caloria indica

56 - Thuridilla albopustulosa

57 - Sagaminopteron sp. 2

Could also be Sagaminopteron nigropunctatum?

58 - Philinopsis sp. 2

59 - Stylocheilus striatus

60 - Chelidonura hirundinina

61 - Costasiella kuroshimae

Shawn the Sheep

62 - Cyerce elegans

63 - Elysia pusilla

64 - Dolabella auricularia

The buttus choppus offus sea hare.

65 - Gymnodoris citrina

And especially UNDER water

Despite dogs barking randomly in the middle of the night, I slept pretty well.  I finally get to go diving today.  A full week after I logged off from work.  Most Americans would have called one week off a vacation.  I just arrived at my destination.

This is one of those countries where the plumbing isn’t great.  So we can’t flush the toilet paper.  It goes in a little bin on the side.

I am powering through my book, The Bee Sting.  At first it was ok.  It was told from the daughter’s point of view and the prose was well written.  Then it went to the brother’s point of view with misspelled text messages, etc.  Now I am in the vapid mother’s point of view and there is no punctuation and it is all over the map.  I get it, that this is supposed to be in her mind and how it works but I am not enjoying it as a reader.  I read some online reviews and people said that this is the longest part.  Ugh.

I started watching Yellowstone.  Finally.

I love to be in on around and especially Under water.  Today is the day.  Yes.

I tried some ginger tea during the surface interval.  It was ok.  I love ginger, but there is something about tea that I don’t love.

I came up feeling a little nauseous from the second dive.  I am drinking a lot of water and plan on having a banana for lunch.  I tried a bit of a hamburger, but I mostly just ate the greens and the bun.

I was the only diver for the afternoon and the night dive.  At dinner, I sat with an Italian woman, Piera who is traveling alone and was on my first two dives.  She skipped the second two because her ears were hurting her.  We had delicious mussles that were pretty messy and some good pasta.  Dessert was a fruit cup which I was glad to have.

I was sooo tired by the time I crawled into bed.

It was a pretty spectacular day for nudis.  I am so glad to be diving.

1 - Thecacera picta

2 - Dermatobranchus funiculus

3 - Hypselodoris reidi

4 - Doto ussi

5 - Plakobranchus ocellatus

6 - Halgerda batangas

7 - Goniodoridella savignyi

8 - Doriprismatica balut

9 - Thuridilla gracilis

10 - Chromodoris colemani

11 - Sagaminopteron psychedelicum

12 - Miamira sinuata

13 - Chromodoris annae

14 - Okenia brunneomaculata

15 - Goniobranchus reticulatus

16 - Mariaglaja inornata

17 - Melibe digita

18 - Sagaminopteron nigropunctatum

This may be Sagaminopteron sp. 2 instead.

19 - Nembrotha sp. 5

20 - Goniobranchus kuniei

21 - Aegires villosus

22 - Sagaminopteron bilealbum

23 - Miamira miamirana

24 - Cyerce nigra

25 - Glossodoris acosti

26 - Elysia marginata

27 - Chelidonura amoena

28 - Chromodoris michaeli

29 - Aegires sp. 7

30 - Gymnodoris sp. 29

31 - Favorinus mirabilis

32 - Cyerce cf. bourbonica

Kati reminded me that they don't have the true bourbonica here.

33 - Phyllodesmium koehleri

34 - Nembrotha lineolata

35 - Marionia sp. 13

Taxi – Airplane – Van – Boat – Trike

I woke up around 2am and just decided to roll with it.  I mean I basically slept all afternoon/evening.  My flight is at 6:30am so I need to leave the hotel by around 4am anyway.

Gah… I guess I didn’t need to leave that early.  While I was checking in, they told me that there was a three hour delay on the flight.  I am not that worried about it.  If they had said it was canceled, then I would worry.  They didn’t charge me for the extra bag… I had already paid for extra and I don’t think I maxed it out.  

I did have to ditch my diet coke on the way in.  Oh well.  In Indonesia they let you fly domestically with liquids but not in the Philippines.  I finished my first book of the trip, Game On: Tempting Twenty-Eight by Janet Evanovich and started my next one: The Bee Sting by Paul Murray.  

I finally figured out where the departure board was and bought myself a coffee to drink while I waited and read some more.  It is surprisingly chilly in the departure lounge so I am glad I kept my fleece.

We took off just before 11am.  Nobody gave me a hard time about my carryon roller bag.  In fact one of the airline guys helped me bring it up and down the stairs.  I forgot after landing in Romblon how far I still had to go!  

A van picked me up at the airport.  Then we drove a little less than an hour and I got dropped off at this little pebble beach of nothing and was put on a putt putt boat with two crew who took me across the bay for 45 minutes or so.  It was just me on the boat… and my four bags.  It was beautiful weather and I just sat back and took it all in.  I felt so special that it was just me.

Then, I got off the little boat at some random steps and got on something they call a trike.  It’s basically a tuk tuk.  Where there is a motor bike with a seat and spots for luggage.

OMG, by the time I arrived it was 3pm and I still hadn’t eaten anything but a piece of fried chicken.  I decided there was no way I was diving that day and just ate some lunch and got all my gear and camera ready.  The meal was huge with cucumber salad, curry and tuna on rice and some lumpia (fried egg rolls).   

So let’s review my travel day: Taxi – Airplane – Van – Boat – Trike 

Gah!  So crazy.  I really am in the middle of nowhere.

I went back to look at my dive logs and blog from the last time I was here.  I was only here one other time in March of 2018.  My divemaster was named Tops and I did five days and 19 dives.  This time I’m staying about 8 days and could do over 30 dives.

I slept in the afternoon, there was no way I was going to dive.  I woke up in time for dinner.  There is one couple here, another older woman diving alone – maybe German?  And a huge group of Japanese divers.  

Dinner was beautiful and mostly tasted good.  There was some “steak” served which was so tough it was inedible.  But they also served chicken and that was delicious.

No Kitty Ditty

 It’s all a blur really.  And I lose a day in this process.

I didn’t have a Hello Kitty plane.  Boo Hoo.  But I did get to see the outside of one at the Taipei airport.

The first flight was 15 hours and I kept falling asleep.  I tried to push through a really awful novel I am reading.  I don’t often give up on books, but I made the command decision to not finish this one and move on.  It was: This Impossible Brightness by Jessica Bryant Klagmann.  It was about people in the “undead” state.  Borderline zombie apocalypse kind of book.  Ick.

I started reading a bubblegum book, the next in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series.  They always make me happy.  I love her sidekick, Lula.  The second flight from Taipei to Manila was really short.  Like two hours.  It took forever to get my luggage but it was pretty easy to get a cab and I was glad to have pesos.

Once I checked in to the Holiday Inn Express, I ventured to the 7-11 for coke light.  Then I tried to order room service, but there was absolutely no answer.  So I ventured back out to get a pizza.  I know I will be eating nothing but rice dishes for the next three weeks, so I wasn’t ready to order that yet.

Otherwise, I just slept and got ready for my next flight.

"Free" Trip to Romblon and Anilao

So, today I finally get to go on the trip I paid for in 2019.  It was canceled for COVID in 2020.  It was rescheduled for May 2023 but I just couldn’t make the trip after my Dad passed away in April.  So basically, this is a free trip for me.

I fly EVA Air through Taipei to Manilla.  I think it will be the Hello Kitty Airplane where everything is branded, even the barf bags.  Crazy.  My flight isn’t until 11:30pm and it takes so long to get there, I don’t dive until Thursday.  

I downloaded a whole bunch of books and I am excited to read on this trip.  Yes I am excited to dive, but I’m not pushing things… I am going to try to relax a little more this time.