Welcome to Cebu

I promised a few updates of my travels, and I’m off to Indonesia this weekend, so I figured I’d better write a couple blog posts this week. First up: CEBU! This always reminds me of the Veggie Tales short “Song of the Cebu”. Now of course cebu in Spanish refers to a kind of cattle. Google defines it in Spanish as “Mamífero rumiante bóvido parecido al buey, con orejas colgantes, papada pronunciada y una o dos gibas sobre los hombros, en las que acumula grasa; vive doméstico en la India y en África, donde se utiliza como bestia de carga y se aprovechan su carne y su leche.” So basically a cow.

  According to this site, the island in the Philippines is called Cebu from the word SEBU which means ‘animal fat’. No idea why though. Anyhow, I had heard that the diving in Cebu is amazing, and since I’d been wanting to learn how to scuba dive (yet another Veggie Tales reference) I joined a random group of folks who quickly became friends. We were greeted at the airport by the usual sign:

Low tide at The Blue Abyss

And then the adventure began with an uneventful 2-hr drive to the dive site. I’d be learning how to dive with my new Singaporean friend, and our instructor was Anqi, a friend-of-a-friend who had helped arrange the whole thing at The Blue Abyss dive shop in Moalboal. Probably my favorite part of learning to dive there was that the skills were part of the dive - no need to practice in a pool, we simply walked out into the more shallow part of the house reef where there was a sandy bottom. Once I realized I could breathe easily under water, diving was simple.

Pygmy seahorse, courtesy of a friend’s camera

We had a series of beautiful days, and beautiful dives. I saw so many incredible things: pipefish of all varieties, pygmy seahorses, flame file shell, giant frogfish, scorpion fish, rock fish, lion fish, leaf fish, razor fishes, sardines, needle fish, porcelain crab, and many many more. What struck me was how beautiful the colors were, with great visibility, even at 18 meter depths. Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera to take pictures with underwater, but now I know to be prepared next time.

Toward the end of the trip, while the rest of the group went to swim with whale sharks in Oslob, I stayed for a few more dives, and saw some of the most incredible things of the whole trip. On the last day we visited a local waterfall, a perfect end to an amazing trip. I’ll definitely be going back, and now as a certified diver, maybe I’ll get an advanced certification so I can visit wrecks. I’m actually seriously considering becoming an instructor, I enjoyed diving that much. So we’ll see what happens. Until next time, Cebu!

Kawasan Waterfalls, Moalboal, Cebu, Philippines