January 22, 2012
Early call time to head to Malatapay, Zamboanguita to jump on a boat to Apo Island which is part of Dauin, Negros Oriental. We passed by McDonad’s for breakfast and then was at the jump off point in 45 minutes. All six of us: me, Danica, Erika, Abie, Sette and Mai were in one van and the assigned tour guide for us was Ms./Madame Pearl. She’s a former teacher and she’s like a mom to us. She gave us sun block, water and even took care of our belongings (cameras, phone etc) when we were snorkeling.
On our way to the island, it was unexpected and so fortunate for us to see dolphins! We were just talking about it the night before and how Danica really wished to see dolphins in an open sea and that it’ll make her cry if she did. It was too awesome! First there were only 2 of them jumping out of the water then comes a lot of them! We clapped with joy without knowing that doing that is like calling them. We were overjoyed. Too bad I didn’t have a camera at hand because the sea current was too strong and it’ll got us wet so no valuable things should be out in the open.
Apo Island has become my favorite island (so far). It’s really a paradise! There are two baranggays in the island and they live a very simple life. They get their water from the main island or in deep well which is still kinda salty. They also have a small chapel and we saw how they all cooperated. We saw this boy banging this metal to notify the people that the mass is about to start. After the mass, they formed a line outside because someone donated slippers to them. It was a beautiful sight because they were all happy.
The island has a lot of diving spots and snorkeling sites but because of typhoon Sendong, some of the spots were ruined like the clown fish snorkeling site.
Another highlight of our Apo Island tour was swimming with the pawikans! It was tooooo cool for words. They were big and you can see them in their real habitat swimming and eating! We also saw a blue starfish, clown fish, sea cucumber (which is like an eggplant), sea urchins and other marine species that I don’t know of. :P
After our binalot lunch, we head back to the main island and had a side trip to Bacong Church where the oldest pipe organ from Zaragosa, Spain is at and also to NOAH (Negros Oriental Arts & Heritage) for souvenirs. We also had ice cream at Panda Ice Cream Haus where they sell low-fat and low-sugar ice creams.
After washing up in our hotel, we went out and go to Siliman University, which is older than UP. We also hunt a restaurant to eat at for dinner and we found Kamalig where you’ll ask them to cook the food. We had grilled scallops and sisig squid. The price was okay, not too expensive.
What I noticed in Dumaguete City was that there were a lot of foreigners. In every restaurant or bar in Rizal Boulevard, there are foreigners with Pinays. I love the Philippines, but that’s reality.
Trivia: Apo (as in grandchild) Island got it’s name because there’s a grandfather island (Negros) and a father island (Siquijor). Correct me if I’m wrong. :D
