Anilao Day 1

Thursday and Friday, April 14-15, 2011

Our day started out at about four in the morning. Eric's dad picked us up at about 5:15 to go to the airport. All of our flights went well and were on time and our luggage made it to our final destination too, which was good. I was kind of worried if our luggage would make it as we took three different airlines to get here. It was another 20+ hour trip to get here. We flew from Phoenix to Seattle (approximately 3 hours), had a two hour layover, then flew Seattle to Tokyo (a little over nine hours), had a two hour layover, then flew Tokyo to Manila (about four hours). Once in Manila a driver for the resort picked us up and it was about another two hour drive to Club Ocellaris in Batangas. By the time we got into our room it was about midnight local time.

Our room is very nice. It has two beds and a nice bathroom. The bed frames are made of concrete and have bamboo slats to support the foam mattress. Our room is up on the side of a hill and we have a small front porch with a bench and a table. The view is unbeatable.

We woke up about 6 a.m. and wandered down the hill to check out the rest of the resort and see about breakfast. Breakfast was very good. We had fresh cantaloupe, homemade toast with homemade mango jam, and eggs. They also had garlic rice, which was very tasty, and some type of pork.

We decided not to go out and do the first two morning dives this morning. Instead we decided to hang out and relax a bit and get all our gear ready and go out for the two afternoon dives. As I am typing this I am sitting at a table down by the water smelling the barbecue and other good smells wafting from the kitchen. Lunch should be ready soon.

We have been told by everyone here that the water is very cold for this time of the year, which is unusual. So it sounds like I am going to get to wear two wet suits instead of one. Eric said it will be good practice for if we ever get to Fiji. Also, it will be good practice for diving Catalina Island.