Today we're writing a blog post together again. Basti starts by reporting on his last dive here in the Philippines. Then Steffi takes over the keyboard and reports on our trip to Panglao City.

Basti's Last Dive

This morning the alarm went off again so I wouldn't miss my last dive. At the dive shop, I wanted to drift comfortably along the reef edge and really enjoy the underwater world. My two companions (an older German-Asian couple) weren't there yet, so it was made possible for me. In conversation, it turned out that they had some experience but hadn't been diving for a long time.

So we only took the boat a few minutes until we could see the reef edge from above. We jumped in, and within seconds it became clear that the other two had no idea about buoyancy (floating state). First, they couldn't get down, and then they completely crashed onto the bottom. Luckily, we were still over sand. If we had been on the reef, a lot would have been destroyed. We then made our way to the edge with our guide, where the reef immediately started. This was at about 8-11 meters of water depth.

The water was so clear that from here you could still see the sandy bottom at about 25 meters. I stayed at a maximum of 11 meters depth because I had the new camera with me, and it can only handle a maximum depth of 15 meters.

It didn't take very long before I wanted to hit my two diving partners on their fingers. When you learn to dive, you're always told not to touch or disturb anything. Corals grow extremely slowly. It takes many decades, if not centuries, for such a beautiful and undamaged reef to form as the one we were in. Nevertheless, the two kept holding onto the corals. Aaaaaaaaaahhhh. HANDS OFF!!! I would have liked to scream. Unfortunately, nothing helps underwater. Then I decided not to pay so much attention to the other two and not let them spoil my dive. I preferred to look at the many different types of clownfish that were sitting in their anemones and defending them and their family as soon as I got too close with my camera. In this case, the females always stood protectively in front of the anemone and the rest of the family. Basically following the motto: only over my dead body.

Just before we swam away from the reef edge again, towards shallower waters, I saw a beautiful red lionfish that was hovering upside down in front of some corals and trying to act like a plant. Even I needed a few moments to recognize where the top, bottom, back, and front of the fish were. A really very beautiful animal.

We then continued swimming into the safety area at 3-5 meters. There we made the usual safety stop of 3 minutes. The German fellow diver fell back and once again held onto corals. He was still at about 7 meters depth, i.e., a bit below the safety area. After my computer on my wrist said my safety stop was over, I looked around and saw that the diver was gone. I looked up, and he was already at the surface. Irresponsible!!! The safety stop is there to slowly breathe off the nitrogen absorbed at depth; otherwise, life-threatening embolisms can occur. That's why you should only surface very slowly. He completely disregarded both. As soon as we were on board, I confronted him and asked if he realized that these rules don't exist without reason. He only answered that he couldn't handle such shallow water. He needs at least 15 meters to be able to dive well. Aaaaaaaaaahhh. Such people should have their license revoked. I was glad that the young lady yesterday, with only 5 dives, could dive much better. Maybe we can go diving together in Hamburg.

Steffi on our trip to Panglao

After Basti was back from diving, we decided to go to Panglao City. So we had a tricycle called for us and off we went. This time we chose the local market as our destination, but it was pretty dead there. After just a few minutes, we were through and decided to walk towards the water. On the way there, it started to rain lightly, and we sought refuge in a kind of shopping center. First, we ended up in a swimwear/souvenir shop where we bought one thing or another. Since Basti was getting hungry, we decided to get something to eat at a 7-Eleven supermarket and wait for the light rain to pass. He got a yeast bun filled with meat, and for dessert, there was ice cream for him. Meanwhile, I finally found hair ties and stocked up properly because I had now lost the other 4 that I had brought from home.

After that, we went in search of the beach but first landed at a church. The final ceremony of the school year was just taking place there, and to our astonishment, it was even held bilingually, both in English and in the national language. We watched for a while and then went further towards the beach. We didn't find one, but we landed at the mangrove dock. We felt a bit like we were in Florida and were actually just waiting for the alligators/crocodiles. After all, they should exist here too. Unfortunately, we didn't find any, and since there wasn't much more to see, we decided to continue by tricycle to Alona Beach. Our driver, who brought us here, gave us his phone number so we could call him again. We promised to do so, had the phone in our hands until we realized that neither of us had any credit for phone calls. Unfortunately, the clever SMS didn't go through, and so we had to take another driver. Bad luck!

Arrived in Alona, we went straight to the "Duchess Spa & Salon" because I wanted to try getting a manicure, and the shop looked pretty neat compared to what we had seen so far. So we went in and encountered chaotic Filipinas. Somehow we burst in at the wrong time, and everyone looked pretty off-track and wasn't set up for customers at all. They were more interested in eating and, as always, were singing loudly! I still got in and landed on the tough pink sofa.

First, I signed the sterile work material, and then it was time for the color. I couldn't decide at all, so Basti was allowed to choose... In the end, he decided on a bright blue! Oh yeah, if that was a good idea! The manicure itself was done very well, applying the color also went well, but in the end, you could see that it wasn't so perfect. Since you only saw this on closer inspection, I didn't care at the time. The whole thing didn't even cost €4.50, and my nails finally had a shape again.