Lavety #3: Swimming

The short-notice, unprepared out of nowhere trip,
Caused me in the lack of preparing to rove Philippines' true essence.

Yes, its nautical side.

Panagsama in Moalboal

I knew I was about to visit Cebu. And I knew that Cebu has lots of beautiful beaches and coastal sceneries. But what I didn't know was, that the genuine experience of Filipino seas, were actually lying 3 hours away off Cebu. Yes, they call it Oslob, Badian, and Moalboal.

Those three places, well I used this word so much along my trip, exposed it in every social media assets I have. Okay let's start over. Those three places, were sick! Sick in a positive way, that I ran out of any other proper words I ended up using word "sick".

I had the best waterfalls. Tumalog in Oslob, Kawasan in Badian. I knew I could actually find the same charming falls in Indonesia but well, I never seen or heard any of those local falls before so I'm sorry my nation, I got to see overseas falls first.

And here I gotta tell you. After visiting those falls, turquoise had officially became my favorite color. Wanna know why? Here's why.

Left is Tumalog, right is Kawasan

Sick eh? But not as sick as me snorkeling for three hours straight. In Moalboal. Shit man, I got to be honest here. Deep blue sea, is actually what scares the hell out of me the most. Like imagining swimming on the surface of a bottomless sea, with no life jackets, and fins, it's just depending on your goggles, lungs and your ability to swim, I EVEN GOT GOOSEBUMPS TYPING THESE RIGHT NOW.

But somehow I did it. For the sake of observing cute little beautiful fishes, and corals. And got to the deeper ocean just to do scavenger hunt of sea turtles. And got to the deepest one ever, the sea where I couldn't even see the bottom, only deep blue color gradation that I saw, just to enjoy a mob of sardines run. That was fvcking amazing. And foolish because I didn't get any underwater camera.

Boat on the way to Pescador Island

Sick. But no. Because the sickest one, happened in Oslob. Where I finally fulfilled my long lost dream. To swim with the whale sharks.

I been using this pic everywhere, but out of 5 pics I had with the sharks, this was the best

Not in the tank, not in an aquarium. It was seriously on the sea. Their origin. Their true habitat. I'm not really sure if they're actually tamed or not but THEY LIVE IN THEIR ORIGINAL ECOSYSTEM! Those people who claimed themselves as tamers were actually locals, not a real trainers with certificates or stuff. But then yea, I nailed it. Or should I say, I smacked it three times. Yes, the shark. It was unintentional for sure, who would've got the guts to even touch the beast anyway?!?!

And those local tamers, man, they laughed as I panicked. And I panicked almost all the time. Which means that they laughed all the time. Because the sharks were freakin' everywhere! They laughed as they kept speaking Filipino which I didn't know, but I'm pretty sure they were encouraging me to get closer to the sharks. Well in such time, I didn't have the chance to defend that I wasn't Filipino. My mouth was too busy cursing as I swam away from the sharks.

Sharks from above, and within the water

Damn man, can I say it again?
Yea it was sick. All of them. S. I. C. K.

I can't stop smiling when I recall those mistaken times.
Levity forced me to visit the open ocean, sunk me deep,
Made locals spoke Filipino to me