Surfin' Safari

Yikes, where does the time go? Last update was over a week ago if I'm not mistaken. The days are a bit blurry. The rice terraces and CWC seems like ages ago, but at the same time I can't believe I've been gone a month already. I've been busy busy busy, and internet access is hard to come by on islands.
Last you guys head I was about to embark on a dive day. That was an awesome dive. Every time I dive here its better than the last time. That dive was no exception. Actually it was 2 dives. Great day. More eels, more fish, more everything. It was a wall dive, which is down the side of a drop off into deeper ocean, where you can just float alongside a wall of coral watching the fish and keeping one eye open into the deep for big stuff. We caught sight of a giant school of baracuda that seemed to come out of nowhere and come REALLY close REALLY quickly. I'm sure we were not of any interest to them whatsoever, but I couldn't help but picture myself as the Travelocity gnome in the pirhanna tank. Saw some more eels, really amazing trumpet fish, piper fish, and the always adorable clownfish who come to investigate the intruders into their little territory. Some big ol' green sea turtles too. It was so sad to think that it was my last dive in the Philippines, but it was a great way to end.
The next day the group took the first day trip we'd been on in a while. It was an incredibly jam-packed day that had us leaving at 9am and getting home at 7pm. First up was the Chocolate Hills. These things are left over from the time when the Philippines didn't exist and the whole area was covered in ocean. They're huge coral mounds that have since been filled in by soil and taken over by plant life. They were cool to see but sadly we couldn't enjoy them for very long before rainy season reared its ugly head. Thank God that didn't last long because next up was a stop at a zipline! That never gets old. It shot us 1km over a ravine looking waaaaaay down at the river below. We flew strapped in Superman-style, headfirst flying across - I could've flown forever. The only way to get back to the other side? Zipline back! They were building a huge bungee site, but it wasn't done yet. Such a shame because I would've been all over that.
From there we went to visit a Tarsier "sanctuary". The place presented itself as a refuge for the world's smallest primate. The Tarsiers themselves were so so cute, looking like little bush babies clinging to the trees. However, I left the place feeling disgusted that I had given them money to continue the business. You see, Tarsiers are very territorial. In the wild each one will ahve a territory of about a hectare. When placed in captivity in close proximity to one another, they commit suicide within a year or two. They do this by smashing thier heads repeatedly with a rock or against a tree until the cute little monkey is reduced to a dead bloody mess. I asked the guide flat out if the ones we were looking at would succumb to this fate, and he said they would. Great. I'd like by 100 pesos back please. So if anyone every comes to the Philippines, DO NOT support this place.
It was getting pretty late in the day at that point, but we had one more stop to make to a waterfall. Usually our trips to waterfalls are great and refreshing, but on this day by the time we actually got to the place we were so tired we just wanted to head back and swim in the pool at our hotel and avoid the epic hike back up the hill that always accompanies waterfall treks. Adventure prevailed, and down we went to the falls. At that point out Filippino tour guide told us it was "no good", meaning that the white water was too strong and not safe for the planned cliff jumping. Bertus, being the rational professional that he is, decided to jump in anyways. This prompted one of the girls to beg to be allowed to jump, and it seemed he had a hard time saying no to the girl he's been banging all trip, so in she went. The river current grabbed her and sent her flying down the river and for about 5 seconds (longest 5 seconds ever) I really thought Bryn was going to die. Well played, Bertus. thursday mroning Kaitlyn and I got up early to catch some sun before heading back to Ceby in the afternoon. In Cebu I got to put on makeup and go to another real disco and dance my sweaty white ass off into the wee hours of the morning. Such a treat! Wee! The quote of the night was Kaitlyn telling me how surprised she was to see my facebook picutre; when she met me she thought I was such a tombody and the photos of me all blonde and dolled up and wearing pink totally shocked her! Evidently my foul mouth and butch cockroach-killing abilities hid the Barbie within when I don't have my hair straightener and liquid liner.

Friday morning, still drunk yet again, we boarded a plane to Siargao ("shar-gow"). 4 hrs of sleep after that much booze is not a fun time.
Siargao, our last stop, is actually, 100%, my absolute favourite place in the Philippines. Its amazing. I could stay here for 40 days. In fact, next summer I may do just that and be a surf bum for a month. The local surf guys are hilarious and up for anything and all the people are so nice and generous and just all around great. Add that to the fact that the surfing is awesome and the scenery is beautiful and the parties are insane and you've got paradise! On day 1 Amanda, Bryn, and me went for a wander down the beach to expore our new home. We took a turn into town and stopped at a shop to pick up some Tandua for the night (P30 for a mickey). A group of local guys was sitting at a table having some drinks and hsouted out to us to join them. Not wanting to miss the opportunity for excitement we sat down and cracked the Tanduay. It was, after all, 3 pm, and we had sobered up from Cebu. Most of them were surfers, one of whom has won 3 Masters Surf Competitions, which is apparently the most elite level of surfing competition. These guys are legit surfers, not just island-dwelling surf bums. We also met Liam the Aussie, who is here to surf while his wife gets Botox in Manila. His words, not mine. He has since lost his wedding ring at a house party. Good luck explaining that one. He's a random dude, who has remained part of our party crew ever since. Exhausted from our night in Cebu, and 2-drink-sleepy, I had myself a little 3 hr disco nap and was woken up around 9 to go get some dinner. The only place still serving food was Bar 101, so off we went. There was maybe 12 ppl in the place including our group of 6 when we arrived. I had my very first experience with jugs of Jungle Juice (1 mickey of Tanduay, 4 mangoes, ice, in a blender) and the unbelievably delicious jug of Boracay. Boracay is Tanduay, condensed milk, Milo (coco drink), and 3 in 1 instant coffee (coffee, creamer, sugar, in 1 packet). Its AMAZING. I'm making it when I get home. Anyways, that 12 quickly grew to 40 or 50 people, all locals except for us, all dancing, chatting, laughing. Such a sweet night. Once acain, the locals are amazing people. After Bar 101 we went back to our hotel, Cloud 9, to jam with 2 dozen ppl with guitars and a drum box. The jug of choice there was a mix of beer, rum, and powdered pineapple juice mix. I spent the night listening to a mix of English and Visayas songs, the local dialect here. One of the instructors, Mitchberg, treated us to a Visayas freestyle rap. It was sooo sweet.
As far as the actual surfing goes, my first day out on the waves was Saturday. It was AMAZING. I'm in love with surfing. I may find my way out to Tofino to surf in the freezing waves. I got up without too much trouble and rode some good sized waves. nothing compared to the 15 footers on the far side of the break, but nice newbie waves that made me feel awesome and hardcore nonetheless. Yoga has come back to bite me in the ass here. My instructor, Babal, told me not to put too much weight on my feet when I pop up, but to use my hands to power me up instead. This is to prevent me from pressing on the back of my board and losing all the speed I build up paddling to catch the wave. No problem for yoga girl, as I've spent some years now working on jumping on my hands from downward dog through to a seated or standing position. Unfortunately, when translated into surfing, my techniques seems to involve dragging the tops of my feet along the board until its actually time to stand, this results in very large, very painful blisters on the tops of my big toes, right under where my flip flops hit. So it looks like I'm destined to be shoeless for the week and to spend my future surf days in surfing booties that scream "NEWBIE!" even louder than my giant longboard did on day one.
The instructors are wicked. When any new surfer catches a wave, everyone in the water cheers for them and shouts pointers as they go past. And falls are met with immediate cries to paddle back and try again. Its such a great environment to learn in.
having done pretyt much zero physical activity since the rice terraces, and weighing about 10 lbs moer than I did 40 days ago, Sunday morning greeted me with stiff muscles and board burn on my chest. But hey, I'm hardcore surfer chick so I hit the waves again. I was on a shorter board and managed to choose 2 waves on my own, paddle, and ride them without the help of Babal pushing me into a wave! Yay! Such a good feeling! That night we hit up some truly delicious Indian food at an aussie sports bar (this island could not be more random). Some of the surfer dides came looking for us (this island is also very small) to invite us to a birthday party at another bar. They even brought birthday cake in a bag to intice us haha. Already we had learned that one never says no to a random adventure on Siargao, so off we went. These people are so unbelievably generous; we didn't pay for a thing all night. Bottles of vodka and pitchers of Boracay ran circles around that party, with the part of Christine Walton/Brian Olsen/Taylor Lancee being played by Otak the surf instructor. His mission seemed to be to get everyone as drunk as possible as quickly as possible and to make sure everyone had a good time. Fine by me. We hit a disco and went home in the wee hours. What shocked me most was the fact that a mickey of Tanduay at the disco cost the same as a mickey at the random local store in town. No jacking up of prices at all.

Monday was a VERY relaxihng (hungover) day. In the afternoon the surfer guys came and asked us if we wanted to get a pig and roast it. Heck yes we did! Wilbur cost P3000 and fed about 20 ppl. We paid for it, and the guys did all the dirty work. We showed up at Mitchberg's house to find the pig in classic roasting form, head still on and all. That, along with some Lipsiligan (I think that's what it's called - raw fish in vinegar and spices), rice, and a squid stuffed with vegetables, made a truly delicous meal. The skin was the tastiest part, so crispy and tasted like a mix between bacon and roasted chicken skin. More free booze followed the feast, and the boys busted out a 3-prong beer bong for races. THe Canadian girls showed them how its done, and I won my heat :D

I think its perfect that the trip ends in Siargao. If some random local had asked me to hop on his bike and go to a cockfight during my first few days here, I probably would've been too nervous to say yes. Oh God! I didn't mention that before, did I. On Sunday before surfing we went to a real live cockfight, where the roosters fight each other to the death. They have a 3-inch blade strapped ot their foot and fight. The craziest thing was watching the men yell out thier bets. I don't know what the signal was, but all of a sudden everyone started yelling and waving hand signals at 3 guys wearing orange t-shirts. Everyone was going crazy. As I was saying, the best this about this island is the random adventures, and I htink its better to come here once we're all comfortable in the country, so those things can happen.

Tuesday's random adventure involved Ali the surfer dude asking me and Kaitlyn if we wanted to go eat some coconut. So we hopped on his motorbike and he took us to some random coconut tree area and proceded to climb up an enourmous tree to get some coconuts. He and his buddies made this drink that was coconut juice, coconut meat, condensed milk, and cookie chunks. It was tasty as hell and great for the pigroast hangover. These guys are living the dream. They surf high tide in the morning, have all day free to do whatever they want, and teach us white girls how to surf at afternoon high tide, then drink all night. Almost all of them are sponsored by big names like Billabong and Rip Curl, and they get to live in their small island paradise and travel to Japan and Indonesia and all around doing competitions. There seems to be only about 20 tourists here surfing, so its still nice and empty. They told us not to spread the word about Siargao to our friends at home, because then more people would come and ruin it. They're not wrong.
My surfing on Tuesday was brutal. I went solo and flailed around in salt water for an hour before giving up. I think I was too tired and the surf was not that great and it just wasn't an idea day.
Today we were supposed to go on a day trip to Naked Island (basically a huge sandbar where we were planning on having a fish cookin' fire and getting day drunk) but its pissing rain and cold (maybe 25 degrees haha) so we're not going. Also Adam has had a fever and been vomiting for a week so his sister, the one who just got out of the hospital, was going to stay with him. We figure its better to go another day when its sunny and Adam is either safely in a hospital or is in good enough shape to stay by himself for a whole day. Those poor kids are having the worst luck with medical stuff. Knock on wood, but I've stayed prety much illness- and infection-free since getting here. I probably wont have another update until I get to Manila on Monday - on my way home!!! Yikes! I have a brutal flight schedule: 1 hr flight from Cebu to Manila where I have a 4 hr layover, a 2 hr flight from Manila to Taipei where there's another 4 hr layover, then 13 hrs to Vancouver where I actually would have someone to play with for 4 hrs, but I only have an hour there, then home where my Mom has to pick me up at midnight on a school night. Long day for me! See you guys on Canadain soil!