Malapascua, Thresher Sharks and an Underwater Proposal

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iris_ice

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Malapascua, Thresher Sharks and an Underwater Proposal
A Special PPD DOR Edition

28 Oct to 01 Nov 2010

Evolution Divers arranged van and boat transfers for us from Cebu to Malapascua. The trip took around 4 hours: 3.5 hours from Cebu City to Maya and 30 minutes from Maya to Malapscua. It was a comfortable van ride and in Maya, porters scampered to help carry our bags to a tiny boat which transferred us to a bigger boat.

PPD to Malapascua
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Matt welcomed us when we reached Malapascua and as he briefed us with the dive shop, Craic House, our accommodations and other details, I finally got reunited with a real mango shake. We stayed in Aabana Cottages while the others stayed in Dano. It was a lovely cottage - spacious, clean and had hot showers. After unpacking a bit, we headed back to the dive shop for our breakfast and first dive.

Aabana Cottage (shot by Caloy)
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First dive was in Monad Shoal where we chanced to see the threshers. No thresher sighting but it helped familiarize us with the site so we'd know how to properly organize ourselves underwater the following day. We did see a frog fish covered in sponges Matt pointed out.

James' photo of the frog fish with Matt's edits
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Some of us went to the Lighthouse for a dusk/night dive to see the Mandarin fishes and other critters and we weren't disappointed. Saw the mandarin fishes, seahorses, shrimps, crabs and the creepy worms that were attracted to James' strobes.

Karl's take on the Mandarin fish
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sponge crab and seahorse
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We met up at 5am the following day and were at the dive site by 5:30am. Caloy's group saw the thresher first as we heard their DM happily tapping his tank to alert the group. We had to wait our turn... maybe it'll swim along our side of the site after all... but it didn't. after some tap codes between the DMs, we switched patches and we finally saw the thresher. yipee!!! :yeahbaby: i think it would've happily hung out with us if it weren't for some divers who were silly enough to go down the edge with their powerful strobes, playing paparazzi and driving the cleaners and sharks away. But anyway... happy thoughts... we saw the thresher shark! yey!!!
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*insert video here*

Second dive was in Gato Island where we saw white tip sharks: one hiding under a crevice and another hanging out on the field of nothingness.

caloy's shot
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karl's shot
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We were supposed to do another Gato dive and just before we hit the water, strong winds and rain finally reached our boat so we had to ride it out, let it pass and when it was okay enough, we moved on to another site called Lapus Lapus.

Same drill the following day but there were more divers this time and we weren't hopeful. there were soooo many bubbles as we descended and if we were threshers, we'd be scared and overwhelmed too. Surprisingly, we heard the tapping of the DM and we could only watch in awe as a thresher went round and round and round a spot in full view for us all to see *blissful sigh*
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James proposed to Maxine on the second dive. He tried to look for a decent patch to kneel on and finding none, he half kneeled mid water and surprised her with the ring he kept in a bubble gum tin can. She instantly teared up, nodded, did the okay sign and when she tried to remove her regulator for a kiss, the mouthpiece fell off. James saved her life and gave her his air and together they ascended happily as a newly engaged couple.

:cupid: Congratulations James and Maxine! :cupid:

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here's ate myra's lovely shot of the beach
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this is our really spacious boat (by jigo):
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here's the men (by ate myra)
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last ppd pic before leaving:
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and yeah. sorry about the time. the drivers made the vans flew
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here's some of coya and ate myra's collection:

monad shoal
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waiting patiently...
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safety stop
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shameless plug
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terrorized frog fish
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nudibranch
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octopus
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stonefish
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here's karl's collection

nudibranch
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zooplankton
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fishermen caught in a storm
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shrimpies
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lionfish
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Plotosus
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blue skies
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another nudibranch
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crabbie
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i dont think iris remembers much of the party :rofl3:
 
the Halloween party's not part of the title
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...but it was fun! matt should hire a resident clown to keep guests from turning into one. haha!

look to the right...
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look to the left...
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pouty lips...
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jolene said coya looked scared after i grabbed their G12 and confusedly kept turning and turning the flip-out lcd.
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bwahahaha!
 

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