Here’s a photo of me diving for my snorkel in the Coral Gardens in Coron, Palawan. I was on my way back to our boat when I suddenly noticed that my snorkel wasn’t attached to my goggles anymore (I think it fell while I was adjusting my goggles which kept fogging up). So I turned back, and after paddling for a couple of meters, I finally found it at the bottom of the water. I had to take off my lifejacket though since I couldn’t reach down while wearing it.

Just so you know, the water wasn’t that deep, and there were even around a couple of times when my feet accidentally brushed against the corals, which I was trying very much to avoid as I didn’t want to destroy any of them. It takes many decades for these corals to form, according to our boatman, and while the locals there are trying their best to protect them, there still are a few incidents of dynamite fishing (not to mention the Chinese tourists — yes, the boatman had to specify that they were Chinese — who would pick up some of the corals while they snorkeled).

I never really got the point in dynamite fishing. Let’s say you’ve already earned tens or even hundreds of thousands selling dead fish to the palengkes and black markets. Now what happens after that, apart from the fact that you’d have to find another coral reef to blow up, not to mention you’ve just brought utter ruin to the ecosystem? If you think about it, it is a lot more profitable in the long run to earn money lending snorkels and boats to eager tourists who are willing to spend thousands just to swim with the fish and view life underwater.

I hope I could shout it out to all the fishermen in the Philippines: WAKE UP! MILKING MONEY FROM TOURISTS PAYS MORE THAN DYNAMITE FISHING!

You know that feeling you get when you’re browsing through your pictures after a vacation, and you start thinking “Dammit, I can’t believe I was actually there”? That’s exactly what I’m feeling right now, hours after my family’s departure from Coron.

The place was absolutely breathtaking: dozens of white sand beaches, jagged limestone cliffs towering over clear blue-green lagoons, saltwater hot springs millions of times more relaxing to bathe in than any jacuzzi, coral reef gardens where schools of fish swarm over corals of different shapes and colors… There was nothing more I could ask for, and I thought it was a perfect way to end 2011.

Right now, I’m back in the urban landscape of Manila, back to its noisy streets, its rows of dilapidated shanties, and its thick city smog, and as I sit here in front of my laptop, I’m already starting to miss the salty Coron sea breeze, which will remain nothing more but a memory forever etched in my mind.

(More pictures coming, unless I become too tamad to do so. I hope could even do a full blown day-by-day travel essay if I have the time.)