Malapascua…first dives

When a Spanish ship stranded on a coral island north of Cebu on December 25, 1520, the crew couldn't get away for weeks. They didn't expect to leave before Easter and so called the island a bad Easter -> Mala Pascua!

We didn't get stranded, but the crossing on a diving boat was very wet in strong winds and waves. When we arrived we were greeted by the residents with extremely loud music (if you can even call it that, it was just a muffled stomping sound). This went on until 3am. The other guests had been tormented by this for 3 days. Too many hotels and too many diving centers attract too many tourists from all over the world. A “bad Easter” can quickly turn into a “bad day”, every day of the year.

But as a diver you dive!

And lo and behold -> the world looks different again underwater... (definitely quieter).

In the first two dives we saw an unusually large number of seahorses. “Hippocampus Island” so to speak.

And speaking of different: With seahorses, the men have the children!

After mating, mom seahorse lays her eggs in a brood pouch of dad seahorse. There they are fertilized and grow there until they hatch. Hence the “bump” can be clearly seen in the photo above.

By the way, seahorses are fish and are unfortunately endangered because some Chinese collect and dry them in order to then take them as an alleged medicine for erectile dysfunction. What madness!!!

Well, yes, the colors of some of the other animals that came before the lens are incredibly good. By the way, this is what it looks like when I make underwater films.

And three very nice photos from today. The frogfish from my perspective…-

Maybe we'll change our minds... I haven't found whether the Spaniards of 1520 still had a nice Easter. We can still have a nice 5 days of diving. And now that the local festival is over, things feel a lot less stressful here.

PS with the noise yesterday, I tried sleeping with headphones or ear plugs. Did not help. I envy Travis a little bit, he already has enough cotton wool in his head. :-)