Good things are worth waiting for, right? This dive trip was an unprecedented 6 (!) years in the making.
Planning a dive trip and putting down initial deposits 2, even 3, years in advance isn’t unusual. Good boats and itineraries are locked up years in advance. Our fearless leader, Lynn Morton, had a special itinerary in mind in booking this trip, which happens only once a year.
Tubbataha is a remote coral reef in the middle of the Sulu Sea in the Philippines, a World Heritage Site since 1993. Its name means “long reef exposed at low tide”. It is unprotected enough that it can only be dived in season, April-June. Most charters to Tubbataha are for 5 days, departing from and returning to Puerto Princesa, in Palawan, the Philippine’s 5th largest island. It takes about 10 hours by boat to reach the natural park area. Lynn’s plan was to book the last charter of the season on the Atlantis Azores, a repositioning voyage of 10 days, including 5 days in Tubbataha and 5 days cruising and diving the Visayas. This would finish at Atlantis’ sister resort at Dumaguete, a well known muck diving destination.
This plan was put together in 2018 for a cruise in 2021. We all know how the world shut down in 2020 with the outbreak of Covid-19. Our trip was postponed, but because of its special itinerary, it was delayed 3 years, bringing us all the way to 2024!
Tuesday-Thursday, June 18-20, 2024
(San Diego-San Francisco-Manila-Puerto Princesa, Palawan)
Leaving in the evening from the West Coast means arriving early in the morning two days later. Because we routed ourselves on the Philippine Airlines non-stop from San Francisco in order to avoid perpetually traffic-snarled Los Angeles, we had to catch a Southwest flight up to SFO. That meant we had to keep our 2 checked bags to 50 pounds each and could not splash out to the 70 pounds allowed by Philippines. I worried until the bags appeared on the carousel in SFO that we’d be screwed if they didn’t come. For those two reasons, I decided I will route us through LAX for next year’s trip to the Philippines.
Greg had already arrived from Chicago earlier in the day, early enough to head into town after storing his luggage.
When we were finally ensconced in Philippines Air’s business class, it was movie time for me. Lynn and Mike B were in the seats in front of us, Greg on the opposite aisle in the same row as them and Carlton on the other side of the same compartment.
Steve and I really enjoyed listening in the past year to Ernest Cline’s 2011 sci-fi novel Ready Player One , so Spielberg’s 2018 film version was my first selection. It is a creditable version, although lacked the character development and nuance I liked in the book. I scored with a second screening, an funny Indie with a mostly Asian 30-something year old cast called Shortcomings.
Steve and I passed a long layover in the lounge with Greg, waiting for our short fight to Puerto Princesa, where we would overnight 2 nights at the Hue Hotel. Lynn, Mike B and Carlton overnighted in Manila.
A Thai massage in the room was restorative.
Friday, June 21, 2024
(Puerto Princesa, Palawan)
Most of the rest of group arrived, including Kate, Mike K, Laura, Dan, Carlton, Mark, Joyce and Matt. We knew Kate from our last French Polynesia trip and everyone else from other Lynn-organized trips to Fiji and Baja. Leigh and Andrew from the Bay area were the only travelers new to us. They had driven themselves in a rental car, having arrived a few days earlier for some beach time at El Nido.
Another massage passed some of this day. We’d already exhausted the possibilities of the mall next door. Learning we wouldn’t be boarding the boat until later in the afternoon the following day raised the possibility of doing an excursion. I ran after Lynn, heading to the next door shopping center, to get her assent to arrange an excursion for the following day to a World Heritage Site, the Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park. It was voted one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature in 2011. Five of us signed on for the $45 excursion, including Leigh, Andrew, Joyce, Greg and me.
Saturday, June 22, 2024
(Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park, Palawan)
Our guide Jake was waiting for us early, with our departure planned for 7-7:30 am.
Greg transferred his luggage to our room. Steve was staying behind so there was no need for me to orchestrate check-out or luggage storage.
We’d arranged with Lynn for the 5 of us going on the excursion to test for Covid before our departure. (Two of Lynn’s prior charters to Indonesia during the pandemic had been seriously impacted by the silent spread of Covid on board dive boats.) We had an most unexpected and unpleasant surprise-Greg’s test was positive! He was asymptomatic but retesting confirmed the result. He bowed out of the day trip and immediately masked up.
The 4 of us were joined by another group of 4 at the Microtel. The 2 hour road trip to Sabang was on a narrow but surprisingly good road which our driver Dennis clearly knew well.
At the port, throngs of vendors hawked pearls, bracelets, dry bags and other souvenirs. Indulging in fresh mango-banana smoothies helped to pass the time while we waited for our boat number to be called.
Piles of mangos and other tropical fruits (including another favorite, soursop, bottom left) make for great juices and smoothies (Sabang, Palawan, Philippines).
Waiting for our bankga’s number to be called…with plenty of company!
After an open air wait, eventually it was our turn to board a Philippine bangka for the short, noisy (enough to dig out AirPods to blunt the aural assault) boat trip to a beach accessible only by boat.
From the port, it is a short but noisy bangka ride to a white sand beach.
A short sandy trail lead into the jungle.
We had plenty of company and another wait for our boat number at the actual launching site for the Underground River; the entrance is across the water.
A boat of visitors near the entrance to the Underground River, near Sabang, Palawan, Philippines.
Philippine long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis philippensis), near the entrance to the Underground River, Sabang, Palawan, Philippines, is a crab-eating macaque.
Monitor lizard, near Underground River entrance, Sabang, Palawan, Philippines.
Macaques and a pair of monitor lizards provided some entertainment as we waited again to board an outrigger canoe, to be rowed by a boatman into the cave.
One of the monkeys tried to slip a hand into an open top handbag, but was shooed away.
Philippine Long-tailed Macaque (Macaca fascicularis philippensis) is endemic to the Philippines.
Loaded into our boat, at last!
What the well-dressed Underground River explorer is wearing this season: a blue plastic helmet (lest there be bat droppings), a life vest, shorts and easily doffed or water shoes.
We were fitted with a synchronized audioguide with an earpiece for our cruise through the cave. The guide was wearing a headlamp and pointed out the features being described as we approached (vegetable patch, Holy family, T rex).
The in ear audio and prohibition on talking in the Underground River cave keeps the volume down, lest there be interference with the resident bats’ echolocation. Here, our guide points out with a finger shadow the resemblance of this formation to a T Rex dinosaur.
Bats were flitting around frenetically, squeaking and sounding, careening around us. Experience a sample here.
All too soon, we were exiting the Underground River cave, seeing the launching point on the shore.
By the end of this day’s excursion, we (Andrew, Leigh, Joyce and I) were hot, sweaty and sandy, but this limestone karst cave system was well worth the 4 hour round-trip drive, 2 hours of waiting and $45.
The included buffet lunch of Filipino specialties was very tasty, the best meal so far on this trip, better than the hotel’s offerings.
I was so tired at day’s end I was sure I must have Covid as well, but a good night’s sleep on board the Atlantis Azores suggested otherwise. At last, the waiting for this dive trip was over. We were on to Tubbataha, coming up in a future post! Here’s a preview:
Orange anthias dance in the current above healthy corals at remote Tubbataha, in the middle of the Sulu Sea in Philippine waters.
-Marie
Lovely memory! Thank you for that!
So well captured! Even small details that I’d forgotten came back to life through your post. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for sharing your memories! I would add that it was during this interlude that we were introduced to calamansi liquor!
Joyce, you’re so right! We also profited from your and Matt’s pandemic-era scientific explorations of gin and tonic variations!
-Marie