Watchers to Hunters

Part VIII - Bohol series (2.11)

After a light and dreamless sleep, for me anyway, we woke up to a slightly less dark sky still dotted with a billion stars. Such a pretty picture and I couldn't capture it quite nicely with my camera. Kainis. Anyway, we hurriedly changed into our swimsuits, lathered some sunscreen, and dashed off to the meeting area where we're supposed to meet up with kuya Renz - the kind tryke driver yesterday who helped us find a cheaper boat to rent, and the Korean girls, of course. After loading our stuff and fitting ourselves, all four of us, into the three-wheeled taxi, we sped off along the deserted road to Alona beach where our bangka is waiting for us.

Alona beach is a small community with an abundance of inns, hostels, B&Bs to choose from depending on your preference and budget of course. We opted to stay at the Dumaluan resort since we wanted some peace and quiet and a cottage right by the beach. Anyway, the place is already swarming with people and the shore dotted with bangkas waiting to take tourists out to sea and to the smaller islands. We were introduced to our boat captain - I totally forgot his name, an old man of about 50 or 60. A fisherman, I'll just call him Manong A, he knows the sea and the area quite well. I settled the package price with him while the girls kept themselves busy with pictures. I didn't haggle much for I know we already got a good enough bargain at 1600 bucks for the boat. And I know for a fact that tourist season comes once a year and it'll be lean times for the rest of the months for them. So... we headed to our  tiny bangka and boarded it with the help of this lad of 14, who I'm gonna call Totoy (I forgot his name too..I'm bad at this..remembering names), Manong A's first mate. 

The water looks very shallow as the rocks and corals at the bottom can be clearly seen from the boat. We slowly navigated our way through the many scattered boats. I wanna help out and get things moving just so we can get ahead of everybody else..as if I knew how! I know nothing about sailing, boating, etc. But at least I know how to swim. Haha.. Finally we got away from all the congestion and the water was deep enough to start the motor. Off we went!

We've been riding over waves some small, some smaller, for some time already. The sun continued it's slow climb up illuminating the world. We were already partially wet from the spray. We on our side are enjoying the sun's rays and the warming weather. The sky is such a clear powder blue. And cloudless. I uttered a short prayer of thanks for the great weather. Yesterday was raining. The other girls on the other side however, have covered themselves more..with sarongs and towels and wide-brimmed hats in protection from the sun. I find this funny because here I am among three other girls who are all Korean by race. Two are Koreans by heart and the one beside me doesn't know a single Korean word! :D Anyway, we've been navigating the sea for over a period of  20 or so minutes and we haven't caught a single glimpse of what we came out early for. Not even a single sign of frolicking when they were said to love playing at dawn. Though we've been ahead of everyone else at the start of this sorta race, we're lagging behind the bigger boats with the more powerful engines. Boats were lured by other boats just as people are by huge crowds. So after much effort on Manong A's part, we finally caught a glimpse of the suddenly-illusive creatures. I bet they felt like Michael Jackson  hiding and shying away from the paparazzi. As it turned out, we went dolphin-hunting. Not dolphin-watching. But none of them were physically harmed by anyone. :)