You can say that nothing is going right for TDC’s first leg. I come into Sabang when weather’s pretty bad. The water is restless. Cloudy skies. No one goes beyond the house reef to dive. I have sashimi as my late lunch and it is old fish. I feel scared for my tummy. My contact at Action Divers and I meet, and he tell me that tomorrow’s dives are cancelled. We will wait and see on Wednesday. So that’s a maybe for me.
In the meantime, I check into a Sabang inn. It’s a good place. I get a kitchen, shower, TV, bed and free wifi for Php700 a night. But, my unit has no electricity. They call all the guys and the women-managers who I deal with, and nothing. It takes 3 hours to find a solution — which may or may not overload the system.
I suppose I should be feeling bad but I’m never really one who’d stick to the plan. I am having a beer right now as I blog. I am feeling good about where I am.
I am thinking about the electrician who helped fix my power problem. He served as counselor for 4 terms and led the environmental committee. I joked with him that he’s probably the only counselor I get to call kuya. The others — well, at least those in Manila — would probably raise their eyebrows on a blogger/diver. He had a lot to say to me. I want to know more.
I am thinking about the woman I shared a seat with on the bus to the pier. She served the barangays of Isla Verde (Verde Island) as a city health officer. She tells me how kind the people of Verde Island are, and that I should try their tuba and this sugary delicacy. I tune out the delicacy because I’m not really into sweets. I want the tuba!
Well, if I can get to Verde Island this time around….
I have a talk with another Dive Master while on the hunt for an alternative and he says the waters at the Verde Island Passage are pretty wild in the past few days. No one has dared go there.
So, ok. Me, my beer and I have an alternate plan. After all, I am in Puerto Galera and we all know they’ve wanted to be known as the more accessible Boracay. Is that really the best thing for Galera?
My kuya counselor disagrees, and I will hound him tomorrow to tell me his story before he leaves for Abu Dhabi. (Yes, he has given up.) I also have another dive set up, in case Verde really falls through. It’s not the plan but I think it’s a good plan. Verde can wait 🙂
