Returning to Suhoton Cove

My first time to Bucas Grande was back in '04 with Millie and Scuba. Four years later, I find that not much has changed... which is a good thing. The boat ride is still epic (6 hours of travel time total), the scenery is still insanely amazing and the water is still crystal clear. The one thing I would change -- that boat ride! Hahaha.

To truly maximize the trip, leave when the sun is just about to broach the horizon. The three hour trip to Bucas Grande gives you a tour of Guyam, Naked Island, Dako and the La Janossa area. Bring enough water, food and other supplies (beer? snacks?) for the day because there is no store at Bucas.

At Bucas Grande, there is a short orientation about the island and its environs. After that, you take a smaller boat into the first cove. So yes, be prepared to spend an additional P200 per head for the tour of the island. The boat you paid for to take you there is exactly that -- just a boat that takes you there.

There a few caves and a lot of great scenery but the true highlight of Suhoton is the Jellyfish Lagoon. Hundreds of stingless jellyfish (two species as far as I know) swim unmolested by predators in this 50 meter deep saltwater cove. The jellyfish actually still have stingers but, due to lack of competition and fear, have devolved their stingers to a point where humans no longer feel the toxins that usually cause great discomfort.

At first it does feel a tad strange to swimming towards jellyfish instead of away from them. But you get used to it in time. And the experience is truly unforgettable.

If you get there early enough, you can take your time swimming and snorkeling. Just make sure you start making your way back to Siargao before 4pm since it will take another 3 hours to get back. And you don't want to be in the open ocean when the sun goes to bed.

My personal favorite itinerary goes like this:
-leave for Suhoton at sunrise
-get there by mid-morning
-hang out until lunch/ leave at noon
-on the way back make stops at Dako for surfing (if there's swell) and Naked Island for photo ops
-head back to Siargao island just in time for dusk
-wash up and then have a full dinner washed down by a cold beer

Some photos:

San Francisco Hits

I hadn't been in SFo since I was a child and I was excited to see the city again. I remember loving the vibe there - and also being enamored with the idea of hippie runaways ditching the draft and finding "freedom" in the streets of Haight and Ashbury. What can I say? I was young(er) and easily swept up by romanticized ideals.

And now, over a decade since my last visit, I realize that I continue to love San Francisco. Not for those same reasons necessarily (I know now that the era of free love was also the era of free herpes and shared hypodermic needles) but for the same, hmmm, distilled essence of what the city stands for. The vibe is more organic, less pretentious.

Highlights:
- The view from the Golden Gate bridge (yes, a stereotype but what can you do? I love it)
- Clam chowder eaten along the Wharf while fending off seagulls
- Watching the buskers
- Ghirardelli square (hello, chocolates!)
- Cool breeze, warm sun. Love.
- Wandering around Chinatown

Some photos:

Happy Birthday Papa

Let's begin with a chat I was just having this afternoon with Millie. Only hours after I spent some quiet time at the Church of the Gesu. :)

Kagey: well... its my dad's bday today and so i went by the chapel at my old uli to say a small prayer and right after singing happy bday to him, i found myself totally losing it. just crying and crying. so i feel a bit weird today as well.
Millie: aww. sorry kage
Kagey: its okay. its like i just never really got used to the idea that he's really dead. and i wish sometimes that i could know for sure that he's watching us. not in a creepy restless ghost way...
Millie: yeah,sometimes that reassurance would be good.
Kagey: just cos like so many awesome things have happened for me since he passed... and i kind of wish i knew for sure that he knows about those things. like getting on wetsand's homepage. and my promotion at work. or even that i got my cordao in capoeira.
Millie: i think maybe if you believe he's there,then he'll be there.

And that leads us to this... my 2008 sort of birthday gift for Papa. I'd like to think this is what he was telling me today.

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

~ Walt Whitman
Song of Myself (Leaves of Grass)

For those nights at the ULTRA sitting right behind the Purefoods bench, screaming ourselves hoarse (even on school nights). For picnics at midnight in your room with Mama and Ton. For coming to all my figure skating practices and driving me home afterwards. For teaching me "it's not what you know, it's what grade you get." Hahaha. For letting me stay home to watch the Chicago Bulls' Threepeat finals. For giving me my first camera (Mama too). For yelling when you should have (I could be a snot sometimes, I know) and for hugging when I needed it. For impersonating Goofy's voice. For playing practical jokes on my friends. For correcting my grammar and editing all my papers, even my book reports. For introducing me to the wonderful world of the Food Network. For 27 years of being the best dad ever, there will never be enough space for all the things I want to thank you for.

Show and Tell: I Made it to the Main Page

There is a photo I took of Osot Alcala at Cloud 9 that has been living in the Philippine swellwatch portion of Wetsand , an international surfing site. It is one of my favorite photos primarily because Osot looks absolutely relaxed in it. There he is in a perfect standing barrel at one of the most famous right-handers in the country... with zero tension or stress in his body language. For all we know, he could thinking about what to eat at the Boulevard after his session. I love it... one of my favorite chargers completely at ease at his home break.

Anyway, get this. Today I got an email from one of the peeps at Wetsand. He told me they moved my photo to the main page for the month of July!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH! How stoked am I?!!! Lemme tell you, I'm pretty f*cking stoked. :) I am as stoked as Osot is relaxed in that shot. I could do cartwheels right now if my body would only let me. Heehee.

That is all for this session of show and tell. Thank you to Chuck and Paolo!!! And of course to Osot. If he hadn't been out that day, there would be no photo.