First dive in 7 months!

Having endured here in the Philippines the longest and strictest lockdown in the world, this has been my mood for longer than I thought I could endure:

So when the restrictions on travel between provinces was lifted, my wife and I drove out of Manila to Anilao for a long weekend with a feeling of being able to breathe again, although we did feel sort of uncertain and tentative and cautious, a little like this porcelain crab:

We only got in a couple of dives thanks to unfavorable weather, but just being back in the water at familiar sites felt like visiting some old friends.  

My technique was certainly rusty so none of the pictures I took over the weekend will make it into my top 100, but they will remain among my most favorite for what they represented for us, a lifting of a very long gloomy period.  We're a long way from an exit, but are so grateful to be so fortunate to be able to drive to such a special place until the new normal becomes clear.  Even the heavens seemed to agree with us on Saturday night. 

 I hope things start to get better for all of us sooner rather than later!

Still nice pics, even with the rusty thing

How is it out there?  Was hoping to visit Philly but seems both them and Indo remain closed this year...so I am stuck in the cold Europe, being jelly of all the lucky folks in the tropical places .

Thanks for the kind words!  Conditions are lovely, since resorts are still closed there are hardly any divers or boat traffic.  But the dive masters (and everyone else) have been out of work for 6 months now so there are LOTS more people out fishing day and night. No foreign arrivals are allowed, probably for the rest of this year.  Government is looking to open tourism by the holidays, I would say.   But with the state of the pandemic here that could be quite risky. We are indeed lucky to be able to drive to a private place there.  

On 9/15/2020 at 9:24 PM, troporobo said:

Thanks for the kind words!  Conditions are lovely, since resorts are still closed there are hardly any divers or boat traffic.  But the dive masters (and everyone else) have been out of work for 6 months now so there are LOTS more people out fishing day and night. No foreign arrivals are allowed, probably for the rest of this year.  Government is looking to open tourism by the holidays, I would say.   But with the state of the pandemic here that could be quite risky. We are indeed lucky to be able to drive to a private place there.  

I can imagine...must be amazing to dive in those normally packed spots and having it all to yourself

Same worry about fishing...from one side the whole ecosystem can recover from noisy , oil leaking boats, cigarette buts and all the thrash, from the other,  even most remote islands are nowadays populated (sometimes even heavily), with most of the folks dependant on tourists in one way or another....takes those away, and then you have plenty of people left with little income and means to earn it. And sadly when its ecosystem vs i need to feed myself/family, then the latter usually wins, no matter what cost to the former,......fingers crossed it wont end up worse than normal..and luckily nudis are not that edible.

Have fun down there, and enjoy the diving!