Diving Anilao

Over the next few days we were diving, eating and sleeping. This was a big contrast to the vivid bar and nightlife in Sabang, here there was nothing. The resort had a “bar” where the guests of the resort could go for a drink, but during the week we were not that many people. This place was much more expensive compared to Sabang too, but the price included 3 meals, because there were no other options of eating here.

We were sitting having a few beers at night when I glance outside, where a guy just walked by. I count the number of beers I have had so far, only 3, so the guy was carrying an M16 rifle! I look at Albert and he nodded, yes, they are the guards here. I think by myself that it seems a little overkill, but maybe they know something I don’t, maybe I don’t want to know?

The diving quickly became much more exciting that it had been in Sabang, even though many of the dive sites looked very similar. I wonder if I had gone to Anilao first, I would have gotten more out of diving in Sabang? Probably not when thinking about the dive masters and the handling of the entire setup there.

I had all the equipment that I needed, at least on the paper. I soon discovered that the other guys were not using any strobes for taking pictures, but used a torch to light up the object instead. This meant a lot smaller camera setup compared to my big octopus setup. I simply couldn’t get into smaller cracks and crevasses, the arms of the strobes were hitting stones and corals all over the place, didn’t look professional at all.

To work around this I left one strobe in the room, and too the other one and held it in the left hand with the built-in torch turned on, both to know where the flash would be aimed at, but also to light up to object so that I could get a better focus on the object. This probably didn’t look very sophisticated either, but it enabled me to get much closer to most things and get some pretty decent pictures.

Coming out of the water, the disappointment was quite big when I saw how Albert’s pictures looked like. There was still a lot to learn it seemed. I was only using 1/4th or less for the object where Albert was able to use the entire resolution of the camera.
The equipment might after-all not be the best match for what I am trying to do, as the housing with the current ports doesn’t leave me anymore room in front of the lens to get closer. I will touch the object with the lens if I move any closer and in that case the lighting becomes very difficult. Ideal situation would be some 4-5cm in front of the lens, let’s see if that can be fixed somehow with optics or a different port

In the evening when we had a few beers, the owner of the resort and friend of Albert joined us for a drink, which quickly turned into many drinks. Alex was his name and he was able to share another version of the story regarding the Philippine economy and wealth distribution.

He was part of one of the 8 families in the country who basically owned and controlled the private finances in the country. Owning companies and properties all over the country as well as having people in the right places in the government to make sure things happen to the right people and at the right time. One hand scratches the other.

One of Albert’s friends is a little gun happy, so he keeps talking about the rifles and what else they are carrying , that’s when the guy pulls a gun from his not so manly man-purse, which suddenly seem so much more masculine right away, haha.
I guess in the Philippines, men dressed nicely carrying a man-purse, you can be sure what is in there. He says, everyone carries a gun here, everyone who could be a target of anything. Very assuring, sounds more like the wild west.