I've had my waterproof, shockproof digital camera for almost a year. FINALLY I got some good shots with it! For instance THIS shot! That's what I bought the camera for! These blue starfish were all over the place! Even in the water just beyond the beach at our hotel. This shot was taken just off the shore of the Old Volcano in Camaguin. Near the underwater cemetary. I guess the old volcano erupted a long time ago and the island sunk enough that the people in the cemetary weren't just under ground, they were under water too. Volcanoes have always fascinated me.
So one of the things I wanted to do while on the island was hike up the old volcano. Did it! They have some white statues along the way that depict the last days of Jesus before the crucifixion. 12 of them. They were really good excuses to stop and get a picture, (while taking a quick breather).
It was a really nice hike. And I didn't go alone. I have to introduce the other people in the pictures. First of all I met a really nice gal named Alana while I was partying my face off in Caguyan De Oro and she agreed to accompany me on vacation to Camaguin. I also met a truck driver from Wales named Malcolm and his gal Shella at our hotel called the Golden Sunset. Alana and I had just checked in when Mally and Shella came. They were searching for a good hotel and much like Alana and I, they loved the place as soon as they saw it. In fact Alana and I saw the pool covered by trees with lanterns in them and the stools of the IN-POOL BAR and we high fived! So the four of us were together the whole time on the island. It just made things more fun for everyone.
So this is me walking up the stairs to one of the statues. See Mally and Shella taking a breather? Alana took the shot. Actually some of the best pictures I got from the trip were taken by other people. Shella took a pic. of me when we were snorkelling on White Island, (a really small smiley-face shaped island just a 5-minute bunka boat ride from Camaguin. White sand and NOBODY else there! It was gorgeous as you will see). It's one of the best pics of me I have. I look like an intrepid diver in search of the perfect pearl or something romantic like that. The volcanoes of Camaguin in the background and the crystal clear waters are really awesome! Maybe I'll put that one on here. Later. We haven't left the Old Volcano yet.
I know you're probly all curious about what the gals looked like. What kind of girl would go on vacation with me?! Right? Actually Alana and I went out a few times in Caguyan De Oro and had a bit of a whirlwind romance before we ever got to the island. I know she's pretty young but that's one of the things in the Philippines: age just doesn't seem to matter to anyone. And I felt like a little boy laughing and giggling every time we got together. But I don't wanna kiss and tell. She's the one on the right. Cute eh? Shella and Mally have been dating for almost a year I think. The funny thing was how we first met Mally and Shella. Alana and I had checked into the hotel and were getting out of our "multicab" after an outing, (can't remember where), and in the driveway of the hotel we saw another "multicab" with Shella and Mally in it. The weird thing was that Shella and Alana knew each other. So me and Malcolm said, "Well I guess WE should get to know each other too, eh?" But nicer folks I couldn't have met. A "multicab" is just a truck with an exteded box with seats and a, (very low), roof on it. It can hold about 8 passengers uncomfortably.
Along the trail there were these really old, gnarly, thorny, ugly trees with these unbelievably sweet smelling, beautiful flowers growing from them. Although the pic of me getting the flower belies it, I assured Alana that sometimes there is beauty in the old, ugly and gnarled. I'm not sure these pics are gonna work. While writing this they are side by side but when I publish this post they'll probly be on top of each other. So the pic on the bottom, or right, is the flower I picked held by Alana. It's just too bad you can't smell it!
And this is the view from the top of the Old Volcano. See the cross? That's the underwater cemetary. Close to there is where I took the pic of the blue starfish at the top of this post. I was pretty surprised at how hard it was to take pics underwater. I have a mask that isn't really my size and that doesn't make things any easier. I can't change my facial expression or water gets in the eye part. And I'm always laughing thru my snorkel at clown fish chasing other fish out of their homes or fish swimming into holes when I go by. Things like that. So I get a mask full of water. That just refracts the light and makes it harder to tell what I'm looking at or aiming my cam at. Also, the screen on my cam is hard to see at the best of times. Under water it's almost impossible. So I just aim and hope. Zoom if I am really feeling lucky. But the pics turned out pretty good. Better than I expected. Isn't that nice? More to come.
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