January in the Philipppines

Following the caving trip over xmas, we headed down to Sabang for some diving over new years.  Unfortuatly, a cold front combined with a bad tropical storm made for cold and rainy conditions, but was still a fun way to ring in the new year. 

Last dive of 2014

The following weekend we climbed Mt. Maculot for some amazing views of Lake Taal and then ended up down on the shores of the lake after the hike.

The next week kicked of a flurry of activity as Manila prepared for Pope Francis' visit to the Philipppines.  Major traffic diversions, road closures, and police presence were happening close to work as we were about 1km away from where he would be staying.  

Since we had a couple days off for the Pope's visit and MLK Day, I decide to attend to travel to Malapasqua Island and dive with the thresher sharks.  Malapasqua is one of the few places in the world that has regular sightings of these sharks.  Unfortunately, a late typhoon made diving impossible as Malapasqua started receiving some outer bands the day we were supposed to do the dive.   Couldn't even get off the island since the coast guard suspended all boats due to the rough conditions of the seas. 

Ominous sunset as Typhoon Amang approaches

Always good to have 2 Kit-Kat options on a menu

Christmas Camping and Caving

We left Manila early on Xmas morning and made amazing time on the 9 hr dive up to Sagada in the Cordillera region of the Philippines.  The mountain landscapes almost looked more like the Western US than the Philippines.  We camped overnight and then on the 26th embarked on an epic caving trip.  Sagada is known for their caves, but most tourists opt for the well-known routes.  We ended up on a more adventurous, less-traveled route called Crystal Cave.  Battered and bruised after the 5.5hr spelunking trip, we were tired, but it was by far the coolest caving experience I've had to date.

Coffins at the entrance to the cave

We spent the rest of the trip in and around Sagada and Banue doing some hikes to the hanging coffins and rice terraces that the region is famous for.

hanging coffins