dolphins and whales!

so we were rushing down through all the philippines so we could get to pamilican island, where we'd organised some volunteer work. basically we were to be working on the dolphin and whale watching tours, doing some research for them whihc was all very exciting!

so we arrived by boat quite late, as we had to wait on the mainland for the manager, jojo to arrive from meeting some guests, before we could leave. it was really worthwhile- all he said was ok, enjoy the island, you start on thursday...it was quite a scary journey- so rough, and a little boat again, and all i could think about was that we d be on these boats every day... think it made it worse as it was in the dark!

we arrived safe and sound, but a wee bit overwhelmed as we were met with leis of frangipani, a brand new hut to stay in, and then dinner on a red tablecloth with everyone watching! was all a little bit much, and we went to bed a little freaked out,as to what we d got ourselves into...

the next day was much better. we awoke to find we were just living back from the beach, the water was turquoise, and the sand was pure white. we had a swim and walked round the island- its only about 1 1/2k across, and it was stunning. proper desert island, with no tourists staying it seemed. we got lots of hellos and everyone was really friendly.

a few days later, they had a meeting for the whole organisation to introduce us. of course, jojo hadn't told us what to expect and the next thing he s telling us to introduce ourselves and say a few words about what we'd be doing. well, actually we were hoping he would tell us!

pibosa (pamilican island boat operators and spotters association) is made up of the former whale hunters of the island. up until the ban on whale hunting in 1994 here, this was the main source of income on the island, so since then they've changed to running spotting tours. still, i'm not sure some of them don;t miss the good old days.
they made us watch a video of it the other day, and it was so gross but they were loving it- half of them were in the video or at least their family was there....

anyway, it became clear that jojo kind of wanted us there to get some money for staying at the accommodation, and also maybe wanted to start a science project, or at least look like it! we had a really good deal though, cost us 6 pounds a day for both of us, plus we got meals and water and coffee, and some little snacks now and again...and of course we got to go out dolphin spotting! so basically jojo just left it to us, so i kind of made a survey and we looked at all sorts of things, like numbers, location, behaviour, and things like that! and did a poster of the island, and drew maps and things like that. like a school project

when we went on the trips, we had to get up at around 2.30am. now that was a shock to the system....don;t think i've ever got up that early for work in my life!!! then we had to travel over to the mainland, which took about an hour or so, then we waited for between 30min to 1 1/2hrs for the tour to start at 6am! it was hard i can tell you! and then the boat went back over to pamilican island, before starting the spotting for dolphins. so we were away about 5 or 6 hr before anything happened! almost every day we were out we saw dolphins though, so it was all worth it! they have spinner dolphins there, which are so cool. they jump way up in the air and do lots of acrobatic things. often we'd see over a hundred in one area, we'd just be srrounded by them! also saw bottlenose dolphins, and frasiers dolphin there, plus the melon headed whales, which actually look like dolphins too! and one day we saw pilot whales from the beach, which are a bit bigger. sadly no really big whales though- dont think its the season. once we were out on the water and the sun had risen, it was a lovely trip and i felt pretty lucky to be out doing this!

one problem was that when we went out on the boats was quite random- sometimes they'd get us up, and we weren't on the tour. if we were lucky we'd find out then and go back to bed, if not we had an hours boat journey to the mainland, another half an hour wait, then you d find out, and it was 6am and you were stranded till the boats went back about 3pm. occasionally they'd tell us if we were going out the night before, but most of the time they didnt think to let us know and come knocking at the door at 2.30am....can you tell this guy didn't impress me?!!!

so we gradually settled into life on the island... we'd go out on trips in the morning (sometimes!), come back, have a swim or snorkel (gorgeous coral reef there - i saw a turtle a couple of times and a sea snake!), try and shoot some hoops at basketball (generally it took about 30sec before the kids heard the ball and came running to play- they are all amazing and its quite embarrassing when you cant even get it near the ring), then breakfast. generally this was rice (always rice for every meal!) and fish, which was lovely and fresh, and veggies. very healthy!! sometimes, we got corn beef or spam tho, which was a bit gross! anyway, we ate really well, and it probably did us some good!

after that, we'd have a walk round the island, read, play chess (marc made a lovely chess set from some scrap wood!) or make mobiles from coral...very relaxing. well, it was at first. the kids were really shy at first, but one day all of a sudden the barrier was broken and you couldn't get rid of them! they were always there, playing and in and out of your room, demanding attention and generally driving you mad! actually they were lovely, really nice smiley happy children, always playing and never fighting or anything. think i have a low patience threshold though. its all right in small doses, but i cant handle any more. the adults have little enough sense of privacy as it is, so you can imagine the kids. we spent half the time trying to find places to hide for a break!!! which is hard on an island that size!

it was really funny to not have really obvious things like running water for washing in. they had to get the water from a well, and we used a bucket for our shower. it was fine actually, but i really appreciate a real shower now- even if its cold! another thing was that they only had electricity from 6pm till 10pm. the second it was on, all you could hear was the karaoke starting- with songs like 'only you', 'sealed with a kiss', 'delilah' and others which will never sound the same again to me! think karaoke philippines is only 2nd in popularity to basketball!
one day one of the guys who worked there, raymond, came in to put a light switch into the light in our room, and i just realised i was just so chuffed that now we could turn on and off the lights! ....the things we don't appreciate ; )

we got to go over to the mainland a few times on the boat, and what we mainly did was jump on a jeepney to the city and go and get a burger from kfc or a dunkin donuts! so bad, but anything to not have rice!!!! it was always a bit of a rush to try and jump on email, and get some essentials before we had to get back. they always seemed to tell us we needed to be back at 3 or so, and then we'd end up sitting around the port for about 2 or 3 hrs. it would've been fine, if someone had let us know, and it really frustrated me, that noone ever told us anything. then one day, marc was still in the city and i was doing some work for the project in the office and everyone was in some kind of panic to get back to the island and were going on and on to me about where he was! then they ended up leaving without us! which was fine actually,.. we spent the night in the city, and went to pizza hut ; )

we managed to go on a short trip to bohol for a couple of days. the first day we went to see the tarsiers- the smallest monkey in the world...and they are just sooo gorgeous. so tiny and cute, with massive saucer eyes, and a head that can turn almost 360 degrees. i want one (to go with the baby bear!). we stayed in nuts huts, which are lovely, down about a million steps into a valley, and built on stilts by the river. it felt like you were right in the jungle and river was the most beautiful colour of green. so calm and peaceful, with the noises of the jungle at night! the next day we went to the chocolate hills. nice, but not that chocolate-like, sadly! more like rounded hills....!

then it was back to the island, and back to life!!! at the end of the stay we had to give some feedback on the organisation, but it felt like jojo was trying to get us to do his dirty work, and say the boatmen and guide should be doing things differently, whihc we really weren't going to!....so i bored them for a bit with the science (i.e. the work we were actually trying to do!), even though jojo was totally uninterested the whole time. He really is a strange man!

Anyway, so in the end we spent a month there- there were ups and downs as you can see, but on the whole it was quite amazing really, and we had a great time. such an experience, and a really beautiful island....It really was sad to go, but we'll be back there for sure we hope.

Today we got the boat to Dumaguete in Negros so at last i'm offically up to date with my blog...hoooray!!! its a lovely city, seems nice and leafy, with young pe and a big university. mind you, we've been in this internet cafe for the last 2 1/2 hrs so we havent seen that much of it! so with that i will go, speak soon!