This was one of my favorite bucket list items to check off. For Christmas break we went to El Nido, Philippines and did our scuba certification with Palawan Divers. We were supposed to do online training before we arrived, but that seemed like way too much effort. Of course that meant we had no idea what we were doing on our first day in the water, which isn't the smartest idea that we ever had. The shop had us review the skills we should have already perfected and then we were off on our first day. Instead of using a pool to practice the skills in, we went straight into the open ocean. This was a little overwhelming at first as there are a lot of things that can go wrong if you aren't paying attention.
After thoroughly embarrassing ourselves, we managed to finally get a grasp on the necessary skills that are needed to not suffocate to death. We saw thousands of fish including puffer fish, octopus and sting rays. We were taken to many different locations through out the islands. It was a two day event and we spent 10 hours on the boat and in the water relaxing and enjoying ourselves. Our lunch was fresh fish caught from the ocean and we ate it while lounging on the boat pretending to get a tan through our wet suits.Thankfully we managed to pass the tests without being laughed out of the country. Next trip to the Philippines I plan on doing a shipwreck dive and swimming with the whale sharks. This was an amazing experience and was the highlight of our trip.
