In January of 2017, I decided it was time to do my PADI.
PADI is the 'Professional association of diving instructors' and pretty much does what it says on the tin. I spent the entire year saving up, before spending my hard earned cash learning to dive in the Philippines. I was very privileged to have the choice to do this and my thought process was long the lines of "If I only ever get this opportunity the once, I want to do it somewhere that will blow my mind!".
The Philippines has always been a country that I wanted to visit and the beautiful beaches, amazing marine wildlife and pristine tranquil waters seemed the best way to beat those January Blues. As it was my first ever time Scuba Diving, we took part in our PADI open water diver course (which I'm happy to say we passed). I couldn't haven't imagined anywhere better to have learnt.
Bohol was a small, stunning island that drew in divers from around the world. We chose a sustainable and eco friendly dive school called 'Sierra Madre Divers'. I couldn't have picked anyone better suited. I learnt so much from the whole team on this trip, especially our instructor Bernard. The entire holiday was perfect! Here's a link to their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sierramadredivers.new/
I chose Sierra Madre divers because they came across as a very well developed, caring organisation. They spent a lot of time within the local community, from hiring local people to organising beach clean ups and running coral restoration programmes. When looking for places to travel/stay I do my best to find locations that don't encourage the degradation or exploitation of their surrounding.
Learning to Dive:
I'll be honest, the first time that I set foot in the pool, I was extremely nervous. There's something not quite right about breathing underwater. But if any of you feel the same way that I did, just stick with it! TRUST ME! Once you get used to it, there's nothing quite like it! All in all across the week of diving we spotted green sea turtles, reef sharks, sea slugs, octopus, a peacock mantis shrimp, sea krait and so much more!
We rounded off the trip with the typical tourist sights... of course Tarsiers and Chocolate Hills! As this was a very much marine based trip, there aren't as many photos as other wildlife destinations, but feel free to head to the photography showcase to see some of the fantastic marine life that we did manage to take photos of using the Go Pro.