Good bye Boracay! Hello deep, blue sea!

I finished writing another eBook last week. I won’t reveal just yet what it’s about, as it will only be out around late April or early May, but I do think that it will be useful for many people out there.

The eBook writing explains my lack of blogging over the last month, that and the fact that I was on Boracay, the supposed “tropical paradise” island off of Panay. I barely resisted the urge to whine about it here on my blog quite a few times because in short, like many “tropical paradises” full of resorts, it’s nothing, but an illusion. I am almost embarrassed to say that I spent an entire month there, but I did get my work done and of course I could think of a million worse places to work in.

I’m in a different place now, a small town called San Joaquin. I’ve come here after a few twists of fate led me to get in contact with an American volunteer working in “Coastal Resource Management” in the area. As those of you who have been reading this blog for a while know, I have a bit of an obsession for things fish and fishermen related. I guess it’s because I love eating fish and admire the men who brave the unforgiving seas to make a living catching that fish. I admire them even more now that I have gone out to sea with them.

Over the past couple of days I spent an afternoon and the next morning taking a motorized “bangka” or pump boat out into the open sea, then jumping out with a couple of dudes armed with spear-guns and photographing them do their thing.

For the first time in my life I got sea-sick. Things weren’t too bad during the first trip, but the sea got pretty rough during my second outing and well, I puked, a few times. Not the most pleasant experience, but also not as bad as I’d imagined sea-sickness. I’ll tell more through the photos.

The town of San Joaquin is a pretty awesome place. There are plenty of fishermen and there are a few stories out there. This means that I'll probably stay a while and if the internet keeps working, I'll keep you folks posted.