A weekend dive in Anilao

The odds led Radka Pilch to be booked with my group's  "summer-ender" dive, with my boyfriend as her divemaster. Since we did not know each other, her Filipino colleagues were concerned about Radka riding in a car from Manila to Batangas with complete strangers.

"Aren't you afraid?" they asked her.

"Afraid of what? They are licensed divers. They're from my own family," she replied.

Radka is a Polish national sent to Manila to help set up a bank's call center. It would be her last weekend in the Philippines before she flies home a few days from now and she did not want to let this opportunity to be in a tropical country pass without experiencing its underwater wonders.

She told us that she had been to Bohol, Palawan and Boracay, but with one weekend left, flying to these places would be difficult to manage. So her friend suggested she go to Anilao, Batangas, which she immediately searched for on the internet and had someone help her arrange her solo trip.

"I had two options. Manila and shopping or come here and dive. I was invited by the water so I chose this," she said.

Radka lives in the landlocked Polish capital of Warsaw. The beach is far north in the Baltic Sea.  She had to go to Egypt to learn scuba diving, something she said she couldn't do in Poland: "The sea is really very dirty so you don't dive there," she said. "You can swim there, but once you are entering the water and it reaches to your stomach or waist, you can't see your feet anymore."

What they do have are lakes, said Radka, and she showed me a map of Poland on her mobile phone: "Most beautiful things for dives are lakes here in Mazury region. As you can see there are a lot of lakes. It is a little bit different. It has different stuff inside, but you don't have corals there of course."

We reached Anilao Camper Resort in four hours, with one stopover for breakfast. It was sunny and swelteringly hot—it was nearly noon—so we geared up swiftly to prepare for our practice dive in the shores of the resort and Anilao Beach Club.

The abundance of sea urchins at 15 to 20 feet and memories of being stung helped us quickly refresh our bouyancy skills. Then we went to 90 feet and marveled at some coral reefs and sea creatures.

We were starving after the first dive so we had lunch first, which was a good call because the second shore entry to the Steps dive site required a 300-meter surface swim. Fortunately, the sea was relatively calm.

Radka and I were assigned to be dive buddies. All the exhaustion from swimming was drowned by the fun at just 20 to 30 feet. There were tables and benches, and on the tables were emptied liquor bottles! It was like an underwater bar. Little fish were also poking their heads out of the bottles! We had a lot of fun there but the adventure was not yet over.

We went further down to 70 feet to a huge submerged boat. We went under the boat where there was an opening we could swim through. Mountains of hard corals and schools of fish greeted us at the other side of the opening. We were also lucky to see a young sea turtle.

"You are very lucky," Radka remarked after our dives. "I can do [this] only during holidays which is once a year and you can just have this fun on the weekend."

We also learned from her that summer is very short and "tricky" in Poland and that their warmest temperature is 28 degrees celsius.

The next morning, we took a 10-minute boat ride to Dive and Trek. We promised Radka that this dive would be way more exciting and better than the first ones.

The sea did not fail us. First, we went down to 140 feet for experience's sake. The water was so cold at that depth, but it was pleasant and energizing. We then ascended by swimming up the slope toward the area where there were giant clams larger than toilet bowls. The site was teeming with aggressive trigger fish, colorful parrot fish, the popular clown fish, and bottom-dwelling lizard fish. It was indeed a feast.

We saved one of the best sites for our last dive—the Ligpo dive site.  It has the most colorful and delicate-looking soft corals. There was a strong current, but had it not been for it, patches of pink, lilac, white, yellow and green soft corals would not have been gracefully dancing underwater as if enticing us to look closer. There were also giant barrel sponge corals that I think were up to 5 feet in height. We did our safety stop in front of a mountain of soft orange sponge corals. It was relaxing to gaze on it while waiting for the proper time to ascend to the surface.

"It was perfect." This was what Radka had to say about our dives and my swelling pride gave me goosebumps. She added, "The place we went, I saw pictures on the internet. I thought it's something artificial. Once I was able to see, I really enjoyed it. You could really feel at home."

Later, in an e-mail, she wrote this to our divemaster, Jasper Barcelon: "If somebody would ask me how I spent my last weekend I can promise you that this person will see the best smile on my face ever."

Radka says she is most calm and comfortable underwater. It was just unfortunate that we also had encountered pieces of plastic trash underwater: "I wasn't prepared to take it away. It is sad, really sad that the people are doing this.  Even if you probably clean this today, tomorow it will be the same because it comes from other places. People should not do it especially because you can see that fishes are dying."

We are so endowed with pristine waters and rich marine life that make weekends in the Philippines indeed more fun underwater.  However, we should be more conscientious in taking care of our environment because its degradation would definitely spoil the fun in our beloved country. — BM, GMA News