the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

Well yes, if you didn't know yet, corals ARE animals. And what's more, they're CARNIVOROUS, meaning they eat other animals. And they have harpoon thingies that they shoot out at night to reel in their prey. However, this one here is the soft coral Xenia , which probably just filters the water for nutrients instead of actively catching tiny animals (called "zooplankton") with stinging cells (called "nematocysts"), the way the hard corals do. And I just found out now from Google that they're actually popular with aquarium enthusiasts because of their "pulsing". I just thought it was cool how they look like flowers opening and closing :D And I thought you'd find it cool, too, so I took a video of them in action. Taken off Pulaobato, Balabac, Palawan (near Malaysia) last April.

April 2007. On our last dive in Tubbataha for our research expedition (three days of uncharacteristically rough seas and few sharks :(), I got my precious gift: close-up stills of a turtle resting on some corals and, when it still didn't move away after so many shots, a video of it gliding in the strong current and finally descending down the wall of the North Atoll.

Sunsets, in particular, which I can never get enough of. And my usual favorite creatures great and small--kids, pigs, dogs...but no cats or goats or cows this time because I didn't have my camera on hand then =P More glimpses of the beauty of this country that I had the fortune to see last summer. And glimpses they truly are, because the most beautiful things I could not capture on my cam. I will have to try to use words, so you can better capture the spirit with your imagination. Locations: Puerto Princesa, Tubbataha Reefs, Cagayancillo Islands, and Balabac Islands, all in Palawan; Verde Island in Batangas

and finally, the marine creatures we can all relate to: fish! except that some of them come in forms that might not be so comfortable for some to look at. i've arranged these from the cute anemonefish to the bigger groupers, the edible schools, the odd-looking ones (which are still fish, by the way, have no doubt about that), to my first decent photos of a turtle and a shark, both taken in tubbataha at no deeper than 20 feet.

As promised in my preview summer album - the third in the series. April 7 and 16, 2006. At the start and end of our palawan tour, we were in the city proper seeing the sights. From the crocodile breeding center, to the penal colony in iwahig, to the cool restaurants, to the mangrove islands of Honda Bay -- Puerto Princesa is not your typical city.

As promised in my preview summer album - the second in the series. April 12 to 15, 2006. From climbing Ugong Rock and making cave music in Tagabinet, to paddling into the underground river, to sighting hanging snakes in a mangrove forest, to lying in the hammock with a cat and eating scrumptious adobo, to swimming under the full moon, Sabang was my absolutely perfect four-day vacation.

As promised in my preview summer album - the first in the series. April 9 to 11, 2006. From the 9-hour bus ride, to island-hopping on a cloudy day, to climbing the taraw (limestone cliff), to hanging out at Balay Tubai -- El Nido was an adventure few places can beat.

unfortunately, i didn't get to go to any tourist spots because from early morning till night we were at the office, trying to grasp the fundamentals of environmental economics and resource valuation, from thursday till sunday. the only time i was outdoors was when we did fieldwork at snake island in honda bay, and when we did a Willingness-To-Pay (WTP) survey last monday in puerto princesa's coastal barangays. i was EXHAUSTED. to top it off, when i got home yesterday, i couldn't find my house keys so instead of resting, i decided to do some errands until my landlord could drop by and open the door for me. well, at least i got to eat at ima's gulay bar (great vegetarian restaurant. i asked the owner if she wanted me to feature the place because i was so happy with the food), kamarikutan, and the viet ville. snake island was BEAUTIUL. we used the place as a case study because some investors are planning to put up a "world-class resort" on the island. but really,...

UPDATE just got back from a week-long trip to iloilo-roxas- panay-kalibo - boracay - tangalan for work. that's three provinces in eight days. went to the old buswang magrove eco park in kalibo. walked from station 2 to station 1 and back at least four times in boracay, by myself. visited the tangalan marine sanctuary and falls. sang unlimited videoke on my last night, danced in a bar, and drank the most alcohol i've probably had in my whole life (a jar of margarita and 3 shots of tequila in boracay and i don't know how many glasses of gold eagle beer in tangalan--but i STILL didn't get drunk or get a hangover. wonder when that will happen). woke up early every day to sit by the beach and look for good photos, on the last day even catching the sun just as it rose. but just in case you get any glamorous ideas about my life, the rest of the time i was working--even on a sunday =P will be posting photos and articles from the trip when i get the time. picked up at least th...