From Cebu we hopped on an OceanJet boat with free wifi for an ocean voyage toward the south to Dumaguete. We loaded up on ginger pills in anticipation of seasickness since neither of us had ever really been on the ocean before. We expected the trip to take about 4 hours from what everyone in Cebu had told us. We watched the sunset on the water as we cruised out to the sea. Neither of us got sick until the sun went down. With the sun went the horizon and there was nothing for us to fix our gaze on as we tossed up and down on the ocean water. To top it all off they played a movie on big screen tv in the boat. The movie was 2012. I watched this movie in horror as the ocean capsized boat after boat, drowning thousands of people in it's wake. Unable to watch the movie, I stared off into the black abyss of the deep, dark ocean. Looking for some sign of land, 4 hours soon became 6 and we eventually got to the dock in Dumaguete which may have been the worst of it. The tide was coming in and while we were on the dock the boat was swaying up and down creating some of the worst seasickness of the trip. Solid ground was home for us as we made our way from the boat to the dock. I felt like dropping to my knees and thanking God for our safe journey. Our bags were tossed to the dock from the back of the boat and I noticed some guy was there hanging around Dayton. I figured he was from out hostel since they offered a free pick-up service. This man showed us to his Tuk-Tuk and we hopped on while he took us to town. (literally and figuratively) He drove us in what seemed like a big circle, stopping at a gas station, he filled his bike then made us front the bill. Then another circle to our hostel,
Harold's Mansion. We had been taken, it was embarrassing. I think we both wanted to hunt down that tuk-tuk driver and punch him in the stomach. I'd be lying if I said for the rest of our stay in Dumaguete I wasn't keeping an eye out for him. We were both exhausted and ready for a deep sleep. We checked in with a very nice receptionist whom we came to call Inez. No, that isn't her real name, but she looks like Inez from Bottle Rocket. And no, she didn't like it that we called her Inez. The next morning we joined an "adventure" guided tour to Casaroro Falls and Twin Lakes by our soon to be good friend, Glenn. We rode in the back of a small truck with a married couple. The man was form Holland and the woman was Filipino. They were very nice people and we enjoyed the time spent with them. The truck drove us through some small towns, one in particular was amazing. The town of Valencia sits on the foothills of the mountains near the southern tip of the Negros. It is a small town, with a few churches (one LDS) , a school, a market and a public pool. After driving through I was filled with the desire to live there one day. We'll see. :) We made our way up a canyon road until we parked the truck to walk the rest of the way. We made our way up a jungle road through amazing palm trees and small bamboo huts where local farmers live. I was impressed with their humble dwellings and simple lives. I wouldn't mind living that way myself.
We eventually reached the trail head to the falls and made our way down many many steps until we got to the bottom of a deep canyon. Following a path though the jungle we rounded a corner and were awestruck by the view of the falls coming
down a wall of green jungle plants. The falls landed in a pool of deep green water which was more than inviting after our hot, humid descent. We took some time to swim around near the falls and even found a decent rock to cliff jump off. It was amazing to feel the current of the water pushing me away from the falls the very moment I landed in the water. We hung out there for a while, enjoying the cool water and surrounding jungle. We made our way back up the stairs to the truck and we were off to our next stop: Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes is on top of two sister volcanoes. The two craters are filled with water forming two beautiful lakes. We hung out at one of the lakes, ate lunch, swam in the cold water and enjoyed the sunshine. I was still feeling pretty tired and being able to relax by the lake was really refreshing. On our way back to the hostel Glenn pulled over and got out of the truck to take a leak, then asked us to follow him up a hill to look over Dumaguete. The view was amazing, we could see surrounding islands off in the distance and the entire city of Dumaguete. My desire grew even more to live in this place.
Mountains, beach, ocean, hiking, mangoes... what more could I ask for? I was quickly falling in love with this place and was happy to remember that we still had a few more days to enjoy it. Once we made our way back to the hostel we had some dinner and called it a night. I fell asleep to dreams of all the adventures that still lay ahead.
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I looked out over the water and wasn't too impressed. It didn't look like much but I thought I would give it a try anyway. I stuck the mask to my face, put on my flippers and made my way out to the water. I was very nervous since I had never snorkeled before. Neither had Dayton so we were on our own. Fighting the waves, I got out far enough to stick my face in the water. I didn't bother using the snorkel because I wasn't quite ready for it. Once my mask broke the surface of the water I was amazed at what I saw. Right below me was a red starfish stuck to a rock. As I looked around a bit I noticed many tropical fish swimming around the most colorful coral I had ever seen. (the only coral I had seen previous to this was on t.v.) I got more daring and began to swim, this time trying to use the snorkel. Once I took a breath under water I got a mouthful of sea water and came up struggling to breathe. Spitting out the water I decided to give up on the snorkel for the time being. I noticed Dayton was catching on a lot faster than I was. Wanting to get the most out of the experience I reverted back to the snorkel and forced myself to become comfortable breathing under water. Once I got out to deeper water it became so much easier. I even learned that when I got a mouthful of water, I could blow it out and keep snorkeling rather than sticking my head above water and gasping for air. I regret not having an underwater camera because the fish and coral were out of this world! Dayton and I got more and more comfortable with the snorkeling and pretty soon we were spending 20-30 minutes at a time swimming around with the fish and exploring the reef. I felt like I had been transported to another world. Minutes seemed like hours and hours seemed like minutes. Floating face down in the water was a whole new experience for me and even required overcoming my fear of water. But soon I forgot all about concentrating on breathing and got lost in the reef, swimming with fish and gliding over colorful abstract statues. Eventually we had to call it a day, knowing our group would soon be leaving we swam back to shore, gathered our things and walked back to the other side of the island. We arrived back to the beach where our boat was and noticed others of our group were still gone. We noticed a restaurant up on the side of one of the hills and climbed the stairs to be greeted by a nice young woman who sat us at a table overlooking the bay in her open-air restaurant. Liberty's restaurant serves a variety of dishes but the greatest part is the view. 
Dayton and I got a veggie curry and basked in the view of the island and water. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal after a long day of snorkeling. We couldn't stop saying words like "amazing" and "incredible" to describe the experience we just had. After finishing our meal the others were ready to go and we made our way via outrigger back to the larger island where we were greeted again by our good friend Glenn. We got back in his truck and headed back to the hostel for another much needed evening of relaxing and sleep. At Apo Island I learned that in order to have great adventures, I had to try new things, to push past my fears and open my mind to new ideas. This lesson would change the course of my journey and allow me to experience things I never thought I would.
