For some reason on the boat ride over to the island, I decided it would be a good time to reenact the "I'm the king of the world" scene from Titanic.

Pete and Daniel are thinking, "why doesn't he put the camera away so we can go ahead and dive."

Daniel had to cling to this rope to keep from getting washed away by the strong current.

This porcupine fish held his ground relying on his camouflage to keep him safe.

This skunk clown fish doesn't really smell that bad underwater.

As usual I stopped to take a few photos of the photogenic clown fish.

This clown fish didn't seem to mind me sharing his anemone, and this turned out to be one of my favorite photos from the trip. Click here to add this photo to your computer desktop wallpaper.

It looks like he's curious about the new visitor hanging out by the anemone.

Then he lost interest... Click here to add this photo to your computer desktop wallpaper.

...and away he goes.

Balicasag is well known for the large resident school of jackfish that patrols the sharp coral wall dropoff.

They seem accustomed to divers and will let you swim quite close to the school without scattering.

They always stay very close together, safety in numbers I guess.

The closer you get to them, the tighter they group into a formation.

They're supposed to be great for sashimi!

This red grouper (known locally as a lapu-lapu) shows that the marine sanctuary at Balicasag is working. If the sanctuary weren't in place this fish would probably not have a chance to reach a catchable size.

Lorenzo was our very capable dive guide for this trip.

The Balicasag reef is thriving with a huge variety of fish species and corals.

This stonefish was pretty tough to spot in the murky depths of the deep water.

It was just perched inside a small nook of the coral wall lying in wait for an unsuspecting victim to swim along.

After going diving, we stopped by Jun's guitar shop to say hi and pick up some instruments. This guitar is a bamboo version of the 12 string guitar that Jun made for me from the pattern I downloaded from the internet (click here for the full story).

Jun's dad made a violin out of jackfruit, so I gave it a try. Unfortunately I had to leave my violin back in Winchester, VA while I'm in the Philippines, but it was nice to play this one.