Before heading out to Balicasag I stopped by the BQ (Bohol Quality) mall in Tagbilaran and happened to catch this booty-shake dance performance in front of a small crowd of very polite spectators.

The pollution is pretty bad in Tagbilaran, so Daniel Simon used a dust mask to keep the airways clean. But as Kristen points out, it does have a porcine resemblance.

Daniel performed a bit of Vaudeville contortionism to entertain everyone before we went to sleep.

Kris and Kristen reenacted the pajama wetsuit photo pose from our scuba class over a year ago with Holger Horn.

After poling the pump boat out a short distance from shore we were on our way to the Balicasag Marine Sanctuary.

On the way to Balicasag.

The deep water off shore is usually an incredible shade of blue.

This crowded boat of fishermen paddled towards Panglao Island.

A quick pause on the outriggers to get the equipment straight, and then we were set to dive into Balicasag's "Black Forest".

A dense seagrass bed covers the first part of the dive before you get to the dropoff of the coral wall.

A gloppy-looking nudibranch slurped along on the blades of grass.

At the edge of the coral wall, this large school of barracudas cruised menacingly, though they seemed more scared of us than we were of them.

As we drifted past, the school of them vanished into the blue.

Of course my favorite photo subjects at Balicasag are its feisty clown fish.

The current was really strong on this dive and it pushed up the iridescent purple underside of this anemone.

I liked this shot of the starfish and soft coral.

Our dive guide pointed out this tiny stone fish, probably still poisonous just like its larger sized relatives.

We stopped for lunch on the great beach at Balicasag.

Definitely good to find some shade from the tropical sun while you eat there though.

The water in the shallows is sometimes so clear it looks almost like the little outrigger bangka boats are levitating in the air.

I used a little detachable strobe flash to light this sea fan from behind and bring out the bright colors.

Just like Apo, Balicasag is loaded with bewildering numbers and variety of tropical fish.

I used the little detachable strobe flash to light this bubble coral dramatically from underneath.

These wormy critters were crawling all over this sponge for some reason.

This mantis shrimp peered out cautiously from behind its coral home.

They're kind of gangly, but good photo subjects.

Here's another gloppy nudibranch slurping its way along the coral wall.

Here's another mantis shrimp that was hiding among the corals.

Red grouper (known locally as a lapu-lapu) like this one can often be found in the caves formed by the overhanging coral wall.

Lots of colorful damselfish flitting about in the moderate depths on Balicasag.

I really like the way this shot of the clown fish speeding by the anemone's mouth turned out; it looks almost like the mouth Jaaba the Hutt's sarlacc pit from Return of the Jedi.

Another classic clown fish photo in front of one of Balicasag's greenish anemones.

Sometimes within the shallower depths of the dives on Balicasag you can get a nice balance between the natural light and the flash from the camera that fills in the colors of the clown fish nicely.

Here's a close-up of the clown fish against the background of the bright red underside of the anemone.

To cap off the great day on Balicasag we had a rare trip to McDonald's for some french fries.