Kenny and family arrived from Katiclan via Cebu on the Ocean Jet ferry; if you look closely you can spot Kenny and the youngest Mendez, Theo on the view deck of the ship.

Here's the gang; after some coordinated trip planning between Kenny and I, it was great to finally have the whole family arrive in Dumaguete. From left: Theo, Kenny, Liz, Will, and Nick.

The seas were a little rough as the Ocean Jet pulled in to the Dumaguete pier, and the porters wrested with the gang plank like it was some sort of wild beast.

Nick was first off the boat with the new Harry Potter book in hand--I wanted to hear his review and compare it to the first books.

Nick picked up a swank Rolex while he was traveling.

The first stop in Dumaguete was at my favorite local chicken place, the City Burger; we all stocked up on the best chicken barbeque in town. I also took my brother Preston there when he was here visiting in February.

After lunch we stopped by my Peace Corps assignment at the Silliman University Marine Lab Interpretive Center (museum) to see the coastal environment murals being painted by my friend Jutsze Pamate. We used some of my photos from the nearby reefs as examples for Jutsze to use in his work. Helping Jutsze out with the murals has been my favorite project at the Lab so far.

I took Kenny and Liz on a vip tour of the Marine Lab. One of the stops on the circuit is the whale bone museum that holds the world's second largest collection of Brydes (pronounced broo-dus) whale. Kenny and I are standing by the skull of a whale that was killed on Bohol's Pamilacan Island.

The last stop on the tour is the Philippine crocodile pens, where the Lab houses some representatives of this endangered species. The Marine Lab would like to release these animals into the wild, but have not been able to find a community to accept them yet. Apparently nobody wants some new crocs hanging out in their neighborhood?

Sure, getting killed from above by a coconut is no joking matter, but Kenny and I had to stage this enactment of the worst case scenario of the "Falling Coconut" sign at the Silliman Marine Lab. The Lab actually puts this sign on a great keychain that I carry around myself.

For dessert Nick got the halo-halo, a great Filipino concoction.

The next morning we got an early start and caught a ride with Liberty's van to the Malatapay boat landing.

Wednesday is market day in Malatapay, so the vendor stalls were filled with produce and livestock of all varieties from braying caribou to squealing pigs to these freshly caught jackfish or mamsa from Apo Island.

The Mendez boys.

Our group was pretty big, so we had two sea taxis to ferry us over to Apo, it was almost like the "Amazing Race".

Once we got to Apo we had lunch, and afterwards I went for a quick dive at Apo's Katipanan Point. In the cooler part of the afternoon when the sun was going down, we all took a hike around the island and visited the communities where about 700 people live. In this photo we are at the crest of one of the higher hills on Apo.

We met these friendly policemen from the mainland who periodically patrol Apo to make sure everything is safe and running smoothly.

Sunset on the beach is one of the many highlights of staying out overnight at Apo Island.

Kenny and I climbed Apo's rickety lighthouse tower. I've taken a lot of variations on this photo with most of the visitors who have come to see me here, I just think it's a cool shot.

For dinner we were in Liberty's cozy dining room. Cozy both because of the company, the friendly staff, the nice design of the room, but also because of the tropical heat.

Here's another shot of our dinner at Liberty's.

After dinner we went out on the beach for a little music with my guitar.

There was a full moon over the beach and on a long exposure (about 15 seconds), you can see a few stars flickering in the background behind the palm trees.

The moonlight was bright enough for me to cast a shadow on the sand beside the bangka boat I sat on while I was playing my guitar.

Here's another long exposure, I really like how this one turned out.

The next morning we woke up to a breakfast of mango and banana pancakes in Liberty's dining room.

My friend Mario, the Barangay Captain of Apo, stopped by for a visit and to tell Kenny and his family a little bit about the history of the marine sanctuary on the island.

A squall blew through just as we were getting ready to leave, creating a misty canopy behind the Boluarte rocks that obscured the view of the mainland.

The surf was too rough, and the tide too high for Kenny and Liz to catch the boat at Liberty's beach landing, so we picked them up on the adjacent beach.

Here's a shot of one of Apo's fishermen and the Boluarte rocks.

Kenny and Liz were marooned on the beach of the neighboring Apo Island Resort because of the rough seas.

It was no problem to pick them up because the resort has a sheltered bay that had a more gentle surf.

The crossing was a rough one, and everyone got a few waves over the bow splashed on them.

Here's the arrival back on dry land at Malatapay.

This little fellow was there to greet us.

After a quick clean up at my host house, we were off to the airport in a tricycle cab for Kenny and family to catch their flight back to Manila.