There were 2 girls from yesterday's dive on this dive as well, Leslie and Jenny. I didn't have a chance to speak to them alot yesterday but after today I found out that they both grew up in Vancouer and now live in Hong Kong! It was kinda cool to talk about home again with them and make some new friends.
Our first dive was at Barracuda Lake on Coron Island. Approaching this island was absolutely breathtaking. It's definitely one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. But beauty comes at a price. The lake itself is inside Coron Island, much like a crater. In order to get there you have to climb up then down into the lake through what I lovingly call "Death rocks." Seriously. The locals have tried to make it easier by installing railings but the rocks themselves are still quite steep and don't have any premade footholds. And we had to carry all of our equipment with us to get through this! So I just paid one of the local boys $1.35 to carry it for me. Totally worth it. But even without all the equipment it was still a dangerous climb.
The treacherous climb into the lake
Now Barracuda Lake is quite unique. There isn't much to see underwater but people come here because it is a thermal lake. The top14m is brackish water at about 28°C. Below 14m it is salt water and around 38°C. Below 26m the temperature goes back to 28°C. At 32m the water starts to turn the colour of tea, because of the tannic acid from the leaves settled on bottom. It was awesome to be able to do a skin dive here and I usually tried to stay at the 38°C level because it just felt sooooooooooo good!
About to descend
Tiny seashell at the bottom of the lake
Limestone formations
And yes, I did see THE barracuda!
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