A lot of firsts at Iba, Zambales

Last 26 May 2009 I woke up early for our Iba, Zambales trip for Marine Biology field work. I think I waited 2 years for that to happen; 1 year to be enrolled to the subject a another year for the field. Oh well enough history here it goes. . .

By 6 in the morning I was already at the meeting place so I called Mary Ann and found out that she will be commuting together with Anjel, I got pissed because they didn't tell me so I texted Sir Flores (our professor in charge) that I was already at the school grounds. During the trip I was so pissed that even my other classmates noticed it so I just listened to my iPod but when my professor started cursing his former wife, we laughed really hard and forgot that I was angry. I was in the mood again and started talking to my other classmates. We kept on talking funny things, Riches kept on singing even though shes out of tone; Ada, Elean and Lala borrowed my iPod and watched the movie White Chicks. After 5 long hours of the trip we finally arrived at our destination. We started unloading our baggage to our rooms and started resting but Sir Flores kept on scolding us that our lunch is already served. During our lunch our professor kept on reminding us that after 2 hrs we will start our 1st afternoon collection and prepare all the needed tools.

My Gosh! The preparation of our 1st collection was stressful, as in stressful! We need to wear a one piece suit with long sleeves, denim pants with plastic boots. I can't even ask to my classmates "how do I look?". The outfit was so heavy. And the tools and apparatuses hmmph I don't want to talk about it.

During our 1st afternoon collection I started talking to Anjel and Me-an again because they are my group mates. We were so happy that finally we found our first specimen which is a synaptid sea cucumber but after a while all we can see was synaptid sea cucumber so we asked some local kids that live at Iba to help us find different specimens. Thanks to Banjo, Iri, and Nolan we found a Blue Linckia, some polyclads, other species of sea cucumber, brittle stars, different species of sea urchins, etc. After our 1st collection I was so tired and my foot was sore because of the rubber boots and my denim pants was wet, it was so heavy but we still need to organize our collected specimens. When all the groups are done we waited our turns to have shower, started dinner and finally we can rest our tired bodies.

Arrrggghhh! My first morning at Iba was irritating. Me-an waked us up at 5:30 am. We hate her for that because Sir Flores was still asleep. We had our breakfast after fixing ourselves and I planned to to sleep again but failed.

During our lunch Sir Flores told us that we must prepare for our 2nd afternoon collection and my classmates asked Sir Flores if they can swim at the beach and he gave his permission to them. Together with Elean, I choose not to swim so we were the one taking the pictures.

Together with Banjo, Iri and Nolan we started our 2nd afternoon collection. This time we got what the locals were calling "baka-baka", horned sea stars, sea slugs, sea squirts, dolabella, etc. When our 2nd afternoon collection ended we rest for a while and started out dinner. After showering we prepared for our first night collection.

With some of the locals, we started our 1st night collection. Sir Flores kept on reminding us to always follow the lamp. We've found a striped sea snake which is super deadly. Even our guide are afraid from it. After our night collection Anjel & I went to the nearest 7eleven to buy some cold beer and snacks. We drink at the balcony of the house, Niki said that she's depressed because her boyfriend is not texting or calling her for 2 weeks, Ada is pissed because of their group mate Paulo for not helping them from yesterdays afternoon collection.

On my 2nd and final morning at Iba, I woke up because of the irritating voice of Me-an (again!). We rode a bangka and Its my first time, I was so nervous and kept on screaming but when we were finally at the spot were there are many corals I was so fascinated that I even stood up. Unfortunately, we don't have any life vests or scuba gears and we are not good swimmers either, so we didn't have the chance to dive at the corals.

Before we said good byes we had our group picture with the family who accommodated us to their home. My group also gave a token of appreciation to the kids who helped us collecting our specimens. As a pasalubong, I bought blue marlin for my mom; turnip and indian mangoes for my dad and my brother. On our way home we were crowded at our rented jeep. Sir Flores, Paulo, Me-an and Anjel kept on talking about the Katrina Halili-Hayden Kho scandal while I concentrated to my Yiruma play list.

I never thought that I was able to see live marine species that I normally see at books, saw beautiful corals, rode a bangka and I was able to eat a sea urchin. My Zambales trip would be one of my unforgettable experience.