We travel to Bali, Greece, France, and Thailand all in one day!

Our next research trip was to Balesin Island, which is a resort island off the coast of Luzon. Here we got to spend four days doing research and hanging out in the resort. The Balesin resort is going to be one giant resort with five other resorts on the island, each one is based off other locations; Bali, Mykonos, San Tropez, Thailand.

To get there we drove three hours from Manila and got on a large cargo boat and made the trek over to Balesin...in the thunder and rain.

Before we got on the boat we stopped for some snacks. Ian is eating the head of a chicken

 Our first day in Balesin, the rain never stopped. We got to drive around the island and see all of the hotels as they were being built, then we got a tour of where the guests will stay and watched the lightning show. We ended the day with heaps of lab work.

Fortunately, the next day it cleared up and we were able to get some research done!

This is the pirate ship we got to take with us to the research sites

While looking for a good sea grass site we stumbled upon some coral reef. The reef in Balesin is mostly devastated due to dynamite fishing, but hopefully in the next decade or two the reef will start to look better.

On our swim back to the boat we saw this guy (sea snake). Highly venomous, but very fun to watch.

Then we had to get to business

or not...

It wasn't such a bad place to work 

On our second day of work we got a half day! Then we got to do what ever we wanted...which was go swimming in the resort pool (which was empty since the resort wasn't open to the public for one more day!)

The lovely infinity pool

Ice cold fruit smoothies anyone?

Then it was back to work!

But it was rather shallow

Science

After three days of hard work we got to go on our first dive!

 Here are a couple of things we saw diving in Balesin

Tunicate

Nudibranch

Lion fish

On our last morning on Balesin we didn't know when the cargo ship was going to arrive, so we woke up at three am to make sure all of our gear was packed and we were ready to go. Unfortunately, it turned out the cargo ship wasn't coming until eight and would take no passengers. After much negotiation, Angela got us aboard and we were able to make it back to the mainland.

Terraces of Rice

Banaue is the location to go to see the rice terraces, so we were determined to make our way there.

This is the town of Banaue

We got a rough start in Banaue, one of the tricycle drivers wanted to take us on a three hour journey to see the ''best" rice terraces, but it was too expensive and too much time. Instead we made our way to the Stairway to Heaven rice terraces and hiked our own path

Stoked

A little less stoked

Close up of the rice

RICE TERRACES

And then we saw a baby chick

The end

Segada

After spelunking, Leslie and I decided we would let Cori and Ian hike to the waterfall and we would take the day slow and walk around the town of Segada. 

This is about the size of Segada

Then we walked through their outdoor market on our way to the...

Hanging coffins! Some of these coffins are over 500 years old (not the ones with the crosses on them). They are hung so that their bodies are closer to God

Then we went on a little shopping spree. Check out Leslie's sick wicker backpack

After walking around and seeing the sights we made our way back to our favorite restaurant in Segada. 

And ended our day.

 The next morning (after a stop at the Yogurt House for their Hikers Delight breakfast-- which is a banana covered in homemade yoghurt, wrapped in a pancake, with a side of eggs) we got on a Jeepnee (spelling?), which is an old Jeep from WWII that has been converted to transport a large number of people, and then we transfered to a car to go see the Stairway to Heaven.

Cave of WONDERS

After a long week at Bolinao, we got our first free time! We decided we would make the trek to Sagada, a mountain province on the main island Luzon. To get there was quite the adventure. Angela's driver took us to some bus station, from there we took a bus to Baguio. We had to spend the night there, and in the morning we got on a (rather scary) bus that made its way up the mountain (during a category 2 storm...FUN!). The bus only stalled once, and we made it in one piece by noon.

 We stayed in this hostel, it is nice and blue.

 After an hour in Segada, we decided it was time to go spelunking.

 They didn't tell us at the time how hard core it was going to be...

 But it didn't matter, we laugh in the face of danger.

 Not even a little bit concerned about the bats

 So excited to leave the cave

All safe, all well, all smiles

BOLINAO Marine Station

Our first sea grass sight is Bolinao Marine Station (which is located to the north of Manila). Here we surveyed 4 sights and did a LOT of lab work.

 As you can see the conditions were rough…

 and we had absolutely no fun at all.

 Some pictures form the lab...this is a spider conch

 Invert Samples

 Fish swims

 The lab work got to some of us

 But mostly it was all smiles and homogenizing.