Hard to get to Dumagete, Harder to Leave

Next on our itinerary was Dumagete on the southern coast of Negros. However, we had a problem in the that the ferry from Bohol to there wasn't running that week. So after some discussion we decided that we had to backtrack to Cebu and get a ferry from there. We stayed the night in Moalboal a village almost completely dedicated to diving. Nick had stayed the week before and a friend of his was doing his dive master there. We had a good night playing pool in their favorite bar before heading to Dumagete the next day.

I really enjoyed my stay in Dumagete - so much so I left a lot later than I had expected. The town had a large university and s o the atmosphere was really cool. In amongst a lot of chilling out I did some cool stuff as well as having some good nights out.

I visited Centrop (The Center for Tropical Conservation Studies) where they are researching and breeding some of the Visaya's endangered animals including the warty pig, spotted deer and bleeding heart pigeon. We even got a personal tour by the zookeeper! We also visited the Marine Labs of the university which had some interesting displays and some live specimens. It'd be a nice place to work :)

I also got to some diving whilst I was there. We went to dive an island called Apo which is a great example of how MPAs and ecotourism can work. I also did a 'muck dive' in Dauin which there is dark sand beach.

Finally I went to visit the twin lakes and some water falls on a day trip.

As well as the sights I think the thing I will remember Dumagete for is the cake! There were loads of great (and cheap) cafes and bakeries which you could get amazing gateaux and muffins.

Dumagete was where Nick (and also Helen who had joined us on a holiday from the Thresher shark Project) and I said our goodbyes and I headed off to the next stop on my journey.

Abi
xxx