Feeling at Home

Everyone has had the feeling, when you're calm, centered, can breathe deeply, the feeling of being "at home". I recently experienced this feeling again, and it wasn't when I was back in Seattle after living and traveling in Latin America for almost 4 years. It came to me after almost 24 hours of travel, through 4 countries, 4 flights, and arriving in a country I had never been to before. On the bus ride from Legazpi, Philippines to Donsol, I was overcome with this nostalgic feeling. I was getting my first glimpse of the Filipino culture: the streets were lively, children were smiling and playing, stray dogs begging for food, people were saying hello to their neighbors, I was overcome by the feeling of being "at home" again. My whole body was relaxed, I felt my heart open and that I was able to really connect with myself and the world. The reason I recognized this feeling was because I guess I hadn't felt it in a while. I looked over at my good friend and travel buddy Sarah and said, "Why does this feel so natural and right? Why am I so comfortable?" She just smiled and laughed because she knew exactly what I was feeling. For me, I thrive in a new and changing environment, where I don't know what to expect or I don't know a single soul or anything about where I am, but I know that I will get to figure it all out in time. I love to explore and expect the unexpected. It may not be for everyone, but it's right for me.

Our first stop was Donsol, to go diving with whale sharks. We aren't "planners" when we travel, we both like to go with the flow. Sometimes this can be a problem. Apparently, there were NO whale sharks in Donsol. They're usually there for snorkelers to swim with this time of year, but they hadn't come far enough North yet. We found out that people were diving with whale sharks in an area called Manta Bowl, which was about an hour and a half boat ride South of Donsol. Our top priority was to dive with these gentle giants, so we were going to make this happen. We booked our 3 dive excursion and set out to find them. After the first two dives...no luck. Nothing. Then, right when we were putting on all our gear for the third dive, we saw a whale shark surface and dive back down. We all rushed to finish putting our gear on and jumped into the choppy ocean waves and descended. There was very little visibility, it was murky, and we descended faster than we should have. We were at 30 meters when, in slow motion, a huge whale shark swam directly at us. It was so peaceful. The shark swam at us and then turned and was just an arms length away. It was a beautiful moment and something I will remember for the rest of my life. Mission accomplished!!!

I've been in the Philippines for the past two weeks now and have seen and done a lot. My favorite memory so far was diving with whale sharks in Donsol. I've also met friendly locals, seen beautiful secluded white sand beaches, the famous Chocolate Hills, seen cute little tarsiers, went on a firefly cruise down the river, explored the countryside on a motorcycle, been on island hopping tours, lots of ferry rides, and now I'm waiting out Typhoon Nona. It just goes to show you that you aren't in control...of anything. We didn't even know there was a typhoon alert until we arrived in El Nido on Palawan on Monday night. So far we've been waiting out the storm for the past three days. The weather hasn't been horrible. It's been cloudy, windy, rainy off and on, puddles of mud on the dirt roads, and we did lose power for a bit. But, the locals don't seem too worried. Fingers crossed we get to explore the islands around here soon and get some more diving in during our last week in paradise!

#ThePhilippines #WhaleSharks #Diving #ChocolateHills #Tarsiers