This month started with fiesta! Well, the entire month of May is fiesta in Bohol — a celebration unique to the Philippines that celebrates the feast day of a town's patron saint. There is usually an abundance of food, with locals opening their homes to friends, and I was lucky enough to be invited by Sir Jomar. I didn't know quite what to expect, but as usual, Filipino hospitality shone through: plenty of food, everyone made to feel welcome, and of course karaoke at lunchtime. The celebration ends with an evening disco on the local basketball court — bright lights, the loudest speakers you'll ever hear, and the entire community gathered to dance until morning. It was truly a unique experience, and one I won't forget any time soon.
The next morning I made the trip to Southern Leyte. This is not for the faint hearted — it took a 2.5-hour bus ride, a 2-hour ferry ride, and another 2-hour tricycle ride to arrive there. While on the ferry, I struck up a conversation with a stranger who I could only assume was a fellow traveller. Turns out I was right, and this stranger, Zora, turned into a friend I had for the next week. We were planning to do the exact same things, so we figured we'd do them together — diving together and exploring beautiful coral reefs. On one dive alone, we counted seven turtles!
Then came the whale sharks. I want to be clear about the experience we had, because whale shark tourism exists on a spectrum and most of it I'd rather not endorse. But Pintuyan, in Southern Leyte, is one of the few places in the Philippines where it's done properly: restricted to one boat with only 13 people, no feeding, no touching, a respectful distance kept, and local fishermen employed to assist with the experience. If you're lucky, you get to witness these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat. We saw two whale sharks and a manta ray. I don't have adequate words for what that felt like — only that it was the best day of our lives!
Spotted: me and a whale shark, and the manta ray we saw!
We had picked up a new travel companion by this point, Mark, a local from Surigao, and the three of us decided to make the trip to Limasawa (Moana Island) together. This is where the Philippines teaches you, once again, that plans are more of a suggestion than a commitment. We woke up at 4am to try and secure a spot on the 7am ferry — already sold out by the time we arrived. Eventually, after some confusion, we ended up on a private boat with other Filipino travellers, and our adventure began! The day was filled with beautiful swimming spots, a local homestay, palm trees galore, and one of the most beautiful sunsets we'd seen in a while. The sun set over the sea and everything felt completely calm and still.
An unlikely trio adventuring in Limasawa — and me being silly, climbing a palm tree.
From there, I parted ways with Zora and Mark and headed on to Siargao, which involved two 2-hour ferries. And honestly, I fell a little bit in love. There's a version of Siargao that's very much on the tourist map — Cloud 9, Instagram-worthy spots, and that's all fine — but away from all that is something really special, a kind of jungle island energy I was surprised to find. I surfed with new friends, watched the sunset over palm trees, and had the most interesting conversations with international travellers and Filipinos alike.
The perfect spot for swimming and surfing in Siargao, and sunset with new friends.
In between the islands, I've been working on preparing Learning Activity Sheets (LAS) for the incoming academic year. LAS development is one of the quieter but genuinely important parts of the Science Corps fellowship — these are the structured worksheets that guide students through scientific concepts, and getting them right requires thought. We were tasked with different research topics, and since I had been in charge of the biodiversity group, that's where my focus was directed. We also had some workshops this month, with teachers and fellows, to dig into exactly how to make effective LAS. I've found this kind of collaborative curriculum work genuinely interesting because we really delve into what's important — not just for the students, but also for the teachers and the school as a whole — and possibly because it sits at the intersection of science communication and education that I've been drawn to for a while now.
Oh, and I met Zora again later in the month in Malapascua, where we had the opportunity to dive with thresher sharks — my absolute favorite shark in the world!
Diving with thresher sharks, and sunset on the beach in Malapascua.
— An Tran, Science Corps Fellow at CVIF, Jagna, Philippines