Friday, January 13, 2006

   Bauan
II
Exploring Bauan

On the second week of February 2005, we had an activity I’ve been waiting for, ever since my freshman year. It’s an activity exclusive to sophomore students… the ever exciting, ever memorable overnight activity, THE Bio Trip. I woke up at around quarter to three, took a freezing bath, ate my breakfast, and with dad, we left the house at around 3:30am, heading for school. It was around 4am and the sun wasn’t visible yet when we arrived at AA. I thought many will be at the multi by that time but I was shocked when I realized, I was the second one to arrive! So dad and I waited patiently inside our car until some of my friends arrived at around quarter to 5 already. I kissed dad goodbye and joined my friends at the multipurpose building. As the time went by, we increased in number till almost everyone was around. We boarded our bus, waited for some of the people who were late then we were off at about 6am. As the sun slowly rose and the moon stetted, I noticed that the moon was red. I checked my organizer and I found out that on that day a Lunar Eclipse is also happening. So I looked at the moon idly on the huge bus window as the speaker was talking about the rules, and other stuff. No wonder lunatics were named after the moon. I didn’t quite listen to the jokes the speakers told us since most of the jokes are “korni” jokes I already knew. The bus ride lasted for about 2 to three hours since we arrived at Bauan 8am already. I was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, EXITED. When we stepped off the bus, we crossed the street to the seashore then we had a boat ride for about 10 minutes. That was the most memorable boat ride I ever had. Not only did my pillow get thrown overboard and got wet but the view was awesome, and the wind was blowing my hair, and the sound of the rushing water was just plain awesome. Also, it was here when I met the amazing dog named Bogart. He’s a golden retriever and a trick he does is when he sees trash floating on the surface of the sea, he makes a cute dive, and swims to it, grabs the trash in his mouth and returns. He also barks at boats when a boat gets too near the sanctuary because fishermen aren’t allowed to go there. There is also one dog, which I can’t remember the name but he/she is a dachshund. The first thing we did was we changed to our bathing suits and we swam at the ocean. I was again REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, EXITED to meet and greet the different fishes. I was part of the second batch to swim in our class so we went to one of our speakers and he taught us some of the marine life on the shore. Then I thought that it was my only chance to ask someone what’s the difference between a barnacle and kelp. He explained that a barnacle is a triangular shaped mollusk often seen stuck on rocks or even on the shells of other mollusks, while a kelp is a seaweed often found on the surface of the sea. When the first batch was done, it’s our turn to swim. I was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, EXITED again. I wore the flotation device or the life jacket and the snorkel, and because of the excitement, I forgot to remove my wristwatch. So I went back to my bag and placed my watch inside my bag and I went back to the practice zone. (It still works until now although the salt water made the strap brittle so the strap snapped to pieces.) I have never seen such exquisite beauty. It’s as if I fell in love with the surroundings. Everywhere I look is a different scene, as beautiful as the others. It’s as if I’m in the computer generated Disney, Pixar film “Finding Nemo”. I’ve seen many kinds of fishes such as fishes with rainbow scales, long fishes, and I even got up close and personal with Dory, Marlin, Nemo, Bubbles and the scarred fin fish from Nemo’s tank! The corals were in different colors… some huge, and others were pretty little. We drifted like feathers as we followed the current and as we are near the end, it was time to say goodbye to the fishies. Then we took a bath, rinsing off the seawater then we ate lunch. After eating lunch, we went again to our Kuyas and Ate (the speakers… I forgot their names but their faces still remain) because our next activity is trekking. We followed the path, climbing steep pathways, shouting “bamboo” if there is any bamboo you see that may need to be given notice to avoid accidents. I still have the scar I had when I scratched myself on a bamboo that is protruding form the ground. When we reached our destination, we felt tired and we can hear our legs screaming “We surrender!” Each of us sat on a stone or a few shared on a rock. Our speaker talked about how important water is. We even spent a minute listening to the sound of nature. All I heard were different twittering tones of birds, the sound of rushing water, and of course the swishing of the leaves. The tranquil sound was interrupted by a very loud FART, which was just a joke by our speaker. When we went back to our bags, we started to prepare for the dinner. We cooked our food and the teachers were the ones who judged our cooking. We were grouped by our IP groupings. After eating our spicy dinner, we had a little activity on making a song about Bauan per house. Then, we were given free time to prepare for sleep and clean up. Fran, Pia (from a different section) and I still don’t want to sleep so we lied down the ground nearest the sea and identified some constellations. Then when it was time to sleep, we slept in the tent we set-up before eating lunch. The tent was quite small so Blossom and Monica slept squatting. It was really cold that even with a blanket, I need to warm myself up. We were supposed to wake up at 5am but I woke up at about 5:30am because I love to sleep and I don’t want to accept the fact that we are going to leave Bauan. After dressing up, we met with the fisher folks and interviewed them. We asked them about many stuff such as how much are they earning etc. After the meeting with the fisher folk, we packed our bags, disassembled our tents and bade the Bauan goodbye. We rode the boat to the shore for the last time, and then we went back to our bus. When we went back to school, it was already their dismissal so I waited patiently for my school bus to arrive.
The memory is still crystal clear but I can’t really put everything into words. We must have Marine life Sanctuaries at least one in every beach we have since underwater “forests” is one of the most exquisite things on earth. We can also use these sanctuaries as tourist spots because these are really beautiful things God has given us and it is our job to take care of these things.

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