Sugar Cane Juice

Driving down one of the roads in Barangay San Pedro brought us to this small nipa shack that sells refreshing sugar cane or tubo juice.  We just had to stop and try it. 

The fresh tubo were piled up and ready for juicing.  The light green sticks reminded me of the sugar cane carts that used to pass by our house in Quezon City.  My mom would get us a stick each and we would chew on them to extract the juice. 

The lady with plastic food safe gloves (one point!) pushed the stick into the machine and turned it on.  The stainless steel machine pressed the sticks and efficiently juiced them out.  

While waiting, they had some information posted for the customers to read.  Lots of health benefits from sugarcane juice! 
 

 

Two sugar cane sticks yielded this 12oz cup of juice.  Poured over ice and some calamansi extract, it was the perfect break during a hot day!  I suddenly remembered that in the fruit area of Virra Mall and Shoppesville at the old Greenhills Shopping Center, there was a sugarcane juice stand too.  But their juice did not have the zesty calamansi flavor added to it.

 Since then, I've never passed that shack without stopping for some.  Fresh, every time!  

Scuba Diving at 20 Feet

I've always wanted to scuba dive, but have not had the chance to even go for an Intro Dive.  Two weeks ago, I got my chance to finally cross that one thing off my list!   We were picked up from the beachfront of Microtel Puerto Princesa and took a 15-minute boat ride to the open waters in front of Pristine Beach. 

We were several eager beavers, one of us was already a certified diver, and another one already experienced it twice.  I was a bit nervous, as it was my first time to wear the gear, and I had no idea what would happen. 

 

So I fell over backwards into the water, like everyone else, and realized that I was floating, as my instructor inflated my BCD before I tumbled.  No need to think about swimming yet, he said. Just focus on breathing. So I breathed in the clean air from my tank and started to descend into the deep, dark blue expansive ocean. Yaaaargh! It got cold and dark and I panicked, breathing short breaths, almost sure I would run out of air if I went too deep.

I motioned upward and attempted to postpone my adventure for the next time.... several times.  Finally, the lead instructor showed me how to CALMLY breathe rhythmically and lightly, and before I knew it, he was slowly deflating my BCD, and I was going deeper and deeper.  I was getting the hang of it, and happily distracted by the colorful gardens..... and was brave enough to touch them! The brown coral below felt like one of those hard, felt-covered wires that are used for arts and crafts. But they were as soft as feathers.  

The classic blue starfish, whose kind is so abundant in the islands of Palawan, was right there, resting at the bottom.

And then the highlight of my dive ---- a clownfish swam towards me, stopped a few inches from my face, and just stared at me with its black beady eyes!  I could not contain myself, that I poked it on its side. It just flinched and stared at me again.  Oh wow. I kept on poking it till it swam away. 

A few meters ahead, I figured out why that little Nemo was so aggressive.   It was guarding its home. Pretty awesome photo, for a point-and-shoot 12-megapixel underwater camera, with no photo editing!  I was not brave enough to touch the white tips of the anemone, but one of the divers said that it felt like little suction cups. 

Our instructor, Kuya Julius, playfully put one of these little creatures in his mask! Nice!

I only went 25 feet deep below the surface.  Some of the others went deeper and explored a sea wall where lots of corals were attached to it.  I hope to see that before the year ends.  

*The Front Desk at Microtel Puerto Princesa can book your dive for you, with a convenient pick up and drop off right at their beachfront. 

Grilled Squid at Nagtabon Beach

Above is a picture of one kilo of squid that was wrapped in foil and grilled over charcoal with no salt, nor pepper or any other seasoning --- just freshly caught from the sea a couple of hours ago.   Maybe the sea breeze blew the flavor of the sea to the squid.  It was cooked before we could tire frolicking in the waves. 

The best time to go to Nagtabon Beach is around March to September.  Otherwise, the waves get really wild and sweep you back and forth the shore, leaving you with little control.

 

If you plan to spend considerable time lounging on the sand, rub some insect repellant on yourself, as you might displace some sand mites (niknik) and they leave bite marks that last for weeks.  An effective remedy for itchiness is Calmoseptine (calamine + zinc oxide), which is generally used for diaper rash.  

Oh, but the sand is fine, without any sharp shells and corals.  Occasionally there are small pebbles.  It's the best kind of sand for letting kids make their own creations.