El Nido – Day 3: Sea Snakes & Disco Clams
EL NIDO
Day 3: Sea Snakes & Disco Clams
October 15, 2024
Beach day, island-hopping tour, dive trip – rinse and repeat. Which means it was time for yet another dive trip.
After a quick breakfast, I had Art give me another lift back to El Nido, where the dive shop was located. Here, I was met by Rens, a Dutch guy, and Edwin and Kelly, a couple from Australia, with whom I’d be diving. Our guide would be Kim, who, in hindsight, I can say was the best guide I have ever been led by. Apart from doing multiple briefings, one at the shop and one preceding every dive, he always made sure to answer all our questions, pointed out all kinds of interesting stuff and always made sure we were safe and happy. But this ain’t TripAdvisor, so let’s move on.
The Electric Disco Clam
After getting all geared up, we were led to the… wait for it… bangka. Bet no one could’ve seen that coming, huh?
One short boat ride later and we were at our first dive site: Twin Rocks. While the coral wall here had nothing especially distinctive per se, I do have to admit that all the different species of anemones and blue sea stars peppering it made it quite enchanting. I could potentially mention the turtle or the cuttlefish as the highlights of the dive, but I’d just be kidding myself. Because, my dear reader (still convinced I am my one and only reader), the highlight was most definitely the electric disco clam, one marvellous mollusc I had no idea even existed prior to the dive.
I have to admit that when Kim pointed it out to us, I was incredulous, to say the least. I could hardly believe my very eyes, for in a crevice between the rocks lay one of the most astounding creatures I have ever seen.
While the outside shell is unimpressive, to say the least, it isn’t the bright crimson fleshy body on the inside nor the tentacles surrounding the flaps that leave spectators with their jaws on the floor. Nope. That’s all cool and all, but there’s something even better. It’s the light show this mad mollusc puts on. By quickly retracting and exposing highly reflective tissue along the outside border of its mantle, this magnificent piece of biological engineering can make it look like it’s flashing, with sunlight or diving light being reflected off its mantle.
Why it does so is still up for discussion – with some postulating that it deters predators from approaching and others saying it attracts prey. Oh, also, its colourful outer tissues are apparently disgusting so it may help chemically deter predators. Friggin’ awesome!
Helicopter Island: The Other Side
Our second dive was in a location I was already familiar with: Helicopter Island, although this time I’d be diving on the opposite side.
Here, as Kim explained, we’d be able to find an underwater tunnel at around twelve metres of depth and around thirty-five to forty metres in length. With Kim being the awesome guide that he was, he also promised he’d show us something cool on the way there. In fact, he totally delivered, with the orangutan crab he found hidden in some bubble coral completely blowing our minds, or at least the little that remained after seeing the electric disco clam.
After a five-minute swim or so, we got to the entrance of the tunnel. We swam in single file as each of us started to enter, the way forward shrouded in complete darkness. Along the sandy bottom, we managed to spot a couple of lionfish, with banded pipefish hiding between crevices in the rocks, the first I’d ever seen. Around midway, the tunnel widened into a large cavern, with the outside light visible at both ends. A few metres onwards, one of the most enchanting sights appeared: a hole in the roof of the cave allowing a beam of light to pass through, with hundreds of copper sweepers swimming around and reflecting it off their scales. Truly gorgeous.
As we got to the exit, the first thing to note was this huge map pufferfish. It must have been the biggest pufferfish I had ever seen. I was genuinely awestruck, with my fellow divers’ reactions matching mine. My mind immediately went back to when I was snorkelling alone back in Sandy Caye, Utila, stumbling upon a similar one and not knowing whether I’d been hallucinating or not. Turns out, these fish can get pretty big.
After exiting the tunnel, we made our way around some cool rock formations. Here, we got to see more cool stuff, like a few mantis shrimps scurrying off and a couple of Anna’s magnificent sea slugs, one of my favourite nudibranchs.
Nat-Nat Beach
The third and final dive for the day would be at Nat-Nat Beach. This dive was definitely one of the best dives I’ve ever had.
For starters, a storm had just started brewing, so being underwater was simply a gift from… below? But what made it such a great dive was how uncomplicated it was and how much variety we saw. The coral garden here was gorgeous, to say the least, and we got to see what felt like a three-metre banded sea snake, a couple of chief sea cucumbers which I had never seen before, and another electric disco clam. Also, huge schools of yellowtail fusiliers and yellowtail barracuda. Hmm… Nudibranchs, stingrays, sea cucumbers, sea stars. A bit of everything! The perfect dive.
Nacpan Nights
Once back at El Nido, I spent some time wandering around its streets. I could’ve gone to some of the major highlights in the area like Taraw Cliff or Bacuit Bay, but opted not to.
First off, I was kinda beat from all the diving. Second, I felt like I would’ve rather spent my time back at Nacpan, and so I went back. I gotta admit that that beach kinda stole my heart. I could’ve very well stayed there for a couple of months had I had the time, especially given that the company I had at Mad Monkey was so fun.
That evening, we had a couple of newcomers: two Filipina influencers who waltzed into the hostel clad in tiny bikinis, armed with a tripod and their phones on livestream. They didn’t so much as look our way and instead went on to speak to their online followers. They did, however, join in the fun when we started the beer pong tournament. Gotta keep it entertaining for the guys back home, huh?
The tournament was good fun. I teamed up with Jase, who happens to be a pro, and while I usually suck big time, I did get a couple of shots in. We still lost, despite Jase’s best efforts. That said, I still think I got a win in, mostly cause every time the influencers would be playing, I’d go in front of their phones and give their followers some general advice, like:
- Close the tap while brushing your teeth!
- Pick up some trash every time you visit a beach!
- Always wear a condom!
- Be kind to one another!
I was kinda tipsy, okay? Probably also why the night devolved into us doing karaoke again for a couple of hours. Also into me having to tell Chantelle “I’m very gay!” when she literally threw herself at me – so much for my rant about bisexual erasure. But hey, I guess a white lie to spare someone’s feelings isn’t all to bad… Right?