Thanks to my friend Kenny and her group of SK kids from Batangas, I finally had the chance to try out the Firefly Watching Tour at the other side of the city: Iwahig. Compared to the one at Baywalk, the Iwahig tour is a bit on the "rough" side. I would say that choosing between one or the other will boil down to personal preferences and choices, but both tours are worth experiencing.
The tour started at 6PM, when the tour guide/van picked us up from Villa Saturnina. The first stop was a buffet dinner at Asturias Hotel. There was a wedding reception at the usual venue/dining area, so they instead setup the buffet at the coffee shop. While it was a bit cramped, everybody was able to comfortably have dinner. The food was nothing exceptional, but a buffet is a buffet. I would say that the highlight of that stopover was the photo ops session with Mayor Hagedorn. I was actually surprised when the kids suddenly became excited and approached him. Luckily, Mayor Hagedorn was very accommodating and allowed the kids to have their pics taken with him.
Back to the tour, we left Asturias after dinner and went on a 15 minute ride to Iwahig. I must say, the road leading to the location was too dark because of the lack of street lights. It probably added to the sense of adventure and thrill, but I wouldn't want to be stuck there with a flat tire or an engine problem. Once we got to the site, however, the excitement of being with the fireflies came back in a rush. Supposedly, these creatures only thrive in a clean and balanced environment. I am truly blessed to be living in such a place.
After registration, we were asked to group ourselves into 3. There were 24 of us so the division was pretty even, although one person backed out because of an uncontrollable fear of the unknown. We were also assigned number tags, representing our turn for the tour. The waiting time was surprisingly fast, and we were on the platform in no time. A few photos were taken by the on-site photographer (sold at 150 a piece for interested parties) and we were off into the darkness of the night.
The Iwahig tour was different from the Baywalk tour in several ways. For starters, we used smaller, non motorized boats for the tour. They say this is more eco-friendly and less disruptive, and I tend to agree. We also did not use any form of artificial lighting, and we had to make do with the moonlight and our natural night visions. I seem to remember seeing more fireflies at the Baywalk tour, but this could be attributed to the season/time of year. The boatman, Anthony, seemed to be very knowledgable with his job and was able to answer all of our questions with authority and confidence.
The planktons were also remarkable. These microscopic creatures glow in the dark when disturbed, and I enjoyed dipping my hand in the water once in a while (half scared that an unseen creature would take notice and bite my arm off). It reminded me on the whale in "Life of Pi." It took every ounce of will power to stop myself from diving in (or pushing one of my boat mates) to see if we would actually glow in the dark.
What made the tour more memorable for me was the stargazing. At one point, we started to ignore the fireflies and focused our attention to the stars instead. I was amazed when Anthony pulled out a small battery-operated contraption that emitted a laser light that pointed straight to the stars! It was like listening to a teacher pointing at the constellations using a giant stick, with the entire sky as the board.
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