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B EYOND SOMBRERO ISLAND, the hat-shaped mound floating in the sea of blue, is Sepoc, a quiet island with white sand, open-air restaurants, lovely hammocks, and a hiking trail that leads to a breathtaking vista. It's easy to mistake Sepoc for one of the rudimentary stops in Puerto Princesa's island-hopping tour: the plateful of grilled prawns and tuna for lunch, the red and yellow kayaks slicing the clear blue-green waters under the noonday sun. But we were just a 10-minute speedboat ride from our air-conditioned rooms, with cable TV, in Eagle Point Resort in Mabini, Batangas—a two-hour-and-a-half drive south of Manila.
Like the countless resorts crammed on the Anilao shoreline, Eagle Point Resort's main draw is what lies beneath the waters: a rich dive site stretching ten square kilometers teeming with coral reefs and numerous species of fish. One doesn't need to learn how to swim, much less dive, to appreciate its beauty. With a snorkeling gear and a life vest strapped my fearless 14-year-old niece, Adrian, and I explored Eagle Point's waters for half an hour, spotting a myriad of colorful fishes and corals—more than what I
saw in my one-hour introductory dive in Boracay.
However, it was not easy to convince my six-year-old nephew Arvie to try the same so I resigned myself to babysitting him as he dashed back and forth to Eagle Point's fresh water and salt water pools, running off from my watchful eyes, playing tag with other kids, giving me time for a short afternoon nap.
By 2:30PM, we were back in the resort. I had made a mental note to visit their aviary to see the rescued indigenous birds: yellow orioles, long tail parrots, bleeding heart doves, and sea hawks. They are scheduled for release soon, like the rescued sea hawksbill turtle (from a pet shop in Pasay City), and black-tip sharks (caught mistakenly by local fishermen), they have done previously after proper tagging.
National Geographic photographers are said to come to Eagle Point to shoot macro photographs of corals and its inhabitants. I hope to go back to Eagle Point soon—my quick overnight stay is too short to rightly see a bigger photograph of Eagle Point's ecological efforts.                    -WALTERC.VILLA
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