The reason this place is so special to me is because of the sea turtles known as "Pawikan" in Visayan. I absolutely LOVE sea turtles. I can't even begin to describe how majestic they are. They are so graceful and an absolute joy to watch under the water. Apo is known for having turtles hanging out as long as the weather is good. Ryan and I were able to make it back to Apo Island this past weekend for the last time before we leave :( We were lucky and had an awesome day of sunshine, incredible visibility, and that means we got to swim with the turtles!! Ryan got to diving for the first time at Apo and he loved it. I went snorkeling and was infatuated with the Pawikan. I saw two different kinds of turtles on this trip, brown and grey, and was wishing I had an underwater camera. And I believe that I saw around a total of 12 turtles, small to big. It's insane how close you get to the turtles. Your snorkeling in beautiful water with indescribable corals and then all of a sudden you see a turtle floating along. You race towards it and follow it as long as it will let you. Some of the water is so shallow that you worry you will kick the turtle by accident. (But of course you don't!) I got to watch some of them eat, which was cool, and then swim with them, which is my favorite. It's so out-of-this-world when you can swim with a turtle, watch it take a breath up above, and see it dive back down again. Oh, it's awesome! I don't think I will every get tired of it :) So I wanted to share a few photos with you of our recent experience. (Some of these pics are borrowed from the internet) Enjoy! :)

A brown turtle at Apo Island