Miss Scuba: Saving Oceans Through Beauty

Image Courtesy: Miss Scuba Philippines

Subic Bay 6th October - The Miss Scuba Philippines pageant aims to put everyone's focus back into the ocean. Miss Scuba Philippines is part of the Miss Scuba International series of pageants, which were first held in 2011. First event: scuba diving lessons at the Lighthouse Marina Resort, Subic Bay.

Unlike most beauty pageants that simply celebrate the inner beauty and courage of today's modern women, Miss Scuba Philippines will follow the Miss Scuba International philosophy of focusing the participants and the associated media coverage on local and global ocean conservation ca

Image courtesy Girlie Cervantes

Jazzistas De Davao will provide the jazziest part of Davao's Kadayawan Cultural Festival when it launches its 1st Jazzistas De Davao Jazz Festival later this month, at Bogser's By The Sea. Bogser's By The Sea is a seafood restaurant, featuring the Tiki Bar, located along Times Beach, not so far from the sprawling SM Mall Davao City.

Jazzistas De Davao is an organization based on a membership framework whose objective is the promotion, education, presentation & preservation of jazz & related art forms. One of its goals is to be a proponent in helping all budding artists to be providers - showcasing their individual art form, talent, skill and making a living

Image courtesy Samal City Mayor's Office

The two-month long Visit Samal Island Festival kicks of in March with the intent of bringing Samal Island to the notice of beach-goers and adventure tourists from around the Philippines and from farther afield. The festival has all of the ingredients for a smorgasbord of fun in the sun.

The festival will showcase the beauties of Samal with a beauty pageant to find Miss Tourism Samal Island 2011, talent show, fire dancing, jingle writing and photographic exhibitions. There will be frisbee championships and the search for Miss Body Beautiful. Kite-flying contests and beach-volleyball competitions. And finally, (my favorite) culinary competitions, where the abundant native fruits (thanks to the fruit bats) and seafood are the centerpiece. Enjoy tuna? Come f

Image courtesy Villa Malasimbo

The Malasimbo Music and Arts Festival is a two-day festival aiming to blend traditional and contemporary arts & culture with musical performances. At the same time the Malasimbo Music and Arts Festival will highlight the need for us all to work towards the protection of the diversity and sustainability of the natural environment in the Philippines and around the World.

To be held at Villa Malasimbo, at the foot of Mount Malasimbo – the predominant mountain whose extent provides pictorial splendor to the most beautiful bay in the World – the Malasimbo Music and Arts Festival is an all-outdoors event, set in one of the World's rare, natural amphit

Image courtesy NCCA

UPDATE 4th October 2010: The replica Manila Galleon Andalucía will arrive Manila Bay from Shanghai on the morning of 6th October and remain in Manila, wharfed at Manila Port, until 9th October. Galleon Andalucia will set sail for Cebu on 9th October. While in Manila she will be open to the public from 8am to 4pm daily (closed for lunch).

Original Article: The Philippines will host the galleon Andalucía - a replica of a 16th/17th century Manila Galleon. Berthing at Manila Harbor, guests and visitors will be able to board the ship and walk through history. With the exception of two diesel engines (for times when there is no wind) and minimal other modern navigation & communications technology, the galleon Andalucía is sailed in almost exactly the same way as the famed Manila Galleons of four hundred ye

Image courtesy NCCA

The Día del Galeón Festival celebrates the unique journey of the Manila galleons and their place in maritime history - spanning the globe and linking the Philippines with Mexico and Spain. For 250 years (from 1565 – 1815) the Manila galleons were a conduit for global trade and cultural exchange between Europe, the New World and Asia.

In October 2009 UNESCO recognized the unique part the Manila galleons played in the globalization of trade and cultural exchange by declaring 8th October as the international “Día del Galeón” (day of the galleon). Motivated by Senator Edgardo Angara, the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), in conjunction with the embassies of Spain and Mexico, spearheaded the creation of a month-long series of events that will span the traditional galleon trade route through the Phil

Image courtesy Davao Del Norte Tourism

The Kadagayaan Festival & Exposition 2010, Davao del Norte, is one of the highlights of the commemoration of the 43rd Founding Anniversary celebration of the Province of Davao del Norte. The four-day annual celebration embodies the culture and traditions of the Dabaonons through street dancing, lighted float parade, agri-trade fair and the Kalimudan tribal celebration.

The Kadagayaan Festival starts with the Indigenous Peoples & Immigrants thanksgiving rituals at the Kalimudan sa Davao del Norte (cultural village), on 28 June: the indigenous Ata-Manobo tribe shall bless the success of the Kadagayaan Festival & Exposition with celebration and merry–making; and, the Muslim K’gan tribe offer their cultural and traditional perfo

Image courtesy Martyn Willes

The Paniki Festival (Bat Festival) celebrates the World's largest colony of fruit bats that inhabit the Monfort Bat Cave on Samal Island, Davao del Norte. Guinness World Records have this year recognised the uniqueness of Samal Island's Monfort Bat Cave and have accorded it due certification (see previous Samal Island Fruit Bats Into Guinness World Records story)

As many as 1.8 million Geoffroy’s Rousette fruit bats (Rousettus amplexicaudatus) occupy the Monfort Bat Cave (to a density of 645 bats per square meter!) and leave their bat cave on Samal Island every evening in a veritable cacophony of skin flapping, to forage for wild fruits across the expanse of the provinces adjoining the Dava