We're currently in the Philippines.

Last night, Donsol Eco Tour took us to see the fireflies on the Ogod River, in the Bicol region down in the southeastern corner of Luzon.

Awesome.

Picture overhead the quiet intense glow of a vast expanse of starlit sky.

Picture lazy tongues of lightning licking at the horizon.

Then picture on the banks of the river a cool, white, fitful fire, its light strong enough to create a matching fire in the water beneath.

As you draw closer, the flickers form and re-form into waves of light, as the blinking of each insect in the colony synchronizes with its neighbours, then relaxes into freestyle, then synchonizes again. The effect is magical.

Closer up still, the etchings of the individual insects become visible, as our eyes piece the moving flashing lights into connected little whirly lines. It is as if each creature is writing on the darkness.

Occasionally, one will break free from the colony and assay a little flight above the river. It's like a miniature shooting star going across your field of vision.

Alongside the blinking and the scribbling, there's a more muted, sustained glowing happening. This is from the immature insects, who sit in one place to do their illumination.

On the dark, quiet river, the interplay of all these discrete yet complementary essences of light is quite hypnotic.

A symphony in inky black and silvery white. Incomparable.