Background: My boyfriend (BF) and I are budget-backpacking-scuba diving SEA for ~8 months (2/8 complete). Our goal is to see as much healthy hard coral in the Coral Triangle as possible. We brought all our own gear (excluding weights & tanks of course), including full 3mm wetsuits, which we carry in 75L backpacks. The prices listed are for two people, unless otherwise noted. Apologies if the report is too long!
Apo Island: Apo Island is heavily recommended for healthy reefs so we decided to check it out.
Day 0: We left Santander and were driven to the fast craft ferry terminal by the owners of the Santander resort. We caught the 9:00 ferry to Sibulan (260P + 10P environmental fee), which took just under 30mins.
Once we arrived, we walked up the port access road to reach the “highway”, where we flagged down a Ceres bus heading to Dumaguete. It took ~30mins to drive to the Ceres bus terminal (30P).
We briefly left the bus terminal to grab food at McDonald’s, which was a <5mins walk away.
Once we returned to the bus terminal, we informed the conductors we wanted to go to Apo Island and were directed onto a bus (aircon thankfully) heading to Sipalay via Bayawan. The bus dropped us off at the access road to Malatapay Wharf (124P). It was a <10mins walk down the road.
We arrived shortly after 12:00 and were informed that the next ferry wasn’t until 14:00. Luckily a boat returning from Apo Island showed up around 13:00.
The “ferry” was one of those large bangkas used for snorkel tours and it took just under an hour to cross (600P + 10P terminal fee). The ride was very slow. We suspected it was because they had overloaded the boat with people and goods. The waves were very big and we got soaked while getting off. There is no pier, so you climb down a wooden walkway and we ended up submerged in the ocean up to our waists, desperately trying to keep our bags dry.
It was then a few mins walk to Mario’s.
The accommodation: Like everything else on the island, there is no power except 18:00-22:00 daily. The room was… fine for being a homestay. There was a bug net provided (albeit with large holes so we had to use our own). The sheets were dirty and had dead bugs on them. There was no soap in the bathroom, and when I asked, the reception lady informed me that they had run out and were waiting for a resupply from the mainland.
There was a solar-powered fan & lightbulb, which worked well when there was no power, although the fan was fairly weak. The toilet was a manual flush. The cold shower used freshwater (collected rainwater) and didn’t run out of water. In general, we didn’t feel clean on the island (even after showering) during our entire stay.
Meal options were written up on a whiteboard and if you wanted something, you would write your name under the meal option. The food was okay and averaged around 300P(!) a meal for small portions.
The dive operation: As most of the island is related to one another, Mario’s shares both staff and equipment with Liberty’s, another dive shop, which happens to be run by Mario’s brother.
Mario usually stays in Dumaguete, although we did see him come in to teach half of an OW course (the other half was taught by a DM). He is the only instructor at the shop.
Our dive guide, Jerry, was very friendly and also let us do basically whatever we wanted in terms of dive site requests and also underwater, preferring to let us look at as many corals as we wanted and letting us go at our own pace.
Tanks were filled 2800-3000 PSI. Our dives were 50-60mins. The dive boat was the smallest we’ve seen so far: ~6 passenger capacity and no seats so we sat directly on the deck in our gear with our feet hanging off the sides of the boat.
The first dive of the day was around 8:30, the second at 11:00, and the third at 14:00. We came back to the shop for every SI, including when we used the boat. We changed our own tanks & set up our own gear, but if we were boat diving, the crew changed our tanks at the beach while we did our SI at the shop.
There was no water or snacks provided.
Day 1: The boat was broken so we shore dived this day. It was just the two of us in the accommodation until the afternoon, when 4 more guests arrived (3 of which were the OW students).
Dive 1: Chapel Point
Max depth 42ft, 61 mins, min water temp 83F.
There was only one good patch of hard coral coverage, right above the “chapel” overhang. Otherwise it was very patchy and severely damaged (we think from Typhoon Odette). It was not on the same level of destruction as Moalboal, but certainly worse than Apo Island’s perfect reputation.
Dive 2: Marine Sanctuary
Max depth 52ft, 54 mins, min water temp 83F.
The Marine Sanctuary has been closed both to snorkelers and divers since Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013 to let the hard corals recover. Jerry said that our buoyancy was good though, and let us dive the location. It being “closed” was not enforced in the slightest, as we saw snorkelers there and Mario even took the OW students there the next day.
This dive site blew Colase from Santander out of the water (and we REALLY enjoyed that site). In the shallows, there were many young recruits; however, once you reached the wall (~20-30ft) and going down to 50-60ft, there were incredibly diverse and dense hard corals! The corals here were the densest, most diverse, and rarest (species-wise) that we’ve seen so far in PH. The only dive site that is on the same level is South Corner of Apo Reef, which has a bigger area of high-density coral, but with less interesting species diversity. There was also great visibility (~50ft/15-20m), something that holds back other sites with good coral.
Unfortunately this is one of the spots where the locals moor their boats and we saw a lot of anchor damage, despite there being a mooring line!!
Dive 3: Marine Sanctuary
Max depth 60ft, 53 mins, min water temp 83F.
We were lucky to do this site a second time! Unfortunately there were strong currents this time and we were fighting against it for most of the dive.
After the dives, we snorkeled for an hour. We covered the stretch from the beach in front of the basketball court at the front of the island almost all the way down to the edge of the island. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any more hard corals (had seen photos from 2018). There was a sizable soft coral garden though.
Day 2: OW students started their course this day and we gained a new person at the accommodation.
Dive 1: Rock Point West
Max depth 90ft, 52 mins, min water temp 82F.
No hard corals anymore (post-Odette) in the shallows, there should’ve been lots of branching hard corals... Typical soft coral cover from 0-8m. Around the dropoff, lots of hard coral rubble with occasional patches of branching porites, mostly damaged. Things look better at depth: you go between rubble patches and branching acropora with diverse bouldering corals in between. The more you go towards the tip of the island, the better the corals and fish life get.
Dive 2: Old Chapel Reef
Max depth 65ft, 53 mins, min water temp 82F.
This was the first dive we did on the east side of the island and we were surprised at the amount of hard corals! Right when we dropped down there were huge table and branching acroporas that were not even toppled over! The best preserved table corals (each 2+ m wide) in all of Apo Island are here.
Once you reach the drop off there are deeper high-flow reefs with super colorful crinoids, tubastrea, sponges, and lots of fish life. At depth there’s only really one kind of soft coral.
Dive 3: Largahan South
Max depth 73ft, 57 mins, min water temp 82F.
At depth there were really interesting huge fields of the biggest boulders of galaxea as well as a decent stretch of acropora (within which we saw a couple mandarins!). We also saw volcanic bubbles coming out of the sand here.
Day 3:
Dive 1: Rock Point West
Max depth 74ft, 57 mins, min water temp 82F.
The 4th person who arrived with the OWs joined us for a fun dive (he didn’t do any more after this). He struggled quite a bit (he has AOW certification lol) and Jerry had to end the dive for the two of them after only 30mins. He let BF & I stay down longer since we had our own DSMBs
Dive 2: Coconut
Max depth 82ft, 61 mins, min water temp 82F.
Coconut is known for strong down currents, but we had a very mild drift with a barely noticeable down current. This was a really nice drift with a similar high-flow reef to Old Chapel at depth. We also saw a huge school of jacks.
Dive 3: Kan Oran
Max depth 50ft, 60 mins, min water temp 82F.
This site was similar to Marine Sanctuary but more sparse and patchy. There were some nice big galaxea boulders, but not as many or as big as Largahan.
Day 4: Rest day to let our gear dry.
Day 5: We attempted to leave this morning (6:00 for the regular ferry leaving Apo Island for Malatapay), but the ferry was cancelled due to weather. The coast guard put a mandate in place preventing any boats from leaving. Horrible weather with pouring rain and strong winds from the typhoon in northern Luzon pulling in the monsoon.
Day 6: A horrible day with lots of verbal conflicts about leaving the island, as one of the people in our accommodation became extremely ill.
Day 7: The day we could finally leave Apo Island.
Final thoughts: Unless you are a crazy coral nerd like us and would benefit from locals bending the rules of the Marine Sanctuary or want to snorkel every day, it’s best to stay in Dauin/Dumaguete and do trips to Apo Island from there. Especially during Habagat.
Apo Island: Apo Island is heavily recommended for healthy reefs so we decided to check it out.
Day 0: We left Santander and were driven to the fast craft ferry terminal by the owners of the Santander resort. We caught the 9:00 ferry to Sibulan (260P + 10P environmental fee), which took just under 30mins.
Once we arrived, we walked up the port access road to reach the “highway”, where we flagged down a Ceres bus heading to Dumaguete. It took ~30mins to drive to the Ceres bus terminal (30P).
We briefly left the bus terminal to grab food at McDonald’s, which was a <5mins walk away.
Once we returned to the bus terminal, we informed the conductors we wanted to go to Apo Island and were directed onto a bus (aircon thankfully) heading to Sipalay via Bayawan. The bus dropped us off at the access road to Malatapay Wharf (124P). It was a <10mins walk down the road.
We arrived shortly after 12:00 and were informed that the next ferry wasn’t until 14:00. Luckily a boat returning from Apo Island showed up around 13:00.
The “ferry” was one of those large bangkas used for snorkel tours and it took just under an hour to cross (600P + 10P terminal fee). The ride was very slow. We suspected it was because they had overloaded the boat with people and goods. The waves were very big and we got soaked while getting off. There is no pier, so you climb down a wooden walkway and we ended up submerged in the ocean up to our waists, desperately trying to keep our bags dry.
It was then a few mins walk to Mario’s.
The accommodation: Like everything else on the island, there is no power except 18:00-22:00 daily. The room was… fine for being a homestay. There was a bug net provided (albeit with large holes so we had to use our own). The sheets were dirty and had dead bugs on them. There was no soap in the bathroom, and when I asked, the reception lady informed me that they had run out and were waiting for a resupply from the mainland.
There was a solar-powered fan & lightbulb, which worked well when there was no power, although the fan was fairly weak. The toilet was a manual flush. The cold shower used freshwater (collected rainwater) and didn’t run out of water. In general, we didn’t feel clean on the island (even after showering) during our entire stay.
Meal options were written up on a whiteboard and if you wanted something, you would write your name under the meal option. The food was okay and averaged around 300P(!) a meal for small portions.
The dive operation: As most of the island is related to one another, Mario’s shares both staff and equipment with Liberty’s, another dive shop, which happens to be run by Mario’s brother.
Mario usually stays in Dumaguete, although we did see him come in to teach half of an OW course (the other half was taught by a DM). He is the only instructor at the shop.
Our dive guide, Jerry, was very friendly and also let us do basically whatever we wanted in terms of dive site requests and also underwater, preferring to let us look at as many corals as we wanted and letting us go at our own pace.
Tanks were filled 2800-3000 PSI. Our dives were 50-60mins. The dive boat was the smallest we’ve seen so far: ~6 passenger capacity and no seats so we sat directly on the deck in our gear with our feet hanging off the sides of the boat.
The first dive of the day was around 8:30, the second at 11:00, and the third at 14:00. We came back to the shop for every SI, including when we used the boat. We changed our own tanks & set up our own gear, but if we were boat diving, the crew changed our tanks at the beach while we did our SI at the shop.
There was no water or snacks provided.
Day 1: The boat was broken so we shore dived this day. It was just the two of us in the accommodation until the afternoon, when 4 more guests arrived (3 of which were the OW students).
Dive 1: Chapel Point
Max depth 42ft, 61 mins, min water temp 83F.
There was only one good patch of hard coral coverage, right above the “chapel” overhang. Otherwise it was very patchy and severely damaged (we think from Typhoon Odette). It was not on the same level of destruction as Moalboal, but certainly worse than Apo Island’s perfect reputation.
Dive 2: Marine Sanctuary
Max depth 52ft, 54 mins, min water temp 83F.
The Marine Sanctuary has been closed both to snorkelers and divers since Super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013 to let the hard corals recover. Jerry said that our buoyancy was good though, and let us dive the location. It being “closed” was not enforced in the slightest, as we saw snorkelers there and Mario even took the OW students there the next day.
This dive site blew Colase from Santander out of the water (and we REALLY enjoyed that site). In the shallows, there were many young recruits; however, once you reached the wall (~20-30ft) and going down to 50-60ft, there were incredibly diverse and dense hard corals! The corals here were the densest, most diverse, and rarest (species-wise) that we’ve seen so far in PH. The only dive site that is on the same level is South Corner of Apo Reef, which has a bigger area of high-density coral, but with less interesting species diversity. There was also great visibility (~50ft/15-20m), something that holds back other sites with good coral.
Unfortunately this is one of the spots where the locals moor their boats and we saw a lot of anchor damage, despite there being a mooring line!!
Dive 3: Marine Sanctuary
Max depth 60ft, 53 mins, min water temp 83F.
We were lucky to do this site a second time! Unfortunately there were strong currents this time and we were fighting against it for most of the dive.
After the dives, we snorkeled for an hour. We covered the stretch from the beach in front of the basketball court at the front of the island almost all the way down to the edge of the island. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any more hard corals (had seen photos from 2018). There was a sizable soft coral garden though.
Day 2: OW students started their course this day and we gained a new person at the accommodation.
Dive 1: Rock Point West
Max depth 90ft, 52 mins, min water temp 82F.
No hard corals anymore (post-Odette) in the shallows, there should’ve been lots of branching hard corals... Typical soft coral cover from 0-8m. Around the dropoff, lots of hard coral rubble with occasional patches of branching porites, mostly damaged. Things look better at depth: you go between rubble patches and branching acropora with diverse bouldering corals in between. The more you go towards the tip of the island, the better the corals and fish life get.
Dive 2: Old Chapel Reef
Max depth 65ft, 53 mins, min water temp 82F.
This was the first dive we did on the east side of the island and we were surprised at the amount of hard corals! Right when we dropped down there were huge table and branching acroporas that were not even toppled over! The best preserved table corals (each 2+ m wide) in all of Apo Island are here.
Once you reach the drop off there are deeper high-flow reefs with super colorful crinoids, tubastrea, sponges, and lots of fish life. At depth there’s only really one kind of soft coral.
Dive 3: Largahan South
Max depth 73ft, 57 mins, min water temp 82F.
At depth there were really interesting huge fields of the biggest boulders of galaxea as well as a decent stretch of acropora (within which we saw a couple mandarins!). We also saw volcanic bubbles coming out of the sand here.
Day 3:
Dive 1: Rock Point West
Max depth 74ft, 57 mins, min water temp 82F.
The 4th person who arrived with the OWs joined us for a fun dive (he didn’t do any more after this). He struggled quite a bit (he has AOW certification lol) and Jerry had to end the dive for the two of them after only 30mins. He let BF & I stay down longer since we had our own DSMBs
Dive 2: Coconut
Max depth 82ft, 61 mins, min water temp 82F.
Coconut is known for strong down currents, but we had a very mild drift with a barely noticeable down current. This was a really nice drift with a similar high-flow reef to Old Chapel at depth. We also saw a huge school of jacks.
Dive 3: Kan Oran
Max depth 50ft, 60 mins, min water temp 82F.
This site was similar to Marine Sanctuary but more sparse and patchy. There were some nice big galaxea boulders, but not as many or as big as Largahan.
Day 4: Rest day to let our gear dry.
Day 5: We attempted to leave this morning (6:00 for the regular ferry leaving Apo Island for Malatapay), but the ferry was cancelled due to weather. The coast guard put a mandate in place preventing any boats from leaving. Horrible weather with pouring rain and strong winds from the typhoon in northern Luzon pulling in the monsoon.
Day 6: A horrible day with lots of verbal conflicts about leaving the island, as one of the people in our accommodation became extremely ill.
Day 7: The day we could finally leave Apo Island.
Final thoughts: Unless you are a crazy coral nerd like us and would benefit from locals bending the rules of the Marine Sanctuary or want to snorkel every day, it’s best to stay in Dauin/Dumaguete and do trips to Apo Island from there. Especially during Habagat.
