Back on topic, I’m sitting in El Galleon right now waiting to do my last dive of 18 which included 2 to Verde. I’m actually not too impressed with the reefs, corals, or fish life- having just done Tubataha even Verde paled in comparison. Was in Anilao for 16 dives also and went to supposedly the best coral site Cathedral 3x and wasn’t that impressed. Coral and fish wise I felt both PG and Anilao was so so, but not too memorable. No sharks at all, didn’t see any rays either, but there were a few really really big turtles.
Where I was surprised by in PG was the quality of the macro and muck dives- wow I found more here than in Anilao! Blue ring octopus and hairy frogfish, flamboyant cuttlefish, mimic octopus, Pygmy seahorses, the only thing I did not manage to check off my list was harlequin shrimp. My last two days I hired a private guide with one other photographer and did just muck dives, and it was great. The first 3 days I dived with the group and it was just ok, it gets really crowded too with max groups of 6- and easy to get left behind with viz sometimes only 2-3m.
