Hi all,
As promised, here's my trip report, fresh off the press from Cebu City, after having visited Malapascua earlier this week and Oslob this morning, per the itinerary described earlier.
Hope you'll enjoy this/find the info useful, no pictures I'm afraid.
Malapascua:
From Cebu city, it's a 4 hour aircon (Celes Tours) or non-aircon (Celes Liner) trip for 170 pesos from Cebu City's North Bus terminal, or 3 hours by taxi for 2000 pesos to Maya. From here, hourly boats go until roughly 3 PM to Malapascua for 80 pesos, the crossing taking roughly half an hour. The boat can also be privately rented for some 1200 pesos, as it may otherwise wait for filling up (up to 26 pax).
Arriving, you can go to your resort on the back of a motorcycle for 50 pesos or less.
I stayed with Evolution, which I can fully recommend.
Reasons: knowledge level of course directors/intructors/dm's, small group diving, fantastic fresh food with daily changing manu (best on island), friendliness and helpfulness of all staff, and they have 4 rooms facing the ocean (2 non-aircon, 2 aircon) with a double and a single bed inside.
Dives:
For seeing thresher sharks, they leave daily at 5 am (there was interest every day when I was there this week), and I consistently saw 4 up close on the dives at Monad Shoal on my dives.
Kalangaman is a worthwhile wall-dive where there was a pygmy sea horse in the red coral fan, amongst others.
Gato Island is a must-do I'd say, allowing me to see 4 white tip reef sharks after swimming through a 25 meter wide tunnel. Enjoy banded sea snakes, crabs, manta/banded boxer/squat/imperial shrimp, and nudibranchs (eel bornella for example) too.
Manta Point won't give you manta's, but will have nice macro.
Certainly don't miss a nightdive at Lighthouse. Here you'll see mating mandarinfish (!) , seahorses, crabs, baby octopus, nudibranchs, and more.
A smaller site called Deep slope is enjoyable as well, with loads of soft coral and a seahorse (in yellow coral fan).
The whale shark can be seen at Oslob, as you'll have read.
I saw 2 diving this morning.
I left Cebu City this morning at 4 AM (time on recommendation of some locals) by taxi for 3500 pesos to Oslob. That's bringing me, waiting for me for 2 hours, and bringing me back to Cebu City. Most cab drivers will do it for this fair price (note: driver left the meter running as required by law, and it showed 3300 pesos). On the way back to Cebu city, turn left after 3 minutes to visit Tumalog waterfalls for free.
Now the details and update:
There are several places when you get to the place (just before Oslob, on your left). The first has yellow flags, but no diving gear. The second (blue poster with whale shark and dive poster) is where you need to be. It's called Aaron Beach Resort, named after the Australian owner Neville Behan's son. Warmhearted guy, married to Philipina, and happened to be there on holiday out of Australia when I was there. Bought the resort 7 yrs ago, before the whale skarks sightings were commercialized 7 months ago. They've been there for hundreds of years though I heard there. Resort is usually run by owner's brother in law, Reneboy Servila. For details you can email
aaronbeachresort@yahoo.com, or email me for phone numbers of you need them. I brought my wet suit, booties, and mask, and wore their (medium was the largest they have) BCD regulator, fins, weights and tank.
I got in the water at 7 am (taxi ride takes 2.5 hrs in the early morning, 3 hrs after 7 am) for an hour at 8m max depth. Swam out towards the boats where the sharks were fed, and saw them up close. Swam away from the boats to find one away from the boats, and one whale shark (6 meters long) checked me out swimming 1 or 2 meters above me, wow. Saw another one 4 meters long, both swimming on and off for an hour continuously. Visibility was poor, less than 10 m at the end of my dive. So in total I belive 2 different sharks, but number varies between 2 and 18, I heard.
Important: the earlier the better, but arrive before 1 PM, as that's when the feeding stops and the sharks disappear. You need to be in the water on or before 1 PM (roughly 50 meters off shore). The owner's family can cook you a wonderful breakfast in their living room if you like after your dive, which I really enjoyed (no menu, you're in the family's home, eggs/sausage/garlic rice, etc).
Fares:
Entry fee: 100 pesos
Government fee: 1500 pesos per person per 15 April 2012 (I paid 350 today, but that will go up in 2 days)
Diving fee: 1500 pesos per person (snorkeling is 1000, viewing from boat is 600)
Also, it will become mandatory to be escorted by a dive guide per 15 April I was told.
Use your sense, keep your distance, and enjoy I'd say!
Drop me an email or message if you have any other questions, and hope you find the above informative!
Thanks again,
Ward
