I recently returned from a quick trip to Bohol where we combined sight-seeing (Chocolate Hills/Tarsiers) with a day of diving at Alona /Balicasag. But the trip really started in Moalboal where I was teaching my son in-law how to dive.
While diving in Moalboal we had two very enjoyable dives one at the Marine Sanctuary and the other close to the Airplane wreck. I was pleasantly surprised by the good visibility at the Marine Sanctuary as well as the quantity of large fish (Snappers, Groupers, Sweet Lips) and of course the turtles. We also saw a small school (20 to 30) of large jacks who were hunting along the reef. The Airplane wreck was also an enjoyable site (although we did not actually dive the airplane since it was Mike’s final O/W dive prior to certification and he could only go to 18M). There were also lots of fish and turtles present on the second dive … The nice thing about these two dive sites are they are not really wall dives like the majority of Moalboal but sloping terrain with patches of sand and some small canyons…
After he earned his certification we left for Bohol from Cebu’s Pier 4, via the Super Cat Fast Ferry. We arrived in Tagbilaran where we were met by the hotel shuttle. We chose to stay at The Bohol Tropics Resort which is very close to the pier. They have a couple of swimming pools on the grounds as well as a nice restaurant/bar which has a live band nightly. I was going to use the onsite dive center but after I checked their prices and spoke with the manager decided it was too expensive to go to Balicasag or Cabilao from there and decided to dive with Bohol Fun Divers in Alona.
I was pleased with Bohol Fun Divers, the dives were reasonably priced and the rental gear was in good shape. The only complaint I had was both of my tanks must have been hot filled, as I started with 190 and 170 bar respectively. I mentioned it to the manager when I was finished with the dives and to my surprise instead of saying something like “ohh sorry” I got “well you’re the only person who has ever said that”. Maybe she thought I was going to ask for a discount
.
Anyway, we made two dives the first was at Divers Heaven and the other was Black Forest. Both were good dives with lots of Marine life. I particularly enjoyed Black Forest because of the strong current which really qualified the dive as a genuine “drift” dive. I was shooting video and one other diver was shooting stills, we both had a challenging time focusing in on stationary subjects such as the Nudibranch and Garden Eels… but I got some good drift footage. Our DM was very good and escorted one diver to the boat once he was short on air and despite the heavy current was able to rejoin us near the end of the dive to ensure we had an uneventful pick-up. The boatmen took good care of the camera’s as they were handed up and down from the boat.
Once we returned, there was adequate room for the washing of our wetsuits/mask fins and snorkels but there really was not adequate space for soaking more than one Camera at a time(unless you’re using point and shoots).
Since we only made two dives I tipped the DM 500P.
Again, it was a well run operation and with the exception of the short fills(particularly the response) I had a great experience.
Cheers,
Roger
While diving in Moalboal we had two very enjoyable dives one at the Marine Sanctuary and the other close to the Airplane wreck. I was pleasantly surprised by the good visibility at the Marine Sanctuary as well as the quantity of large fish (Snappers, Groupers, Sweet Lips) and of course the turtles. We also saw a small school (20 to 30) of large jacks who were hunting along the reef. The Airplane wreck was also an enjoyable site (although we did not actually dive the airplane since it was Mike’s final O/W dive prior to certification and he could only go to 18M). There were also lots of fish and turtles present on the second dive … The nice thing about these two dive sites are they are not really wall dives like the majority of Moalboal but sloping terrain with patches of sand and some small canyons…
After he earned his certification we left for Bohol from Cebu’s Pier 4, via the Super Cat Fast Ferry. We arrived in Tagbilaran where we were met by the hotel shuttle. We chose to stay at The Bohol Tropics Resort which is very close to the pier. They have a couple of swimming pools on the grounds as well as a nice restaurant/bar which has a live band nightly. I was going to use the onsite dive center but after I checked their prices and spoke with the manager decided it was too expensive to go to Balicasag or Cabilao from there and decided to dive with Bohol Fun Divers in Alona.
I was pleased with Bohol Fun Divers, the dives were reasonably priced and the rental gear was in good shape. The only complaint I had was both of my tanks must have been hot filled, as I started with 190 and 170 bar respectively. I mentioned it to the manager when I was finished with the dives and to my surprise instead of saying something like “ohh sorry” I got “well you’re the only person who has ever said that”. Maybe she thought I was going to ask for a discount
.Anyway, we made two dives the first was at Divers Heaven and the other was Black Forest. Both were good dives with lots of Marine life. I particularly enjoyed Black Forest because of the strong current which really qualified the dive as a genuine “drift” dive. I was shooting video and one other diver was shooting stills, we both had a challenging time focusing in on stationary subjects such as the Nudibranch and Garden Eels… but I got some good drift footage. Our DM was very good and escorted one diver to the boat once he was short on air and despite the heavy current was able to rejoin us near the end of the dive to ensure we had an uneventful pick-up. The boatmen took good care of the camera’s as they were handed up and down from the boat.
Once we returned, there was adequate room for the washing of our wetsuits/mask fins and snorkels but there really was not adequate space for soaking more than one Camera at a time(unless you’re using point and shoots).
Since we only made two dives I tipped the DM 500P.
Again, it was a well run operation and with the exception of the short fills(particularly the response) I had a great experience.
Cheers,
Roger
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