Background: My boyfriend (BF) and I are budget-backpacking-scuba diving SEA for ~8 months (3/8 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!
Camiguin: We saw some excellent videos of hard corals after Typhoon Odette and wanted to check it out, especially since Camiguin seemed to be underrated.
Day 0: A very long travel day.
We left Cabilao around 6:30 and took a boat to Sandingan Mocpoc Pier (1000P, ~30 mins). Then we took a trike to Moalong Bridge (143P) and only waited ~5 mins before a Southern Star bus heading to Tagbilaran showed up. The bus ride (150P) took ~1.5hrs as we hit some traffic going into the city.
The Dao bus terminal is next to the Island City Mall, where we ate breakfast. We got on a bus at 10:00 (240P… + 20P for luggage which was the first time this has happened…) and reached Jagna shortly before 12:00.
We went down to the Super Shuttle Ferry ticketing office to buy our tickets (1532P) but had to wait 30mins as the person was having lunch. Afterwards, we ate lunch at McDonald’s before boarding the boat at 14:00 and departing shortly after 14:30. It was a 3.5hr ride. The ferry ride was quite miserable as it was super hot and there was only a light breeze from the wind. The engine compartment is also right in the middle of the seats so it was giving off a lot of heat as well. We got unlucky and boarded behind everyone else and had to sit closer to the engine.
Once we arrived at Balbagon Port, we walked past all of the trikes yelling at us to go up to the main road. It is much cheaper to catch a trike here. We got in a shared trike and paid 30P total.
The accommodation: Kokomo Dive Resort (which contains Blue Season Dive Center) is fairly nice. The rooms are either two twin beds or a king bed (but both are the same price), with aircon (strong & worked well) and a hot shower (but very little water pressure). The floor of the room was fairly dirty though and needed a good sweeping.
We booked a king room, but upon arrival it wasn’t available anymore, so we had to switch into a twin bed room, which was annoying.
The rooms open with sliding glass doors at the front and the lock was not very convincing. The soundproofing was not so good, so you could hear people outside in the pool area.
The pool’s water was very cloudy and I was dubious of its cleanliness. The resort has direct water access, although the “beach” consists of rocks.
Breakfast was included and there were a few options to choose from. It was pretty good.
The WiFi was absolutely terrible and not very strong at all. There was one power outage during our stay but it only lasted <10 mins.
It seemed that the resort also rented scooters/motorbikes out to guests, although we didn’t do this. The staff were fairly friendly but we didn’t interact with them much.
The dive operation: While we messaged with Cherry over WhatsApp to discuss the dives beforehand, she ended up not being on any dives with us.
Instead we dove with Miko, our DM… who we later found out was only a DM candidate! He was a good guide, I was just shocked that they let him lead us on dives solo for liability reasons.
It seemed that Romeo, the shop’s instructor, was stretched too thin as he was leading DSD dives on our first day and teaching OW the second day.
The shop had a bangka, which I will call medium-sized, that had twin engines (interesting). We wore earmuffs during transit as it was quite loud.
We were provided snacks, water, and towels in between the dives. The snacks were good (fruit, cakes, crackers) and they were not stingy with them, which is something we’ve encountered with other dive shops.
The dives ranged from 50-70mins and we took 1 hr SIs. We took the SIs on the respective island for both days which was nice.
Although Miko lacked a bit of confidence underwater, he was very accommodating of our requests and stayed by us. He checked on us underwater a few times.
The tanks were filled well, in a range of 2900-3400 PSI. I saw a Google Review about someone who had smelled “oily” air but our air was fine.
We set up our own tanks at the start of the day and the boat crew changed our tanks for us on the boat between dives. They also carried everything for us onto/off of the boat.
There were rinse bins for us to use back at the shop, but not really adequate drying space (both at the shop and also on the porch of our room). Luckily we stretched our wetsuits out on the lounge chairs by the pool during our dry day, which worked out well.
Day 1: White Island (~40 mins from the shop)
Dive 1: Sanctuary
Max depth 73ft, 67 mins, min water temp 84F.
A relatively interesting dive with lots of fish life (including several large groupers), soft corals, and sponges. The end of the dive was at an area with a huge spread of Acropora… which were all dead. Unfortunately this dive site suffered from a Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS) epidemic 1-2 months ago, which completely devastated all the branching corals. It was really sad to see, since you could tell it was so recent.
Dive 2: Kilambing North
Max depth 60ft, 55 mins, min water temp 84F.
A mixed reef of Porites (both bouldering & fingering), some Heliopora, and some foliose & branching Echinopora. It was 50% dead due to more COTS. I counted 76 individuals during this dive.
Dive 3: Kilambing South
Max depth 58ft, 58 mins, min water temp 84F.
Essentially no branching corals after leaving the mooring. Only some small bouldering corals. There were less COTS here; I counted 47.
Day 2: Mantigue Island (~40 mins from the shop)
Dive 1: Sanctuary
Max depth 41ft, 71 mins, min water temp 85F.
Actually, it was fairly nice. The nicest part was the first ~15ft (right until the crest). Lots of variety: decently sized and healthy Acropora tables and branching patches, Porites (bouldering & fingering), Pocillopora, etc. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of anchor damage.
Dive 2: Black Forest
Max depth 74ft, 72 mins, min water temp 84F.
A soft coral wall. We probably saw 40+ turtles which was relatively interesting.
Day 3: Catching up on work.
Day 4: Rest day to let gear dry.
Final thoughts: Mantigue Island Sanctuary was quite nice. Camiguin as a whole would’ve been nicer ~2 months ago, before COTS took out most of the branching corals at White Island. Unfortunate timing, but what can you do.
I would classify this as a neat little side trip. It would’ve been nice to do the hike to the volcano/mountain in the center of Camiguin, but it didn’t work out with our schedule.
Note: If you are staying on the eastern side of the island, I HIGHLY recommend the pizza from La Mesa Pizza Station. The prices were great, they did delivery, and the taste was incredible.
Camiguin: We saw some excellent videos of hard corals after Typhoon Odette and wanted to check it out, especially since Camiguin seemed to be underrated.
Day 0: A very long travel day.
We left Cabilao around 6:30 and took a boat to Sandingan Mocpoc Pier (1000P, ~30 mins). Then we took a trike to Moalong Bridge (143P) and only waited ~5 mins before a Southern Star bus heading to Tagbilaran showed up. The bus ride (150P) took ~1.5hrs as we hit some traffic going into the city.
The Dao bus terminal is next to the Island City Mall, where we ate breakfast. We got on a bus at 10:00 (240P… + 20P for luggage which was the first time this has happened…) and reached Jagna shortly before 12:00.
We went down to the Super Shuttle Ferry ticketing office to buy our tickets (1532P) but had to wait 30mins as the person was having lunch. Afterwards, we ate lunch at McDonald’s before boarding the boat at 14:00 and departing shortly after 14:30. It was a 3.5hr ride. The ferry ride was quite miserable as it was super hot and there was only a light breeze from the wind. The engine compartment is also right in the middle of the seats so it was giving off a lot of heat as well. We got unlucky and boarded behind everyone else and had to sit closer to the engine.
Once we arrived at Balbagon Port, we walked past all of the trikes yelling at us to go up to the main road. It is much cheaper to catch a trike here. We got in a shared trike and paid 30P total.
The accommodation: Kokomo Dive Resort (which contains Blue Season Dive Center) is fairly nice. The rooms are either two twin beds or a king bed (but both are the same price), with aircon (strong & worked well) and a hot shower (but very little water pressure). The floor of the room was fairly dirty though and needed a good sweeping.
We booked a king room, but upon arrival it wasn’t available anymore, so we had to switch into a twin bed room, which was annoying.
The rooms open with sliding glass doors at the front and the lock was not very convincing. The soundproofing was not so good, so you could hear people outside in the pool area.
The pool’s water was very cloudy and I was dubious of its cleanliness. The resort has direct water access, although the “beach” consists of rocks.
Breakfast was included and there were a few options to choose from. It was pretty good.
The WiFi was absolutely terrible and not very strong at all. There was one power outage during our stay but it only lasted <10 mins.
It seemed that the resort also rented scooters/motorbikes out to guests, although we didn’t do this. The staff were fairly friendly but we didn’t interact with them much.
The dive operation: While we messaged with Cherry over WhatsApp to discuss the dives beforehand, she ended up not being on any dives with us.
Instead we dove with Miko, our DM… who we later found out was only a DM candidate! He was a good guide, I was just shocked that they let him lead us on dives solo for liability reasons.
It seemed that Romeo, the shop’s instructor, was stretched too thin as he was leading DSD dives on our first day and teaching OW the second day.
The shop had a bangka, which I will call medium-sized, that had twin engines (interesting). We wore earmuffs during transit as it was quite loud.
We were provided snacks, water, and towels in between the dives. The snacks were good (fruit, cakes, crackers) and they were not stingy with them, which is something we’ve encountered with other dive shops.
The dives ranged from 50-70mins and we took 1 hr SIs. We took the SIs on the respective island for both days which was nice.
Although Miko lacked a bit of confidence underwater, he was very accommodating of our requests and stayed by us. He checked on us underwater a few times.
The tanks were filled well, in a range of 2900-3400 PSI. I saw a Google Review about someone who had smelled “oily” air but our air was fine.
We set up our own tanks at the start of the day and the boat crew changed our tanks for us on the boat between dives. They also carried everything for us onto/off of the boat.
There were rinse bins for us to use back at the shop, but not really adequate drying space (both at the shop and also on the porch of our room). Luckily we stretched our wetsuits out on the lounge chairs by the pool during our dry day, which worked out well.
Day 1: White Island (~40 mins from the shop)
Dive 1: Sanctuary
Max depth 73ft, 67 mins, min water temp 84F.
A relatively interesting dive with lots of fish life (including several large groupers), soft corals, and sponges. The end of the dive was at an area with a huge spread of Acropora… which were all dead. Unfortunately this dive site suffered from a Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS) epidemic 1-2 months ago, which completely devastated all the branching corals. It was really sad to see, since you could tell it was so recent.
Dive 2: Kilambing North
Max depth 60ft, 55 mins, min water temp 84F.
A mixed reef of Porites (both bouldering & fingering), some Heliopora, and some foliose & branching Echinopora. It was 50% dead due to more COTS. I counted 76 individuals during this dive.
Dive 3: Kilambing South
Max depth 58ft, 58 mins, min water temp 84F.
Essentially no branching corals after leaving the mooring. Only some small bouldering corals. There were less COTS here; I counted 47.
Day 2: Mantigue Island (~40 mins from the shop)
Dive 1: Sanctuary
Max depth 41ft, 71 mins, min water temp 85F.
Actually, it was fairly nice. The nicest part was the first ~15ft (right until the crest). Lots of variety: decently sized and healthy Acropora tables and branching patches, Porites (bouldering & fingering), Pocillopora, etc. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of anchor damage.
Dive 2: Black Forest
Max depth 74ft, 72 mins, min water temp 84F.
A soft coral wall. We probably saw 40+ turtles which was relatively interesting.
Day 3: Catching up on work.
Day 4: Rest day to let gear dry.
Final thoughts: Mantigue Island Sanctuary was quite nice. Camiguin as a whole would’ve been nicer ~2 months ago, before COTS took out most of the branching corals at White Island. Unfortunate timing, but what can you do.
I would classify this as a neat little side trip. It would’ve been nice to do the hike to the volcano/mountain in the center of Camiguin, but it didn’t work out with our schedule.
Note: If you are staying on the eastern side of the island, I HIGHLY recommend the pizza from La Mesa Pizza Station. The prices were great, they did delivery, and the taste was incredible.
