If you love macro, you should definitely go to Cabilao. These words from the videographer whom I met at Moalboal in December 2006 are etched in my head and ever since then, being a dedicated macro enthusiast, I had always been anticipating a visit to this part of the Central Visayas waters. So, when Philip told me that he is planning a trip during the Easter long weekend holidays with Kylie and there is still one space (3 to a room) available, I couldn't resist and said Im IN without much deliberation!
Cabilao has a land of area of 7.2 sq. kilometers and is one of the smaller Philippine Islands. It is located just off the western side of Bohol in the straights separating Bohol Island and Cebu. On 20th March, we departed Singapore and flew to Cebu Mactan International airport via a 3.5 hours Cebu Pacific flight. Upon arrival, we were picked up by our pre-arranged driver and took 1.5 hours by road to the village of Argao, where the resort has arranged a private bangka for us. Another 1 hour 20 minutes later, we finally stepped foot on the island, had breakfast, check-in and ready for our first dive at 11am.
There are 3 resorts at Cabilao, namely La Estrella Beach Resort, Polaris Beach and Dive and Cabilao Beach Club. We stayed at La Estrella (Tauchen auf den Philippinen - im La Estrella Beach Resort, Cabilao Island, Bohol) owned by a German/ Filipino couple and dived with Calibao Dive center, ran by the resort. The staff is a friendly bunch and seems happy to be serving you. 90% of the guests here are middle-aged German families and couples. Accordingly to dive master, Roy, we were the first Singaporeans diving with them. The 17 bungalows are surrounded by beautiful verdant tropical gardens; and have many hammocks hanging from tree to tree. The superior hut bungalow that we were assigned to was basic and roomy with 3 single beds, a large cupboard and fan cooled. It was recently renovated and has a clean en-suite bathroom with fresh water shower (without heater) and built-in cabinets with plenty of storage space for toiletries. There is no 24 hours electricity supply and it usually runs from 11am to 2pm and then again from 6pm to 4-5am. The resort's private generator supplies electricity to the restaurant at daytime so at times we charged our batteries there.
The food catered mainly to the German crowd and the menu has quite a fair selection. Id rate the food to be fairly good depending on the choices. Fried bee hoon, rum pork chops and beef goulash were delicious but the frisbee-like pancake and grilled fish were disappointing. Ice blended fruit juices were always good and refreshing no matter what types of fruits we ordered. Kitchen was rather slow so we usually pre-ordered our meals and told them specific time to serve, which is recommended.
The dive center is managed by a friendly German couple, Ronald and Catherine and has 3 local dive masters, Bobet, Roy and Jun Jun. The dive center is relatively new and everything is arranged in an orderly manner. Tanks were set-up with BCDs/regulators and taken care by the boatmen throughout our entire stay and everyone was given a crate labeled with our names for the rest of our gears. Fresh water is an issue as there is only one showerhead for rinsing before/after dive. There are 2-cemented rinse tanks, one for wetsuits/masks/fins and the other for cameras/dive computers but they are quite small (can only sits 2 camera set-ups) and had to be filled from containers. There are about 10-12 divers at any time and the water got dirty fairly quickly so eventually, on the 2nd day, Roy brought out a big pink pail for the cameras. There are two dive boats, a smaller speedboat, which can accommodate 8 divers/2 divemasters/1 boatman and a bigger bangka, which has engine so loud that everyone were covering our ears for the rides. Luckily for us, we were using the speedboat for most of our dives except day 2.
Now, onto the diving
Cabilao diving is a rare gem and the array of species you encounter is astonishing. The island is almost completely surrounded by an intact coral reef, and you have fantastic diving close to your accommodation.
We dived with Roy and Bobet, who are always jolly and certainly a pleasure to dive with. They are both excellent spotters and know absolutely every inch of the underwater landscape, and are always enthusiastic in showing us all the different species of marine invertebrates and fish life.
Their usual dive schedule is at 9am, 2pm and night dive at 5.45pm. To accommodate our request for an additional day dive to maximize the diving during our short 4 days stay, the dive schedule was adjusted to 9am, 11.30am, 2.30pm and night dive at 5.45pm, which was pretty rush in-between surface intervals.
I did a total of 15 dives inclusive of 4 night dives, which are not to be missed! I will say that the Philippines have the best (macro) night diving Ive ever been. Although, there are only 10 dive sites, we didnt manage to cover them all. The dive sites that we did are Light House, Fallen Tree, Gorgonian Wall, Shark (Or Current Watching) Point, Chapel Point, Cambaquiz II and they are only 5-25 minutes from the resort. Water temperature was around 27-28 deg Celsius.
The diversity of the corals on these sites is outstanding. On the shallower reefs, there is profusion of coral growths and in excellent conditions. Amongst them, there are a great variety of brilliantly colored reef fishes and prolific communities of invertebrates. Many species of shrimps and crabs, lion fishes, ghost pipe fishes, frogfish, cowries etc with a lush background of various tunicates and sponges provided ample opportunities for great photos.
The walls drop down to about 60 meters or so. Visibility was excellent too, it felt like I could see for miles but I reckoned it was probably close to 30 meters. Along the wall are numerous ledges, overhangs and small caves. The area has a rich growth of many kinds of sponges and massive sea fans. Within this encrusting community, we found spider crabs, gobies, nudibranchs, various pygmy sea horses, commensal and anemone shrimps and crabs etc.
Light House and Fallen Tree are also excellent locations for night diving, when many of the nocturnal creatures come out of hiding amongst the caves and crevices. The creatures seen on this reef at night will amaze you. Hermit crabs of infinite colors, sizes and shapes were scattered like confetti across the reef. I also spotted a tiny bobtailed squid, few snake eels, nudibranchs, Pegasus sea moth, juvenile flounder and many more.
Well, you get the picture, and Cabilao certainly gets my concurrence as a macro haven. The location is relatively remote and unknown to many, but thats precisely why the diving is so wonderful. This will truly be one of the Worlds finest macro paradises and I hope itll stay so forever.
Here is the link to my underwater photos: Jovin's Cool Photos!! :: Cabilao Mar 2008
Happy bubbles,
Jovin-
Cabilao has a land of area of 7.2 sq. kilometers and is one of the smaller Philippine Islands. It is located just off the western side of Bohol in the straights separating Bohol Island and Cebu. On 20th March, we departed Singapore and flew to Cebu Mactan International airport via a 3.5 hours Cebu Pacific flight. Upon arrival, we were picked up by our pre-arranged driver and took 1.5 hours by road to the village of Argao, where the resort has arranged a private bangka for us. Another 1 hour 20 minutes later, we finally stepped foot on the island, had breakfast, check-in and ready for our first dive at 11am.
There are 3 resorts at Cabilao, namely La Estrella Beach Resort, Polaris Beach and Dive and Cabilao Beach Club. We stayed at La Estrella (Tauchen auf den Philippinen - im La Estrella Beach Resort, Cabilao Island, Bohol) owned by a German/ Filipino couple and dived with Calibao Dive center, ran by the resort. The staff is a friendly bunch and seems happy to be serving you. 90% of the guests here are middle-aged German families and couples. Accordingly to dive master, Roy, we were the first Singaporeans diving with them. The 17 bungalows are surrounded by beautiful verdant tropical gardens; and have many hammocks hanging from tree to tree. The superior hut bungalow that we were assigned to was basic and roomy with 3 single beds, a large cupboard and fan cooled. It was recently renovated and has a clean en-suite bathroom with fresh water shower (without heater) and built-in cabinets with plenty of storage space for toiletries. There is no 24 hours electricity supply and it usually runs from 11am to 2pm and then again from 6pm to 4-5am. The resort's private generator supplies electricity to the restaurant at daytime so at times we charged our batteries there.
The food catered mainly to the German crowd and the menu has quite a fair selection. Id rate the food to be fairly good depending on the choices. Fried bee hoon, rum pork chops and beef goulash were delicious but the frisbee-like pancake and grilled fish were disappointing. Ice blended fruit juices were always good and refreshing no matter what types of fruits we ordered. Kitchen was rather slow so we usually pre-ordered our meals and told them specific time to serve, which is recommended.
The dive center is managed by a friendly German couple, Ronald and Catherine and has 3 local dive masters, Bobet, Roy and Jun Jun. The dive center is relatively new and everything is arranged in an orderly manner. Tanks were set-up with BCDs/regulators and taken care by the boatmen throughout our entire stay and everyone was given a crate labeled with our names for the rest of our gears. Fresh water is an issue as there is only one showerhead for rinsing before/after dive. There are 2-cemented rinse tanks, one for wetsuits/masks/fins and the other for cameras/dive computers but they are quite small (can only sits 2 camera set-ups) and had to be filled from containers. There are about 10-12 divers at any time and the water got dirty fairly quickly so eventually, on the 2nd day, Roy brought out a big pink pail for the cameras. There are two dive boats, a smaller speedboat, which can accommodate 8 divers/2 divemasters/1 boatman and a bigger bangka, which has engine so loud that everyone were covering our ears for the rides. Luckily for us, we were using the speedboat for most of our dives except day 2.
Now, onto the diving
Cabilao diving is a rare gem and the array of species you encounter is astonishing. The island is almost completely surrounded by an intact coral reef, and you have fantastic diving close to your accommodation.
We dived with Roy and Bobet, who are always jolly and certainly a pleasure to dive with. They are both excellent spotters and know absolutely every inch of the underwater landscape, and are always enthusiastic in showing us all the different species of marine invertebrates and fish life.
Their usual dive schedule is at 9am, 2pm and night dive at 5.45pm. To accommodate our request for an additional day dive to maximize the diving during our short 4 days stay, the dive schedule was adjusted to 9am, 11.30am, 2.30pm and night dive at 5.45pm, which was pretty rush in-between surface intervals.
I did a total of 15 dives inclusive of 4 night dives, which are not to be missed! I will say that the Philippines have the best (macro) night diving Ive ever been. Although, there are only 10 dive sites, we didnt manage to cover them all. The dive sites that we did are Light House, Fallen Tree, Gorgonian Wall, Shark (Or Current Watching) Point, Chapel Point, Cambaquiz II and they are only 5-25 minutes from the resort. Water temperature was around 27-28 deg Celsius.
The diversity of the corals on these sites is outstanding. On the shallower reefs, there is profusion of coral growths and in excellent conditions. Amongst them, there are a great variety of brilliantly colored reef fishes and prolific communities of invertebrates. Many species of shrimps and crabs, lion fishes, ghost pipe fishes, frogfish, cowries etc with a lush background of various tunicates and sponges provided ample opportunities for great photos.
The walls drop down to about 60 meters or so. Visibility was excellent too, it felt like I could see for miles but I reckoned it was probably close to 30 meters. Along the wall are numerous ledges, overhangs and small caves. The area has a rich growth of many kinds of sponges and massive sea fans. Within this encrusting community, we found spider crabs, gobies, nudibranchs, various pygmy sea horses, commensal and anemone shrimps and crabs etc.
Light House and Fallen Tree are also excellent locations for night diving, when many of the nocturnal creatures come out of hiding amongst the caves and crevices. The creatures seen on this reef at night will amaze you. Hermit crabs of infinite colors, sizes and shapes were scattered like confetti across the reef. I also spotted a tiny bobtailed squid, few snake eels, nudibranchs, Pegasus sea moth, juvenile flounder and many more.
Well, you get the picture, and Cabilao certainly gets my concurrence as a macro haven. The location is relatively remote and unknown to many, but thats precisely why the diving is so wonderful. This will truly be one of the Worlds finest macro paradises and I hope itll stay so forever.
Here is the link to my underwater photos: Jovin's Cool Photos!! :: Cabilao Mar 2008
Happy bubbles,
Jovin-
