fly2dive
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Returned last week from the Philippines and had a great time ... except the long travel. We flew IAD-LAX-TPE-CEB using EVA Air. We were extremely lucky flying into and out of TPE. As a SCUBABOARD member had recommended that the transfer between TPE-CEB should be a couple of hours to insure we made the flight/luggage followed us. Unfortunately our flights were already booked and our layover int TPE was just 60 minutes. Whats worse is that our flight from LAX landed AFTER our flight to CEB had started to board. LUCKILY, there were 26 people on our flight that were also scheduled on the TPE-CEB flight and EVA Air personnel were at the gate to escort us to our awaiting flight (which was less than1/3rd full). We me a couple that had similar flight schedule and since they only had 8 people on their flight into TPE headed to CEB they were locked out by EVA Air and had to spend a night in TPE and reroute via Manila and other routes to Cebu. Sooooo great advise, PLEASE check layovers for at least 2 hrs layover if on EVA Air connecting flights! We stayed the first evening at Bluewater Maribago Resort on Mactan in Cebu City. Nice reKimod shoals (the new location for the Thresher sharkssort, small manmade lagoon lagoon and beach. Good HAppy Hour and the food was excellent. Next morning our transfer was waiting for us at 9am to take us to the Maya Port for the boat ride to Malapascua. We needed to stop at a money changer and since it was Sunday most weren't open until later ... we found one in Danao City that was open at 9am with good rates. Our drive to the Maya Port was about 4+ hours with a couple of stops. The wind and sea state weren't real conducive for a leisurely boat ride to Malapascua. There was a large group baording a boat at the pier and me and my buddy had to be feriied out tour boat moored at a bouy. The ride over saw 4-7 foot swells out of the north so a normal 30-40 minute ride was closer to 90 minutes. We had to transfer again to a smaller boat once in Malapascua and then walk the last bit to the Exotic Resort. The resort is on the east side of the island in a pretty quiet area and nextdoor to Evolution Dive Resort. Rooms were comfortable (all air con) and the restaurant had an extensive menu and large portions. We were on the full meal plan so never ventured beyond the resort. Loved the Pizza oven! Dive center was well equiped and initially there were few others at the resort. Two large groups showed up mid stay. Exotic had 3 boats prior to the typhoon and finally got there 2nd boat operational when those larger groups arrived. We did our first dives at Kimod Shoal (the new location for the Thresher Sharks ... previous location was Monad Shoal) water and viz weren't great maybe 8m and water green. Unfortunately, they had plenty of rain and wind and visibility and water quality was poor all stay, although our last day had blue'er water and about 12m-15m viz at Monad, We did the Tresher Shark dives 3 times. Most of the other reefs around Malapascua had limited bigger fish (some dynamite fishing still going on) and the green water and limited viz continued. We caught the mandarin fish on a couple of twilight dives and my buddy got some nice pics. If you are taking photos then its mostly macro, loads of nudi;s and small crabs. I;ll post a link for pics when he's done editing his 1,000 of pics. Our night dive at the house reef was saw about 2m of viz and it felt like I was back running training dive at Millbrook Quarry. The divemasters wer good, Paul was excellent in finding the small things for my buddy including pygmy sea horses, orangantan crabs, nudi's, and such. Due to sea conditions and the fact that fisherman cut the anchor bouys most of the diving is done with live boats. It;s not too bad but often you have to hang out in the swells waiting for the boat to get into position to pick you up. At Monad w/threshers this means there are often 6-8 boats all jocking to drop off and pick up divers, Gato island was marginally better viz and we got to see white tips and nurse sharks, tons of sea snakes etc. Overall outside of the Thresher Sharks I was not impressed with the diving ... probably just a poor timing this year as the weather has been strange all over the Visaya's we were told. I'll post more on Moalboal and Kasai Village in my next post.
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