This is a long report, so I've broken it up into different sections so readers can scroll down and find what you're looking for if you don't want to read the entire thing.
In mid-April I enjoyed almost 2 weeks on Malapascua island, where I did a number of dives just for fun and also took an advanced trimix course. The course was very well-taught and the diving around Malapascua was really enjoyable. Maybe not as mind-blowingly amazing as Cocos Island or North Carolina or Palau or Scapa Flow or whatever, but still pretty good.
If a diver had to choose only a single one of the Philippines' thousands of islands, Malapascua would be a good choice. Its variety of underwater attractions should satisfy just about any diver:
About the only things noticeably missing were turtles and schools of pelagic fishes like trevallies, barracudas, etc.
On a couple dives the visibility was a bit limited, by tropical standards (8 meters or so with a lot of particulate matter between the cameras and their subjects), but other times it was very good: 25 or 30 meters. As most divers know, Mother Nature is fickle, and anyway even most of the lower-viz dives were good because within that range, there were lots of interesting things to see.
Malapascua getting there and getting around
I got to Malapascua by flying into the Mactan-Cebu International Airport from Manila, where I'd had a layover. From the airport to the northern bus terminal was an inexpensive taxi ride (less than P200 if I recall correctly, for about 20 minutes). It took about 4 and a half hours to get from the bus station to the town of Maya on the northern end of Cebu island, and the fare was less than P200. Boats leave from Maya to Malapascua whenever they have enough passengers (which happens numerous times per day, from what I was told). The fare was P80 and the trip lasted about a half-hour. You can arrange for a private car to drive you to Maya from the airport, and you can arrange for a private boat to take you from Maya to Malapascua, if you want to.
The island is fairly small and can be explored entirely on foot, although you might want to hire some help to get yourself and your dive gear to your resort from where the boat from Maya drops you off. If you stay at or near Evolution or Exotic or another place on the far end of the beach, you'd be smart to hire a motorbike or a porter unless you're ready to carry all your kit and other stuff for about a kilometer or more. There's one main village, but all over the island there are small houses lining either side of dirt lanes, so most of the island's more or less populated. Away from the main beach, it's easy to get disoriented if you don't know where you're going, but the island is so small that getting temporarily lost during daytime isn't much of a problem unless your dive boat's leaving soon. Small shops and kiosks here and there sell snacks, drinks and sundries, and there are also some casual eateries if you want to sample the local fareor if you're on a budget and don't want to eat at dive resort restaurants every meal (P40-50 vs P200-350). The beach with most of the dive centers and resorts is Bounty Beach and it takes about 15 minutes or so to stroll from one end of it to the other. There's no ATM on the island, so bring plenty of cash and/or a credit card. Expect a surcharge if you use credit.
And you might need to bring an electrical adapter because the Philippines uses 220 V.
Evolution dive center
I did all my diving with Evolution, a fairly new (2 or 3 years old, I think) dive operation which seems to be earning itself a reputation for quality and professionalism. I was happy with their services and with their competent and friendly people.
In mid-April I enjoyed almost 2 weeks on Malapascua island, where I did a number of dives just for fun and also took an advanced trimix course. The course was very well-taught and the diving around Malapascua was really enjoyable. Maybe not as mind-blowingly amazing as Cocos Island or North Carolina or Palau or Scapa Flow or whatever, but still pretty good.
If a diver had to choose only a single one of the Philippines' thousands of islands, Malapascua would be a good choice. Its variety of underwater attractions should satisfy just about any diver:
- Big animals. Divers wanting big animal encounters are almost guaranteed to see thresher sharks and whitetip reef sharks at certain sites, and might see big rays.
- Macro life. Underwater naturalists and photographers can see pygmy seahorses and some larger seahorses too, as well as ornate ghost pipefish, frogfish, lots of different nudibranchs, mating mandarinfish, bobtail squid and more.
- Wrecks. Very important to some of us, there are good wrecks rusting on the sea floor.
- Technical diving. Tech divers will enjoy a couple of the wrecks (one of which is too deep for recreational diving, another of which has good penetration opportunities beyond recreational limits) and can also do deep wall dives offering thresher shark and big ray encounters.
About the only things noticeably missing were turtles and schools of pelagic fishes like trevallies, barracudas, etc.
On a couple dives the visibility was a bit limited, by tropical standards (8 meters or so with a lot of particulate matter between the cameras and their subjects), but other times it was very good: 25 or 30 meters. As most divers know, Mother Nature is fickle, and anyway even most of the lower-viz dives were good because within that range, there were lots of interesting things to see.
Malapascua getting there and getting around
I got to Malapascua by flying into the Mactan-Cebu International Airport from Manila, where I'd had a layover. From the airport to the northern bus terminal was an inexpensive taxi ride (less than P200 if I recall correctly, for about 20 minutes). It took about 4 and a half hours to get from the bus station to the town of Maya on the northern end of Cebu island, and the fare was less than P200. Boats leave from Maya to Malapascua whenever they have enough passengers (which happens numerous times per day, from what I was told). The fare was P80 and the trip lasted about a half-hour. You can arrange for a private car to drive you to Maya from the airport, and you can arrange for a private boat to take you from Maya to Malapascua, if you want to.
The island is fairly small and can be explored entirely on foot, although you might want to hire some help to get yourself and your dive gear to your resort from where the boat from Maya drops you off. If you stay at or near Evolution or Exotic or another place on the far end of the beach, you'd be smart to hire a motorbike or a porter unless you're ready to carry all your kit and other stuff for about a kilometer or more. There's one main village, but all over the island there are small houses lining either side of dirt lanes, so most of the island's more or less populated. Away from the main beach, it's easy to get disoriented if you don't know where you're going, but the island is so small that getting temporarily lost during daytime isn't much of a problem unless your dive boat's leaving soon. Small shops and kiosks here and there sell snacks, drinks and sundries, and there are also some casual eateries if you want to sample the local fareor if you're on a budget and don't want to eat at dive resort restaurants every meal (P40-50 vs P200-350). The beach with most of the dive centers and resorts is Bounty Beach and it takes about 15 minutes or so to stroll from one end of it to the other. There's no ATM on the island, so bring plenty of cash and/or a credit card. Expect a surcharge if you use credit.
And you might need to bring an electrical adapter because the Philippines uses 220 V.
Evolution dive center
I did all my diving with Evolution, a fairly new (2 or 3 years old, I think) dive operation which seems to be earning itself a reputation for quality and professionalism. I was happy with their services and with their competent and friendly people.
- Service. They make an effort to satisfy their clients. During the almost 2 weeks I was there, most of their clientèle seemed to fall into one of two categories: either (1) quite experienced divers (a lot of us were divemasters, instructors, and/or technical divers) who chose Evolution based upon reputation or word of mouth recommendations, or in some cases because they knew the owners & staff, or (2) new divers, a couple of whom told me that they were influenced by Evolution's top rating on tripadvisor.com. The dive center almost always did a good job of grouping experienced divers together and putting the inexperienced ones in a separate group, led by a different DM. Inevitably, as their business grows and they get more intermediate-level divers as clients, they'll find it harder to adequately segregate divers by experience and skill level, but for now they're doing a pretty good job of it. For most of my recreational dives my DM was a local guy who knows the sites well and is good at finding well-camouflaged marine life. His briefings told us what we needed to know and he asked us to tell him when we got down to 100 bar and then again at 70 bar (which is needed to get the timing right, for a DM navigating a group back to the mooring line), but otherwise he acknowledged that we were experienced divers and he treated us as such, showing us the critters rather than babysitting us. They usually ended the dive after about an hour or so, just to keep the schedule moving along because the dive center offers 4 dives a day (no urgency, though, and they let us stay a bit longer if we were looking at something interesting). The dive center's staff or crew will carry your kit on and off of the boat and set it up before dives and then disassemble it and rinse it after the dives if you want, or they'll let you do all of that yourself if that's what you prefer.
- Facilities and equipment. Evolution has (I forget) either 2 or 3 large banca-style dive boats and a smaller boat or two for 1-on-1 or 1-on-2 dives (training dives or Discover Scuba Dives on nearby reefs). The bigger boats don't have a cabin per se, but have a ceiling cover to provide shade from the tropical sun. Entry is a giant stride off the bow, and then a hatch door in the foredeck opens and a staircase-style ladder lowers down for divers to exit the water. Boat crew will lift deco bottles, doubles sets, or other kit out of the water if a diver so desires. They have recreational and technical diving gear for rent for those who need it. I didn't ask whether they have any 15 liter cylinders (11 liter AL80s were the standard, as is common throughout the tropics) but they do have some twinsets and also have 11 and 5.5 liter deco/stage bottles with rigging. Of course, air and EAN32 are the most commonly used gases, but they can blend almost any mix of almost any gas. They have sorb available for rebreather divers.
- Food, drink, and hanging out. Their restaurant and bar, the Craic House, has a small menu of featured offerings that change every day and the chef can make some other dishes upon request. Apart from the unexceptional and overpriced breakfasts and sandwiches, almost all the dishes I tried there were quite good and of reasonable value considering the quality. The staff (Craic dealers) were all nice, friendly folks. There's free Wi-fi at the Craic House for those with laptops, i-Pads, etc., and also a handful of electrical outlets for recharging batteries. Most evenings there were divers at the Craic House editing photos on laptops, having a meal, flipping through the marine life ID books, or just hanging out and talking over a few beers. There are also a number of hammocks around the resort area where divers can relax.
- Resort. I didn't stay at Evolution's resort so I can't comment on their rooms. I stayed at Mr. Kwiiz, where Evolution had booked my budget accommodation for me (P500/night). It was about a 3-minute walk from Evolution. Mr. Kwiiz' rooms lack sinks and mirrors in the bathrooms, and the dim ceiling bulb made for difficult nighttime reading, but otherwise my room was adequate for someone with backpacking experience.
- Just read all four parts and I feel like I have just been there again, thanks for posting.
