Palawan Trip Report-Puerto Princesa, Tubbataha, El Nido, Coron

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After a bit of socializing, I headed up to get my stuff stowed away. After unpacking I was asleep by 11PM. The next day, after a night of rocking and rolling, I woke up a little after 5AM to see Tubbataha in the distance.

I watched from an upper deck as the crew began making preparation for the day. We met in the salon at 6AM for a light Breakfast which consisted of toast, butter, jam, cheese, coffee, tea, etc The first dive was briefed at 7AM.

Our first dive in Tubbataha was Shark Airport on the North Atoll. Our tanks were already setup and waiting for us on the chase boat. We put on our wetsuits, I handed my camera to Oca, the boatman. I grabbed my mask and fins and stepped onto the boat from the platforms that are lowered to form mini boat docks for each dive deck. A short boat ride and a review of the dive plan and we all back roll into the water for our first dive. Oca handed me my camera. I dumped the air from my wing and the first dive started at 0726. True to it's name, I immediately spied a shark swimming across the reef and over the wall!

This will be an "abbreviated" report. I'm not going to break it down by individual dive site as I have before...

The dives at Tubbataha are pretty much all wall dives. We would drift along the wall and then be picked up at the end of the dive. Night dives usually stayed on top of the reef and we would sometimes start or stop there if the water was deep enough, but a drift dive along the wall was the usual rule.

As an example the top of the reef here where we dropped in at Shark Airport was around 50 feet (much shallower in other areas of course). I (along with everyone else it seemed) had opted to dive Nitrox all week. We were diving 32%. This first dive started with sharks and we saw sharks on almost every dive all week. In addition to sharks on this dive, I saw Napoleon Wrasse, a green moray on the wall, emperor angelfish, butterflyfish, triggerfish, squirrelfish, grouper, tuna, jacks, barracuda? To many to name! It was like that all week!

Water temperature was 83F on the first dive. My maximum depth was 107 feet. On the way back to the Borneo Explorer after the dive we saw a pod of dolphins. It was a really nice beginning to our week in Tubbataha.

We were really spoiled by the crew during our week. They did all the heavy lifting. I would take my camera in between dives and put it in the rinse bucket, but only opened it when I needed to change the batteries or download photos from it. When going back out I would hand it to Oca who would keep it in the camera box and hand it to me once I was in the water.

After diving we rinsed off put on some dry clothes and most of us usually ended up in the Salon depending on the time of day. They had two fresh water showers on the dive decks and would always have towels for us when we came back from our dives. Right after the morning dive was breakfast and after the second dive was lunch. Maybe a snack in between the 2 afternoon dives, and dinner after the night dive.

A little about the food? All meals were served buffet style. Light breakfast (before the first dive) was bread and cheese, fruit, coffee, juice. Heavy breakfast was eggs, bacon, hot cereal, pancakes, toast?. it changed every morning slightly, but was always good.

Lunch was meat, fish, vegetables, rice, potatoes, soup, fruit, desserts. Afternoon snacks, were usually some kind of pastries or fruit. Dinner was like lunch only maybe a little more elaborate. Good lasagna, spaghetti? Paul guaranteed we would all gain weight. I don't usually on a dive trip, but this time I ended up gaining an inch around my waist!

I did 27 dives at Tubbataha. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate due to a low pressure system that affected us. This restricted some of the dive sites as we were forced to move from North Atoll after the first day to South Atoll. We ended up finishing the trip back at North Atoll.

A list of dive sites we were able to dive would include: Shark Airport, Washing Machine, Seafan Alley, Amos Rock, Wall Street, North Wall, Black Rock, Delsan Wreck, North Delsan Wreck, Eiger Wall, T Wreck, and Malayan Wreck. Of course we dived these sites multiple times, but I didn't see this as a bad thing really. We always saw something different!

Water temperature was generally mid-80's, visibility ran 50-70 feet. First dive of the day was generally planned to 30 meters (100 feet) but if you went a little beyond that there was no problem. You couldn't go much beyond because at 32% nitrox you're computer was going to yell at you :wink:

We normally did 5 dives spaced out throughout the day, starting at 7AM for the first morning dive and 7PM for the night dive. One night dive was cancelled because of heavy current that started up as were were getting ready to do the brief. The last dive day only had 2 dives scheduled, but at our request 5 of us who weren't flying the next day got to make an extra dive.

Some of the highlights for me was the huge numbers of sharks (more than I had ever previously seen), crocodile fish on the Malayan Wreck, the schools of unicorn fish, the large schools of jacks, and barracudas, marble rays, and the biggest lobsters I've ever seen!

Towards the end of the trip a blue water dive was planned for an attempt to sight hammerheads. Although we were repeatedly told there were no guarantees, within 5 minutes of reaching our position (well away from the reef) we saw not one, but TWO hammerheads. Unfortunately I wasn't close enough to get good photos, but it was still very cool to see them!

On the last day, we made a shore excursion to the ranger station. Most of us bought t-shirts there as souvenirs (one of a kind design that can only be bought at the ranger station in Tubbataha :wink:) After a long visit we headed back as it was getting dark. During dinner, bottles that had been stashed away during the trip were broken out. People were exchanging emails and Paul screened a video that he had put together for our trip which we all enjoyed :)

The next morning when we woke up, we were back in Puerto Princesa. Everyone settled there accounts (nitrox, drinks, etc? and we scattered. Some were taken to the airport for early flights, others to hotels in Puerto Princesa. I was given a ride to the shuttle terminal where I caught a shuttle for El Nido.

To be continued:

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we learned the same thing from being checked in beside caloy's room... cries of "my god! my god!" interspersed with "my heart! my heart!" can be very disconcerting...

great report though, can't wait for the rest of it!

Jag

:rofl3::rofl3::rofl3:

Great trip report, Bill.
 
:rofl3::rofl3::rofl3:

Great trip report, Bill.

Thanks Enrique :) I still haven't finished going through photos from Tubbataha.

I'll be out of town all weekend... should be able to pickup on Monday.... Might post a few more photos before I start on El Nido.... hopefully I'll be finished by next weekend :cool2:
 
For 600 pesos I was able to ride in an air-conditioned van to El Nido. The van left around 11AM. 8 hours later I was in El Nido.


El Nido is a small town on the very north of the main island of Palawan. I asked the driver for a recommendation for a place to stay and ended up at the Four Seasons (not to be confused with the International chain :wink:) I asked the hotel for the nearest dive shop and they took me to El Nido Marine Club. I was not impressed.

Or I should say I was impressed, but not in a good way. When I walked up, I said I'd like to ask about diving. One man from the group sitting there walked over, it appeared somewhat reluctantly? It was like pulling teeth to even get information. The person answering my questions acted like he had better things to do.

My first question was if there was a night dive that night. The answer was no. Were they going out the next day. He wasn't sure it depended on if they had enough divers. What was they price if I went out by myself they didn't normally do that? Could I put my name on a list for the next day? "just show up". I walked out feeling, "wow", these guys don't really want my business?

I went back to the hotel and asked if there was another dive shop. After getting directions, I went back to the same street (main street behind the beach hotels) and turned right instead of left.

When I walked into Palawan Divers, it was completely different. I was greeted as soon as I walked in. I asked about diving. I was shown the price list and was asked qualifying questions. What was my certification level? How many dives did I have? When was the last time that I had been diving? What was my main interest?

The shop was well laid out with what appeared to be new equipment hanging neatly from racks. The walls looked freshly painted, and there were many underwater photos on the walls (quite good ones). I saw one photo of a beautiful white nudibranch with yellow fringe (Ardeadoris egretta) . I pointed it out and stated, "I want a picture of that one" :D

I negotiated a discount since I had my own equipment and signed up to do four dives the next day. First impressions count and Palawan Divers made a good one.

The next day I was back early. There I met with Minos, the dive shop manager. Minos is from France and had been managing the shop for six months. There was a young French couple there whom I would be diving with that day. I'm always happy to make new dive buddies!

Minos did a very thorough safety briefing, even reviewing hand signals so that everyone would be on the same page. He also talked briefly about each of the dive sites that we would be diving on that day.

While he was doing the brief, I was setting up my camera and listening at the same time. After the brief we were turned over to our guide. Our gear was taken out and placed on the boat. I grabbed my camera. We walked across the street, crossed through the beach and waded out to the bankga.

After about a 45 minute boat ride through some very scenic areas we arrived at «ñhe Tunnel . This dive is a cavern dive. The tunnel actually passes all the way through and comes out on the other side of a point. The cliffs here drop sheer, straight into the water.

We were given a second dive brief, this one specific to the site. The guide was very professional.

The first dive had a maximum depth of 79 feet and lasted 61 minutes. Water temperature was 86F. Right near the beginning I spotted a new nudibranch species which made the dive for me right there. Nudibranchs species at Tubbataha had been limited given it's location in open ocean. Of course people don't dive Tubbataha for that :wink:

The Tunnel was a very nice dive. There were plenty of fish I saw a pipefish near the entrance. Immediately inside we spotted lobster hiding in holes near the ceiling. Further in, we saw soldierfish and bigyes, banded boxer coral shrimp, and spidercrabs. On the other side after we exited, I saw two different species of nudibranchs within a foot of each other, one of which was another new species for me. Also black tip grouper, anthias, and more soldierfish.

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The second dive was a place called Twin Rocks. Again, there was very complete brief given by the guide of the dive site. He showed us a map of the dive site, briefed us on what we could expect to see and exactly how the dive would go. This was a great dive. Lots of nudibranchs, a new species of flatworm I hadn't seen before, big schools of fish, and a turtle to top things off. Maximum depth was 53 feet, with a bottom time of 53 minutes and again the water temp was 86F.

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After that we took a break on a secluded beach for lunch. We had all been sent to Squidos the day before to order lunch. After eating we went for a swim and then back onto the boat to head to our next dive site.

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To be continued....
 
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The third dive of the day was at Abdeen. Lots of nice corals, another new nudi to add to the collection (the Ardeadoris egretta I had admired a photo of at the dive shop. Minos later told me I was very lucky as it was not a common nudibranch in that area) Nice reef fish (the usual suspects), gobie with shrimp, and another turtle :) The cool thing during this dive was the golden trumpetfish cruising along trying to blend in with a school of fish that were also yellow :wink:

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Maximum depth here was 48 feet and given the shallower depth, we ended up with an 86 minute dive. Water temperature remained at 86F.

After this dive we headed back to El Nido. After getting the gear ashore, I went into the shop, put my strobe batteries on charge, and changed my camera battery for a fresh one.

Minos got us together for the dive brief. Again a very thorough brief. Minos personally lead this dive. I was with a different group this time (again only 3 divers).

The night dive was at Helicopter Island. As we entered the water we waited at the surface near the mooring buoy and once everyone was in, we descended together.

Spotted everything from lionfish to nudibranchs, lobster, pufferfish, ghost pipefish, gobies on whip coral, anemone crabs? A very nice dive. Maximum depth was 66 feet and my bottom time was 67 minutes.

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One thing Minos did that I hadn't seen previously was to rig a strobe. He left instructions with the boatman to lower after one hour. It made finding the boat extremely easy.

All in all I would say that Palawan Divers is one of the most professional dive operations that I have ever had the pleasure of diving with. Their emphasis on safety, customer service, and taking you to where the best diving in El Nido can be found, set them apart from the rest. If you're going to dive in El Nido, these are the people that you want to dive with.

My impression of El Nido is that it's been under-rated as a dive destination. Visibility ran over 50 feet. Good marine life, lots of nudibranchs, interesting dive sites. Both it's strength and it's weakness is probably how remote it was. I really would have liked to have stayed there a few more days, but scheduling did not allow if I wanted to dive Coron.

To be continued....
 
Thanks bill.

Nice report so far. Looking forward to Coron.
Only problem is i cannot see your photos in the thread. They all appear as small thumbnails.
 
Thanks bill.

Nice report so far. Looking forward to Coron.
Only problem is i cannot see your photos in the thread. They all appear as small thumbnails.


Thanks... will get to Coron as soon as I can.... shaping up to be a hectic week at work. I'll finish as soon as I can.

Odd... that you can only see thumbnails :confused:.... is anyone else having that problem? Do you get a larger one if you click on the thumbnails? They're appearing as large photos to me when I look at them...
 
I am seeing the large photos also, no problems.

You do a wonderful job creating informative and entertaining trip reports. Thanks for the effort!
 
thanks so far for the great read, bill. Just a quick question - where did you stay in Coron and what dive op did you go with?
 
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Great trip report. very detailed.

I checked into Tubbataha a month ago as I am already in Bohol. Expedition Fleets wanted a $100.00 fuel surcharge at a time when world oil prices are at a record low! If they want another $100.00 just raise the price of the trip. That insulted my intelligence :no:
I told them I was interested in the lowest price room and didn't mind sharing a room as I was traveling alone. They offered me the honeymoon suite for 50% more? That also insulted my intelligence :no:
NO Tubbataha trip

When you get to be my age and have your pension in your pocket every month and don't much give a damn it's real easy to tell some people those two words that rhyme with "chuck who"
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I'm off to Coron on May 31 to dive the wrecks. Always wanted to do it.
 
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