citrinette
Registered
Hi all.
Here's a quick update on the trip so far
When we got into manila we immediately caught a fligh to Dumaguete. I didn't realize how busy with traffic it was going to be. We were thinking more along the lines of laid back beach town... anyhow we hit a load of bad weather immediately and waited 2 nights before we could get a boat to Apo island where we did some great diving, we stayed 2 nights with Liberty's (no offense, but it was a rip off, both the diving and the accomodation.) We did our diving with "Apo island dive resort, the guide was from Apo island and knew the sites pretty well.
All in all I didn't like the atmosphere of either Apo or Dumaguete so we trecked on over to Tagbilaran to head to Panglao. We stayed at Alona of course, and the hotel was "Bohol Diver's" (the cheap accomodation at the back). The snorkeling from the beach was surprisingly good. We did two dives off of Alona at Balicasag. We saw a couple turtles and a huge school of jackfish which circled us for a bit. That was probably the highlight of the two dives.
All of this in overcast or rainy weather. Alona was a nice beach but again a bit too touristy for me.
So then we headed Over to Cebu and straight up to Malapascua. It was raining yet again. We stayed at "The palm Place" with nice rooms. We did some Diving with "Dan's Dive center". I found Dan (the American ex-pat) very knowledgeable. Our guide was Jojo a local guy, the first dive was a thresher shark dive. It was very cool although the shark was very far away and the visability was not great. Then we did Gato Island, the cave dive and a dive around some mounds with tons of caves and holes to look into. Both were just amazing! we saw absolutely everything... tons of white tipped sharks (swimming and sleeping) three or more families of HUGE cuttle fish (one of which we touched), nudibrachs, sea snakes, eels, turtles eating, and magnificent colourful corals.
In the end I think it would have been better to stay on Malapascua, I'm convinced it's the best diving in the Philippines (as far as I've seen) and the atmosphere is nice, it's really remote, not a ton of tourists, laid back, good food, nice people, nice villages, nice beaches. and probably good snorkeling (which we didn't get a chance to do, due to the rain)
I'll get back later with some Pictures, not so many underwater pics as our underwater housing broke just before Malapascua
In the meantime if anyone has any questions, I've got wi-fi here on Sabang beach (Puerto Galera).
Here's a quick update on the trip so far
When we got into manila we immediately caught a fligh to Dumaguete. I didn't realize how busy with traffic it was going to be. We were thinking more along the lines of laid back beach town... anyhow we hit a load of bad weather immediately and waited 2 nights before we could get a boat to Apo island where we did some great diving, we stayed 2 nights with Liberty's (no offense, but it was a rip off, both the diving and the accomodation.) We did our diving with "Apo island dive resort, the guide was from Apo island and knew the sites pretty well.
All in all I didn't like the atmosphere of either Apo or Dumaguete so we trecked on over to Tagbilaran to head to Panglao. We stayed at Alona of course, and the hotel was "Bohol Diver's" (the cheap accomodation at the back). The snorkeling from the beach was surprisingly good. We did two dives off of Alona at Balicasag. We saw a couple turtles and a huge school of jackfish which circled us for a bit. That was probably the highlight of the two dives.
All of this in overcast or rainy weather. Alona was a nice beach but again a bit too touristy for me.
So then we headed Over to Cebu and straight up to Malapascua. It was raining yet again. We stayed at "The palm Place" with nice rooms. We did some Diving with "Dan's Dive center". I found Dan (the American ex-pat) very knowledgeable. Our guide was Jojo a local guy, the first dive was a thresher shark dive. It was very cool although the shark was very far away and the visability was not great. Then we did Gato Island, the cave dive and a dive around some mounds with tons of caves and holes to look into. Both were just amazing! we saw absolutely everything... tons of white tipped sharks (swimming and sleeping) three or more families of HUGE cuttle fish (one of which we touched), nudibrachs, sea snakes, eels, turtles eating, and magnificent colourful corals.
In the end I think it would have been better to stay on Malapascua, I'm convinced it's the best diving in the Philippines (as far as I've seen) and the atmosphere is nice, it's really remote, not a ton of tourists, laid back, good food, nice people, nice villages, nice beaches. and probably good snorkeling (which we didn't get a chance to do, due to the rain)
I'll get back later with some Pictures, not so many underwater pics as our underwater housing broke just before Malapascua
In the meantime if anyone has any questions, I've got wi-fi here on Sabang beach (Puerto Galera).
