Philippines - where, oh where?

[Pelicanne]

The route was north from Mactan to Malapascua, stopping to dive at Capitancillo Islet on the way there. Two morning dives at Monad Shoal, and although threshers came out to play only on the first one, the second dive yielded a a jellyfish that was probably a couple feet across. Aside from Monad Shoal, we dived Gato Island and Chocolate Island (total 10 dives in the Malapascua area over 3 days) then headed down to Pescador and Moalboal for four more dives, then to southern Negros - four dives at Zamboaguita, three dives at Apo Island, five dives at Dauin, and then started back north around east coast of Cebu. One dive at Oslob with the whale sharks, then three at Panglao, and on the last day, two dives at Cambaquiz before coming back to Mactan.

Marine life was biased toward macro, but there was plenty of wide-angle stuff as well, and my experience is probably colored by missing most of Dumaguete area and all of Apo Island due to having ear trouble for two days (I did 24 out of 32 dives as the result). I brought four lenses to use with my camera - 7.5mm fisheye, 10-18mm zoom, 16-50mm zoom and 90mm macro - and got to use all four of them. Lots of different shrimp and crabs, plenty of nudibranches, a variety of odd-shaped bottom dwellers, many frogfish, some small reef sharks, thresher sharks (only once, but still), whale sharks (in a soup of bikinifish at Oslob, but still awesome), schools of sardines and trevallys large enough to blot out the sun (seriously - at Napaling, Panglao, they said in the dive briefing that there might be a small school of sardines, then on the dive, it suddenly gets dark, and it's sardines everywhere), etc, etc. My album from the trip has ~300 photos; I will upload them once I get a proper connection.

Siren is by far the best liveaboard that I've been on, although my sample size is pretty small - MV Pawara in Thailand and VIP Shrouq is Egypt are my comparison points. It's very spacious - there is more room, per diver, than these other two put together. It carries fifteen crew and sixteen passengers in a space where they could have easily put in thirty plus divers and a few more guides. There are personal drawers at the gearing up stations and at camera work tables, the crew handle all the gear, literally a wall of power outlets to plug in all the chargers, two large rinse tanks just for the cameras and computers plus separate rinse tanks for wetsuits (where water is changed after every dive!) and masks. There is even free beer, which I don't partake in, but still find very impressive. Note that the liveaboard itself is too large to get near reefs, so all the diving is done from two Zodiac-type dinghies. Groups are 5-6 people + guide; most of the guides are local Filipinos. Entry is via backroll, and for exit they actually have a folding ladder on each dinghy - no acrobatics required. Fire extinguishers are everywhere, six out of eight cabins have escape hatches to main deck (two rear cabins are under the main saloon and there are couches where hatches would be), there is round-the-clock watch on the boat and drills are conducted at the beginning of every trip; there is even an oxygen kit on each dinghy, so they take safety very seriously. Dives are limited to 60 minutes, and I don't think we had any that lasted less than 55, with quite a few stretching to 5-10 minutes past the hour.

Gosh, sounds absolutely wonderful - thanks for the report, lucky you! Look forward to seeing your photos and wishing you a safe trip home!

 

[Pelicanne]

There is a wonderful night dive under the pier in a little town near the resorts. You head off in a jepeney with all your gear. I remember that there were some little restuarants there that looked quite nice. People in the Philippines are so sweet and so friendly they will talk to you everywhere.

Thank you, I read about the wonderful pier dive. I really want to stay somewhere where you get chance to interact with local people, too... Sounds great, I can’t wait! x

 

[Pelicanne]

It should be mentioned that the best public option to get to South Leyte from Tacloban is take a short jeep or trike ride from the airport to the van terminal across from Robinson's mall to Sogod City. 1 seat will cost you 150 php (as of last month). You will need one for your dive gear and whatever in the far back. Buy at least one more next to where you sit for your day pack (van seats are 4 to the row, so an extra seat is near mandatory), so 3 seats total. Don't be afraid to tell people you paid for the extra seat if someone tries to jam you in. Total price for the van: just under 4.50, USD. A jeepney from Sogod City to either Peter's (my preference) or Sogod Bay SR will cost you another $1 or so. For a few extra pesos there is also a more comfortable local bus option from Sogod, but it departs less frequently. Whatever you take, the driver will drop you right at the resort. The entire jeep/van/jeep ordeal will take approximately 5 hours (depending how long you have to wait for the van to fill). If you can get the front 2 seats on the Tacloban-Sogod van it's possible you might even enjoy the ride.

Thank you, that’s really, really helpful. Sometimes the most memorable bits of trips come from the most unexpected places. This could be the one!

 

[Barmaglot]

Gosh, sounds absolutely wonderful - thanks for the report, lucky you! Look forward to seeing your photos and wishing you a safe trip home!

I have uploaded the photos here, sorted by date and dive site: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1bssL7ayPD1585xDIKkekX-mHt6yBp7Yj

Most of them are pretty meh, and quite a few still need a lot of editing to remove the backscatter, but they should give you an idea of the marine life you can meet in southern Visayas.

 

[Pelicanne]

The pics are great! I can see how the sites vary in character. Loads of lovely little things!

Were you diving with the whale sharks while all the snorkel trips were there, too?

Food on the boat looks good, but I’m not sure I could eat that SCUBA chicken!

 

[Barmaglot]

Were you diving with the whale sharks while all the snorkel trips were there, too?

We were, but since we stayed at 5-10 meters depth, it wasn't an issue. There were some shore-based divers as well, but since the boat staff is qualified to do Oslob briefings onboard, we were able to hit the water at 6AM sharp, while the shore-based divers were still going through all the formalities, and we didn't see any of them until about 6:45.

 

[Pelicanne]

We were, but since we stayed at 5-10 meters depth, it wasn't an issue. There were some shore-based divers as well, but since the boat staff is qualified to do Oslob briefings onboard, we were able to hit the water at 6AM sharp, while the shore-based divers were still going through all the formalities, and we didn't see any of them until about 6:45.

So you missed the worst of the bunfight presumably, then? It must have been a lovely experience, but I’m very uneasy with the whole idea of Oslob... Need to research it more, I think.

 

[Barmaglot]

Pretty much, yeah. We saw the bunches of snorkelers on the surface, but didn't come close to all the kicking feet.
Regarding the whole practice of feeding the whale sharks there, we were told that from tracking the individuals, it was determined there are only two that hang out in the feeding area every day, and the rest tend to visit it a couple times and move on. They also restrict feeding from 6AM to noon, so even the few permanent residents have to go out and find food on their own after that.

 

[Pelicanne]

Pretty much, yeah. We saw the bunches of snorkelers on the surface, but didn't come close to all the kicking feet.
Regarding the whole practice of feeding the whale sharks there, we were told that from tracking the individuals, it was determined there are only two that hang out in the feeding area every day, and the rest tend to visit it a couple times and move on. They also restrict feeding from 6AM to noon, so even the few permanent residents have to go out and find food on their own after that.

Useful to know, thanks!

 

[Blueringocto_73]

I thoroughly enjoy diving Puerto Galera. So much so that I returned several times. For me the highlight was diving the Alma Jane wreck. A 30 meter Japanese vessel that lies at a depth of about 30 meters. The cargo ship was sunk intentionally for divers in 2003.

Here's a couple links to segments of a dive I did last December.

divevid11 - Streamable

divetest2 - Streamable