Short Anilao Trip Report & Pics

[broadreach]

Hey Guys

My wife and I just finished a dive trip to Anilao and want to share some pics and experience.

Getting there:
We took public transport down from Manila. It was cheap but took much longer than hoped. I guess we left at a busy traffic hour and was only able to squeeze in a night dive on our arrival day. On the way back we hired a van and made stops on the way to check out Taal town and the volcano. Easier traveling but expensive.

Diving:
Very easy diving with practically no currents and mostly very calm sea. Visibility was so so roughly between 12 to 18 meters throughout the trip. Water temps 28C.
highlights included
1. a large school of jacks at Bahura (the only Nitrox dive I did)
2. frogfish (Ligpo Cavern and Basura)
3. pygmy sea horse (Kirby's Rock)
4. great soft corals (Pinnacle)

Here are my humble attempts at underwater photography:

 

[broadreach]

More pics:

 

[Arizona]

Great pics. Besides hiring a van are there other faster routes to the dive sites?

Thanks

 

[chip104]

thanks for the pics and report. I am impressed that you commuted via public transport down there!

@ Arizona: The other fastest route to Anilao is to hitch a ride with a PPDer if they are going the same weekend. Another option is to hook up with a dive group (ex Divenet). Commuting via public transport is quite the ordeal with equipment.

 

[CODMAN]

Commuting via public transport is quite the ordeal with equipment.

Wimp!!!!

 

[rab1412000]

hi wondering what uw camera you used?

 

[Gen San Chris]

Great Pics, Thanks for the info!

 

[AndyT]

Great stuff. In the process of booking my flight to the Philippines in Oct !!!!!

 

[jonix]

Great stuff. In the process of booking my flight to the Philippines in Oct !!!!!

see you october dude

 

[broadreach]

I am impressed that you commuted via public transport down there!

I found traveling in the Philippines to be a breeze. The jeepneys are easy to navigate and everyone including the tricycle drivers speak perfect English so communications are easy.
We took an A/C bus for most of the way down and only a 5 minute tricycle ride followed by a 10 minute Jeepney ride. Really not that hard. The hardest part was loading dive bags on a jeepney but we found space and all the other passengers (like pretty much everyone we encountered in the Philippines) were gracious and accommodating.

hi wondering what uw camera you used?

I use an Olypmus Stylus 770SW in the Olympus housing w/o a strobe (hence the backscatter around the anemone in shot#4. I like the low-profile compact package of this camera. It produces good results for my amateur needs. It is mainly good for close-up macro shots but that Pygmy (as you probably guessed already) is cropped. Shot#3 (yellow soft coral) is taken with natural light and a bit fuzzy as a result - if I used the flash it would be all backscatter.
The other thing I like about the camera is the fact that it is waterproof for 10 meters without the housing. Several months back I managed to flood the housing but the camera was unharmed. That is probably more information than you wanted to know.