Sogod Bay diving

[joebubbles]

Will be in Padre Burgos in three weeks. What is the word on Discovery 5 scuba. Yes, i'm aware of the others, Peter's, Gunter's and SBSR. Would prefer to do a whaleshark dive, rather than snorkel. (I've already snorkelled with buntanding a few years back in Donsol). I'm hearing that most of the four dive shops in PB only offer snorkel at about PHP3,300 a pop! Just because I like to dive, doesn't mean I like to get soaked . If I were to snorkel, I would lean towards a homestay in Pintuyan. Preferred restaurants in PB? Please chime in. Thanks.

 

[fcg_vi]

I'm in Burgos now.

The word on Discovery 5 is that it sank last year. Also, diving with the whale sharks has been banned since Nov 2008 at Sunok and San Ricardo, which is where they are found feeding. They can be seen on random dives, just yesterday DI Pedro spotted one at Voltaire's Rock on a dive this side of the bay. Besides the 3 operators you listed, there are liveaboard boats from Bohol and Cebu that come as well.

This has been a good whale shark season, and right now is great - we're seeing them every trip the past 6 weeks. The vis improves as we go into April tho the chances of seeing the whale sharks wane.

As far as restaurants: the Castle at Padre Burgos offers fine dining; The Highway can be OK if you don't mind waiting; SBSR would be the other alternative.

Good Luck

 

[Nishan]

Will be staying at Peters next week for 7 days. Hope the whale sharks are still around. They also said this season has been good so far with lots of sightings. Will send an update on the diving and Peters when I get access to internet in the Philippines. Not sure how the connection will be at Peters place.

 

[fcg_vi]

If you are traveling with a laptop and you want to make sure you have internet access while you are here, I would advise buying a SmartBro or Globe Visibility USB Modem. They can be found for around P2000 and then you prepay P20 per hour of usage, google for more details. You won't get the 3g speeds here tho, just GPRS on SmartBro, with Globe you can get an EDGE signal. There is no broadband in Burgos - the "internet" cafe just uses Globe USB modems; Maasin (30 Km away) has DSL and some internet cafes, and there's free wifi at the Kinamot resatuarant by the pier.

 

[annasea]

<snip>

Hey, I know those initials! Give Barbara and Shirley ear scratches and tummy tickles from me...

 

[Nishan]

Thanks for the tip. Will look into it as I will have my lap top with me. A slow connection is better than no connection I will be moving on to Malapascua from Sogod Bay and staying at Exotic so hoping I will have better connectivity there.

Cheers,

Nishan

 

[Nishan]

Just for the record, I had a great time at Peters Dive Resort. Several whale sharks and great diving on some near pristine reefs. A perfect place for a relaxed holiday with world class diving. Shore diving on the house reef is easy and very good. Sogod Bay Scuba Resort next door to Peters also looked decent and shares the same house reef as Peters. With regard to whale sharks, they have stopped diving as part of new regulations to reduce stress on the animals. I also think you get a better experience snorkeling with them as you can move better in the water than with heavy scuba gear. Can just skin dive and get good pictures if you want pictures of the sharks from below.

Cheers,

Nishan

 

[fcg_vi]

The update on whale sharks is that the season has been over since mid-April, I think April 12th was the last successful trip. Once the water warms up to 29 degrees, the plankton and jellyfish are gone as well as the whale sharks. Though the diving is superb now with usually 30+ meters of viz.

 

[fcg_vi]

So much for the whale shark season being over - for the past month there's been consistent whale sharks on the west side of the bay, in and around p.burgos... see the SBSR facebook page...

 

[pakman]

If I recall, we had a whale shark zoom over us around Napantaw. Unfortunately we were too deep and it was close to the surface so there was no chance of ascending fast enough to catch up to.