Sogod Bay info?

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dirtfarmer

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Location
Northern California
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Sogod Bay has been on my radar for a bit, and recently I saw some photos coming from there with some rare nudibranchs, amongst a nice array of macro critters.
The trip would be in early November and most likely be paired with some time in Puerto Galeria.
It looks like there is a good mix of macro/muck and wide angle. I know November can see arrival of whalesharks so that would be a treat.

So I'd love to hear people's experiences.?
How's the visibility generally?
Any resort recomendations?
How fishy is the ecostem?
 
I would never plan PG and South Leyte in the same trip. Too much travelling involved.
Peter is the place that I had stayed on two occasions and I have no hesitation to recommend it.
 
Thanks Centrals, Peters was on the top of my list.
I know going from PG to Sogod is a long way, I'm in country for almost 3 weeks and have already covered most of the rest of the Visayas on previous trips and not really interested on repeating.
 
i'm often in sogod bay, and second centrals' recommendation of peter's.

the visibility is generally as good or a little better than puerto galera, but not as good as apo island, if that helps. in november the visibility goes down, but not coincidentally that is the time the whale sharks (usually) come in. although the corals were undamaged, since typhoon haiyan (yolanda) the sharks have been less predictable. if they are in the bay, and you want to see them, you will.

the macro is excellent throughout, and there are a couple of really good muck sites as well (malitbog especially). the wide-angle i would say not so much, with a couple notable exceptions (the napantao wall is one). napantao as well is very fishy, and the slope can't be beat for macro. it is hands down the best site overall in sogod bay, and dense with hard and soft corals. if you like night dives, the padre burgos pier is outstanding.

leaving puerto galera early, you can catch the noon flight out of manila and be in tacloban well before 2. if you have a van picking you up you can be in your room before dark. matters are much easier if you leave from cebu city - weesam just started a once daily fast ferry to maasin, but it departs late afternoon and you will arrive after dark. details are in an earlier post.

to do it justice, allow yourself at least 5 dive days (10 boat dives, optional afternoon boat dive or shore dive). peter's is always happy to add a third dive onto a trip to napantao, and if you are into it and other divers agree, ask and it shall be done.

south leyte is woefully under visited, and there are many things to be discovered if you take afternoons off. and have a rented 'motorcycle'. 3 weeks is plenty of time to move from pg to south leyte and probably dive a couple days at another spot in the visayas as well.

good luck! i would be very surprised if the effort disappoints.
 
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It's very very rare that I would leave a poor review of a place and virtually 100% of the many many places I have stayed in the PI have been just great. The sole exception to this was Sogod Bay Scuba Resort. The restaurant staff were very lovely but other than that I have little good to say about it. The owner was very shifty with us, and among other unpleasant experiences they flipped the little boat they use to transport dive gear to their bangka which is moored a little off the shore and lost our masks and a few other small items. They basically accused us of lying about the kind of masks we had (which were expensive) and refused to reimburse us etc. If you are after macro, I would choose Anilao 1000x over Sogod - one of the best spots in the world and it's not at all far from PG. Next after that would be Dauin, which has the advantage of Apo Island also for reef stuff and again is not nearly as far a trek. That said, South Leyte is lovely.
 
Hi DF

I loved Southern Leyte when I spent a week or so there last February. The diving is awesome and the reefs so pristine.. Usually from October to June there are whalesharks. I also wouldn't recommend SBSR, there was a big hole in the wall of my room , which backed onto they main road !

I then moved to Southern Leyte Divers which I loved. The top end bungalows look straight out onto the ocean and a kingfisher used a little boat to fish from every evening. I met some great fun charming fellow divers there , who were excellent company. Its a really nice German run place that I can't recommend enough. I think that you would love it there.

PG also sounds good , you could get from there to Leyte in one longish day. But the drive from Tacloban Airport is beautiful , down a beautiful coastline and through coconut groves.

Best wishes
 
Thanks so much for the info!
I must say I'm pretty excited to try 2 new spots. I've done Anilao and loved it but I haven't been to PG and I can do it a bit cheaper.
A Whaleshark would be awesome as I have never laid eyes on one before.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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