Trip Report Apo Island, Philippines
Location: Apo Island is just off of southeastern coast of Negros Island.
Dates: 31 Jan 4 Feb 05.
Total Number of Dives: 13
Dive Shop: Pauls Diving. Highly recommended.
Web Site: http://www.apoisland.com/. Great site with a good listing of all the divesites.
Accommodations: We stayed at Libertys Lodge (co-located with Pauls Diving). The lodging was fine, except for the rodent that ate our clothes! Nice views! There is only one other resort on the island but we didnt visit it. The other resort does have a divemaster but almost all divers use Pauls diving.
Water Temp: 26c
Visibility: 20-30m
Type of diving: All divesites are within 10 minutes from the diveshop and all are accessed by banca boat (except for night diving which is a shore dive). No wrecks, no caves. Most dive sites are drift dives and current varies from mild to fast, but even the fastest drift dives deposit you in protected waters with plenty of air left for spotting marine life.
Favorite Dives: Cogon Drift Dive medium current big bumphead parrotfish, school of jacks, Blue spotted ray, turtle, banded seasnake.
Coconut Point Drift Dive Fast current in at least four directions! Advanced diving! Different school of jacks, nudibranches.
Sanctuary Protected area. No current. School of young jacks, clownfish city, school of banner fish, great hard and soft corals.
Rock Point Drift Dive Medium current. Nice wall. Moray eels. Biggest frogfish weve ever seen. Scorpionfish. Sweetlips. Flatworms and Nudibranches.
Mamsa Point Drift Dive Medium current another nice wall. Two turtles. Sweetlips. Cardinal fish. Great coral.
Chapel (Nightdive) Many moray eels. Sleeping turtle with remora. Sweetlips. Two scorpionfish. Incredible decorator crab. Spanish dancer. Three nudibranches mating. Three lionfish
Boluarte/Canyon Advanced dive. 40 meters. Scorpionfish. Pipefish. Huge puffer at depth. Lots of nudibranches.
Things we liked about Apo Island: Good visibility. Drift dives from mild to wild. Lots and lots of hard and soft corals. Tons of fish. Long dives we AVERAGED 71 minutes on our dives, including a night dive that clocked in at 88 minutes. Cheap diving if you have your own equipment diving STARTS at 20USD and goes down from there on a sliding scale. Note: There are additional fees of 200PHP per diver per day AND a sanctuary fee but its a lot easier to pay these fees when they are obviously working! The underwater world around Apo Island is in GREAT shape!
Things we didnt like: Theres really nothing we didnt like but there are only a few dive sites there are no wrecks and no sharks.
Travel tips: Apo Island is probably a little more expensive than most locations in the Philippines but well worth it. Power is 220v generator. It is turned off at various times during the day. Libertys lodge can help you with all your travel needs. Credit cards have a 6% surcharge. Apo Island is on Negros Island time, which is slightly off from standard international time so its best to add in 30 minutes fudge factor to any of your travels to and from Negros/Apo. Apo Island and Apo reef are hundreds of miles apart and definitely two distinct diving locations.
Location: Apo Island is just off of southeastern coast of Negros Island.
Dates: 31 Jan 4 Feb 05.
Total Number of Dives: 13
Dive Shop: Pauls Diving. Highly recommended.
Web Site: http://www.apoisland.com/. Great site with a good listing of all the divesites.
Accommodations: We stayed at Libertys Lodge (co-located with Pauls Diving). The lodging was fine, except for the rodent that ate our clothes! Nice views! There is only one other resort on the island but we didnt visit it. The other resort does have a divemaster but almost all divers use Pauls diving.
Water Temp: 26c
Visibility: 20-30m
Type of diving: All divesites are within 10 minutes from the diveshop and all are accessed by banca boat (except for night diving which is a shore dive). No wrecks, no caves. Most dive sites are drift dives and current varies from mild to fast, but even the fastest drift dives deposit you in protected waters with plenty of air left for spotting marine life.
Favorite Dives: Cogon Drift Dive medium current big bumphead parrotfish, school of jacks, Blue spotted ray, turtle, banded seasnake.
Coconut Point Drift Dive Fast current in at least four directions! Advanced diving! Different school of jacks, nudibranches.
Sanctuary Protected area. No current. School of young jacks, clownfish city, school of banner fish, great hard and soft corals.
Rock Point Drift Dive Medium current. Nice wall. Moray eels. Biggest frogfish weve ever seen. Scorpionfish. Sweetlips. Flatworms and Nudibranches.
Mamsa Point Drift Dive Medium current another nice wall. Two turtles. Sweetlips. Cardinal fish. Great coral.
Chapel (Nightdive) Many moray eels. Sleeping turtle with remora. Sweetlips. Two scorpionfish. Incredible decorator crab. Spanish dancer. Three nudibranches mating. Three lionfish
Boluarte/Canyon Advanced dive. 40 meters. Scorpionfish. Pipefish. Huge puffer at depth. Lots of nudibranches.
Things we liked about Apo Island: Good visibility. Drift dives from mild to wild. Lots and lots of hard and soft corals. Tons of fish. Long dives we AVERAGED 71 minutes on our dives, including a night dive that clocked in at 88 minutes. Cheap diving if you have your own equipment diving STARTS at 20USD and goes down from there on a sliding scale. Note: There are additional fees of 200PHP per diver per day AND a sanctuary fee but its a lot easier to pay these fees when they are obviously working! The underwater world around Apo Island is in GREAT shape!
Things we didnt like: Theres really nothing we didnt like but there are only a few dive sites there are no wrecks and no sharks.
Travel tips: Apo Island is probably a little more expensive than most locations in the Philippines but well worth it. Power is 220v generator. It is turned off at various times during the day. Libertys lodge can help you with all your travel needs. Credit cards have a 6% surcharge. Apo Island is on Negros Island time, which is slightly off from standard international time so its best to add in 30 minutes fudge factor to any of your travels to and from Negros/Apo. Apo Island and Apo reef are hundreds of miles apart and definitely two distinct diving locations.
