brownmola
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First of all, I'd like to thank everyone on this board for all their advice and help in helping plan an organize my trip, especially those who PM'd me with their help, Maggie, Pakman, Bisugo, Diver Dennis, and Mike Veitch. I couldn't of set this all up without you. We were in the Philippines for about 16 days. The trip was AWESOME!!! The weather was not as hot or humid as I had expected, it only rained for a few hours the 16 days I was there and everyone was so nice. All in all, just a dream of a dive trip.
Polaris Resort in Cabilao
We were picked up by one of the staff members at the Cebu/Mactan Airport. We took a 2.5 hour card ride down the coast and boarded a Polaris boat which took us to the resort. We basically had the entire resort to ourselves. There were a few people that came in but on most dives it was just myself and my wife. Most of the dives were wall dives. We dove at 9am and then at 2pm. I've never been to a place that didn't do back to back dives and it was nice to be able to sit and relax and eat lunch between dives. The closest dive site was the house reef which was spectacular. It was a 20 second boat ride out to the wall. The farthest dive site was on the other side of the island which took a grand total of 12 minutes. On most of the dives, we followed the same pattern, drop down to 80-90 feet on the wall and we would slowly ascend and finish our dive in some really nice coral. Our shortest dive was 65 minutes and our longest dive was 80 minutes. We basically ended our dives when one of us was low on air. Our divemasters were Randy and Jericho and they were superb in finding and pointing out lots of small animals. Some of the highlights for us included 3 pygmy seahorses, There was no current to speak of which surprised me a little. The seas were so calm and glassy it was unreal. Truly a paradise.
The rooms were very basic but large. The restaurant was also very basic but served really good meals between $2-$5. The sweet and sour chicken was a favorite of ours. The homemade wheat bread was amazing. I can't reiterate how much we loved Polaris. Everything was about as perfect as it could be, most of all, the people that worked there really made the trip memorable. We were definitely sad to leave.
El Dorado Resort in Dauin
We were picked up in Dumaguete and took a short ride into El Dorado. It was quite different than Polaris. There were already 20-30 people there and it didn't have the isolated charm of Polaris but I was excited to try a new place. It did not disappoint. The diving was great, we saw a lot of new animals we did not see in Cabilao. Lots of Ornate and Robust Ghost Pipefish, seahorses, frogfish and nudibranchs. The dive scheduling consisted of the dive sites and spots being written on a white board the evening before and then the divers would sign up for the dives they wanted to go on. Th visibility in general was about 35-50 feet, never crystal clear but who cares when you are looking at small stuff. There was very little current throughout our week here as well. We dove the pier 3 times which was absolutely stunning every time. Our first dive on the pier was a little overwhelming, so much stuff to look at. We dove Apo Island twice and it was a nice change but I was not "blown away" by the dives, maybe I expected too much??? Beautiful coral gardens but very few fish. Maybe the time of year or the lack of currents added to the low fish count. The house reef in front of Bahura was a real pleasant surprise on our last day of diving. That was the one site the seemed to have lots of fish. Very beautiful dive spot. The Filipino divemasters were all very knowledgeable and very nice. We had Lito and Rey for most of our dives and they always found little critters that we would not have seen on our own. Just a warning for all you photographers, we were charged a photo fee for every dive we used a camera, not just at Apo.
The restaurant was amazing. The food was absolutely great with a large menu to choose from. We chose to pay for full board before we arrived and when I asked what that covered, the response was breakfast, lunch and dinner. After the first 2 days, we discovered that the full board covered a certain limit-300 pesos for entrees and it did not cover all desserts or any of the drinks. We rarely ever maximized the cost of the full board but we didn't care too much since all of the food was so good. Our personal favorites were the pizzas and the paella. The restaurant is open from 6am-10pm and the bar is open 24 hours. The standard rooms were a lot smaller than I had imagined. It was pretty tight in there for 2 people with lots of camera gear. The bathroom/shower was very small. The room size didn't affect our trip in the least because the only time we spent in their consisted of napping or sleeping. The cable tv was nice as was the mini fridge stocked full of drinks and snacks.
Overall, it was such an amazing trip. My wife and I will never forget it and we are already thinking about when we can come back with about 10 of our friends. Everyone was so nice and welcoming and the diving was very inexpensive. We love the Philippines!!
Polaris Resort in Cabilao
We were picked up by one of the staff members at the Cebu/Mactan Airport. We took a 2.5 hour card ride down the coast and boarded a Polaris boat which took us to the resort. We basically had the entire resort to ourselves. There were a few people that came in but on most dives it was just myself and my wife. Most of the dives were wall dives. We dove at 9am and then at 2pm. I've never been to a place that didn't do back to back dives and it was nice to be able to sit and relax and eat lunch between dives. The closest dive site was the house reef which was spectacular. It was a 20 second boat ride out to the wall. The farthest dive site was on the other side of the island which took a grand total of 12 minutes. On most of the dives, we followed the same pattern, drop down to 80-90 feet on the wall and we would slowly ascend and finish our dive in some really nice coral. Our shortest dive was 65 minutes and our longest dive was 80 minutes. We basically ended our dives when one of us was low on air. Our divemasters were Randy and Jericho and they were superb in finding and pointing out lots of small animals. Some of the highlights for us included 3 pygmy seahorses, There was no current to speak of which surprised me a little. The seas were so calm and glassy it was unreal. Truly a paradise.
The rooms were very basic but large. The restaurant was also very basic but served really good meals between $2-$5. The sweet and sour chicken was a favorite of ours. The homemade wheat bread was amazing. I can't reiterate how much we loved Polaris. Everything was about as perfect as it could be, most of all, the people that worked there really made the trip memorable. We were definitely sad to leave.
El Dorado Resort in Dauin
We were picked up in Dumaguete and took a short ride into El Dorado. It was quite different than Polaris. There were already 20-30 people there and it didn't have the isolated charm of Polaris but I was excited to try a new place. It did not disappoint. The diving was great, we saw a lot of new animals we did not see in Cabilao. Lots of Ornate and Robust Ghost Pipefish, seahorses, frogfish and nudibranchs. The dive scheduling consisted of the dive sites and spots being written on a white board the evening before and then the divers would sign up for the dives they wanted to go on. Th visibility in general was about 35-50 feet, never crystal clear but who cares when you are looking at small stuff. There was very little current throughout our week here as well. We dove the pier 3 times which was absolutely stunning every time. Our first dive on the pier was a little overwhelming, so much stuff to look at. We dove Apo Island twice and it was a nice change but I was not "blown away" by the dives, maybe I expected too much??? Beautiful coral gardens but very few fish. Maybe the time of year or the lack of currents added to the low fish count. The house reef in front of Bahura was a real pleasant surprise on our last day of diving. That was the one site the seemed to have lots of fish. Very beautiful dive spot. The Filipino divemasters were all very knowledgeable and very nice. We had Lito and Rey for most of our dives and they always found little critters that we would not have seen on our own. Just a warning for all you photographers, we were charged a photo fee for every dive we used a camera, not just at Apo.
The restaurant was amazing. The food was absolutely great with a large menu to choose from. We chose to pay for full board before we arrived and when I asked what that covered, the response was breakfast, lunch and dinner. After the first 2 days, we discovered that the full board covered a certain limit-300 pesos for entrees and it did not cover all desserts or any of the drinks. We rarely ever maximized the cost of the full board but we didn't care too much since all of the food was so good. Our personal favorites were the pizzas and the paella. The restaurant is open from 6am-10pm and the bar is open 24 hours. The standard rooms were a lot smaller than I had imagined. It was pretty tight in there for 2 people with lots of camera gear. The bathroom/shower was very small. The room size didn't affect our trip in the least because the only time we spent in their consisted of napping or sleeping. The cable tv was nice as was the mini fridge stocked full of drinks and snacks.
Overall, it was such an amazing trip. My wife and I will never forget it and we are already thinking about when we can come back with about 10 of our friends. Everyone was so nice and welcoming and the diving was very inexpensive. We love the Philippines!!
Attachments
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soft coral-brittlestar.jpg -
snake-sea krait.jpg -
crab-candy closeup.jpg -
crinoid-on brain coral.jpg -
fish-blenny hiding in mid water grass.jpg -
fish-giant frogfish pink and grey.jpg -
fish-giant frogfish wide angle.jpg -
fish-halimeda ghostpipefish vertical.jpg -
fish-mimic leatherjacket.jpg -
fish-ornate ghost pipefish.jpg -
fish-painted lizardfish.jpg -
fish-robust ghostpipefish pair.jpg -
jelly-upside down mangrove.jpg -
shrimp-white crinoid.jpg
