Cabilao Trip Report
After finally wrapping up the final requirements with three DM candidates, I decided to take a short trip. I was inspired by Wisnu’s positive write up of Arthurs Place, so I tried to book at the same place in Anilao. But I couldn’t get a room for last weekend or this coming weekend.
I decided to take a short trip to Cabilao instead. I was able to book a room with Polaris Dive Resort with no problem. The rates were reasonable below 2500P for an A/C room, and the dives were 1200P per dive with your own equipment.
I live in Moalboal and many of the visitors here either go to Cabilao before or after they stop here, so I decided to take public transportation there. I left Moalboal at 8:00AM on a Ceres Bus and got off just north of the town of Carcar. I then took another Ceres Bus from Carcar to just south of the town of Argao. The driver let me off just steps from the Banka I would take to Cabilao. Still being a little anal about arriving places on time I always like to arrive a little early, so I ended up arriving two hours before the Bankas’ scheduled departure time. Unfortunately the Banka was delayed by another 30mins due to a vendor delivering something to the boat a little late.
Once I boarded the boat it was a smooth 20 Km voyage across the Cebu Strait directly to the Island of Cabilao. We landed at the Talisay Pier and some kids helped me with my bags and got me to the top of the hill where I was obliged to ride a Huble Huble (motor cycle for hire) I had so much stuff two trips were required. The resort offers a pick-up from Bohol but I was unaware of any pick up from Cebu, and the public Banka I took only cost 100P, so I did not have any issue with paying 50P X2 to transport my stuff to the Resort.
When I arrived at Polaris, I was greeted with a welcome sign and a very friendly staff. Since it was low season I was upgraded to a nicer room, which was closer to the beach, restaurant and dive center. The facilities were decent, and were appropriate for a reasonably well maintained remote resort. The pool was clean, the grounds were well kept and room was very nice. Since I arrived a little before 3:00PM (7 hours between Moalboal and the resort) I decided to take my first dive the next day and settled instead to dive into a nice cold SMB Pilsen.
I took my first dive at 11AM the next morning, there were 4 divers and we went to Chapel Point, the DM’s split us into two groups Photographers and Non Photographers. It was a nice wall type dive with lots of small stuff. I saw several types of Nudibranch that I had only seen in books, a school (100 or more) of Low Fin Drummer’s with several Jacks mixed in. Along the wall there were many cuts and small over hangs for stuff to hide in and several of the soft corrals had the tiny crabs that made great shots for the still photographers… The visibility on the dive was probably 30 meters and the water temp was 28 C. 82 F. Max Depth was around 28M for 70Minutes.
My second dive was a Shore Entry, Night Dive on the House Reef. The resorts policy is for the Night Dive to commence at 6:00PM but I insisted that we not start until at least 7PM since sunset was at 6:30 PM that day
. I was again pleasantly surprised by the great visibility, and all the critters I saw during the dive. Saw lots of decorator crabs, one was huge (see my Cabilao photo album ScubaBoard Gallery - Cabilao Trip ) I think he was close to 26 cm’s across the shell. The Frog fish was so well camouflaged, that I could hardly see it let alone take a decent shot of it, but the Ornate Ghost Pipe Fish was a cooperative subject! I also got a reasonable shot of a baby Cuttle Fish, an ok shot of Textile cone with its siphon part of the way out, and a couple of banded pipe fish, overall it was a great night dive, same water temp and our max depth was 16M for 60Minutes.
The third dive was Monday Morning at 9AM and we headed to Talisay which is on the other side of the Island from the resort. It was a fairly uneventful dive, although it had a nice current throughout most of the dive it was pretty tame as far as things to see. I only saw one large fish which I thought was a Wahoo, but could have been either a Spanish Mackerel or a Great Barracuda either way it was the highlight of the dive. The water temp was the same and our max depth was 28 for 75 Minutes.
My final dive of the short trip was to View Point (formerly known as Shark Point). It was a sandy slope with good coral growth through the entire dive. This was the first place I have been able to get reasonable shots of a Pygmy Sea Horse, but I did not use my lamp for fear of cooking the little guy. I also saw a Juvenile Hump Head Wrasse that was about 75cm (2.5’ long. I was able to get a decent shot of her despite the distance between us. Visibility was between 30 but decreased to around 20 M’s as we rounded the point (see map in photo album). Max Depth was around 28M and bottom time was 85 Minutes (including hanging around in shallow (4M) grass beds for 10 minutes.
Overall diving was very enjoyable. Cabilao is a very quiet, remote little place that is perfect for experiencing some great dives while getting away from it all. Polaris was a very nice dive resort, the rooms were reasonably priced, the food in the restaurant was very good, and breakfast was included in my rate and was good. The prices on the menu were a little high compared to what I am used to, but considering that everything except the fish needs to be shipped in, it is probably a fair price.
If you are on a budget there are not really any alternative places to eat, that are as good or cheaper (that I was able to find). There are a couple of Sari Sari stores that will sell you drinking water and chips for a little cheaper than you can get in any of the resorts and I think in total there were 4 other resorts on the island.
I retraced my original route back to Moalboal. So a breakdown of the travel costs is:
Bus Round trip: 150P
Banka Round Trip 200P
Huble Huble R/T 200
Total Travel Cost per Person 550P.
Bottom Line: Since it is sooo easy to travel between Cebu and Cabilao I will return.
and finish hitting the rest of the dive sites..
After finally wrapping up the final requirements with three DM candidates, I decided to take a short trip. I was inspired by Wisnu’s positive write up of Arthurs Place, so I tried to book at the same place in Anilao. But I couldn’t get a room for last weekend or this coming weekend.
I decided to take a short trip to Cabilao instead. I was able to book a room with Polaris Dive Resort with no problem. The rates were reasonable below 2500P for an A/C room, and the dives were 1200P per dive with your own equipment.
I live in Moalboal and many of the visitors here either go to Cabilao before or after they stop here, so I decided to take public transportation there. I left Moalboal at 8:00AM on a Ceres Bus and got off just north of the town of Carcar. I then took another Ceres Bus from Carcar to just south of the town of Argao. The driver let me off just steps from the Banka I would take to Cabilao. Still being a little anal about arriving places on time I always like to arrive a little early, so I ended up arriving two hours before the Bankas’ scheduled departure time. Unfortunately the Banka was delayed by another 30mins due to a vendor delivering something to the boat a little late.
Once I boarded the boat it was a smooth 20 Km voyage across the Cebu Strait directly to the Island of Cabilao. We landed at the Talisay Pier and some kids helped me with my bags and got me to the top of the hill where I was obliged to ride a Huble Huble (motor cycle for hire) I had so much stuff two trips were required. The resort offers a pick-up from Bohol but I was unaware of any pick up from Cebu, and the public Banka I took only cost 100P, so I did not have any issue with paying 50P X2 to transport my stuff to the Resort.
When I arrived at Polaris, I was greeted with a welcome sign and a very friendly staff. Since it was low season I was upgraded to a nicer room, which was closer to the beach, restaurant and dive center. The facilities were decent, and were appropriate for a reasonably well maintained remote resort. The pool was clean, the grounds were well kept and room was very nice. Since I arrived a little before 3:00PM (7 hours between Moalboal and the resort) I decided to take my first dive the next day and settled instead to dive into a nice cold SMB Pilsen.
I took my first dive at 11AM the next morning, there were 4 divers and we went to Chapel Point, the DM’s split us into two groups Photographers and Non Photographers. It was a nice wall type dive with lots of small stuff. I saw several types of Nudibranch that I had only seen in books, a school (100 or more) of Low Fin Drummer’s with several Jacks mixed in. Along the wall there were many cuts and small over hangs for stuff to hide in and several of the soft corrals had the tiny crabs that made great shots for the still photographers… The visibility on the dive was probably 30 meters and the water temp was 28 C. 82 F. Max Depth was around 28M for 70Minutes.
My second dive was a Shore Entry, Night Dive on the House Reef. The resorts policy is for the Night Dive to commence at 6:00PM but I insisted that we not start until at least 7PM since sunset was at 6:30 PM that day
. I was again pleasantly surprised by the great visibility, and all the critters I saw during the dive. Saw lots of decorator crabs, one was huge (see my Cabilao photo album ScubaBoard Gallery - Cabilao Trip ) I think he was close to 26 cm’s across the shell. The Frog fish was so well camouflaged, that I could hardly see it let alone take a decent shot of it, but the Ornate Ghost Pipe Fish was a cooperative subject! I also got a reasonable shot of a baby Cuttle Fish, an ok shot of Textile cone with its siphon part of the way out, and a couple of banded pipe fish, overall it was a great night dive, same water temp and our max depth was 16M for 60Minutes.The third dive was Monday Morning at 9AM and we headed to Talisay which is on the other side of the Island from the resort. It was a fairly uneventful dive, although it had a nice current throughout most of the dive it was pretty tame as far as things to see. I only saw one large fish which I thought was a Wahoo, but could have been either a Spanish Mackerel or a Great Barracuda either way it was the highlight of the dive. The water temp was the same and our max depth was 28 for 75 Minutes.
My final dive of the short trip was to View Point (formerly known as Shark Point). It was a sandy slope with good coral growth through the entire dive. This was the first place I have been able to get reasonable shots of a Pygmy Sea Horse, but I did not use my lamp for fear of cooking the little guy. I also saw a Juvenile Hump Head Wrasse that was about 75cm (2.5’
long. I was able to get a decent shot of her despite the distance between us. Visibility was between 30 but decreased to around 20 M’s as we rounded the point (see map in photo album). Max Depth was around 28M and bottom time was 85 Minutes (including hanging around in shallow (4M) grass beds for 10 minutes. Overall diving was very enjoyable. Cabilao is a very quiet, remote little place that is perfect for experiencing some great dives while getting away from it all. Polaris was a very nice dive resort, the rooms were reasonably priced, the food in the restaurant was very good, and breakfast was included in my rate and was good. The prices on the menu were a little high compared to what I am used to, but considering that everything except the fish needs to be shipped in, it is probably a fair price.
If you are on a budget there are not really any alternative places to eat, that are as good or cheaper (that I was able to find). There are a couple of Sari Sari stores that will sell you drinking water and chips for a little cheaper than you can get in any of the resorts and I think in total there were 4 other resorts on the island.
I retraced my original route back to Moalboal. So a breakdown of the travel costs is:
Bus Round trip: 150P
Banka Round Trip 200P
Huble Huble R/T 200
Total Travel Cost per Person 550P.
Bottom Line: Since it is sooo easy to travel between Cebu and Cabilao I will return.
and finish hitting the rest of the dive sites..
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