blue steal
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Just returned from a 3 week trip to the PI with an diving trip over to Puerto Galera/Small LaLaguna. My family lives in Anialo, but I actually prefer to dive in Mindoro.
Taking the ferry from Batangas pier to Sabang is pretty easy, we use Father & Sons, cost is 240P with a 50P enviromental fee, and some sort of 10P port fee. Took the first ferry out at 0730 or 0800. The trip is about an hour, maybe 1.5 hours.
Bringing lots of dive gear, plus other supplies, I find it worthwhile to use porters, the cost is low and it saves my back from hauling all my crap.
I use Mark at Searider, which is right next to Action Divers in small lalaguna. Short walk from Sabang, but Mark will always pick you up using his speedboat and bring you to his shop. Searider is a small "boutique" shop, but they have everything I need, rinse tanks for cameras/regs & masks/fins wetsuits, shower, CR, hanging racks for gears, free coffee/tea/water. He has rental gear and although I have my own stuff, his gear is in pretty good shape with a wide variety of sizes. Mark uses a speed boat to get you to the dive sites, and quick.
Dive briefings are good and we usually only have 1-3 of us on the boat +DM and or Mark.
Searider can arrange acomadations for you in any price range from 800P and up. I choose the Banana Moon, about a 2 minute walk to the shop. BM had everything I need in a "resort", friendly staff, wifi, AC, kitchen (did not use), Frig., Cable, hot water. I love a big balcony with 180 degree ocean view and BM delivers in this.
There is a nice beach bar next to the shop called Full Moon, 10% discount if you stay at BM, and the food is good there plus the bar makes some decent drinks. Happy hour was 5p-10p and the beer was only 30P, pretty sweet price for a cold San Mig pale.
I enjoyed an early morning walk over to big lalaguna each morning for breakfast at a place called Cataquis, great food/decent prices. It is just before you get to the lalaguna beach club and right on the sand.
Diving: Dove every day and using my new 1mm fullsuit found the water to be a bit cool at 26C or apprx 77F. VIS was a bit off, don't know why but maybe because of the run off from rain in the mountains combined with overcast skys. Saw an amazing variety of critters, large jacks, frog fish, lion fish, clown, lobsters, pgymy seahouse, and so many other that I don't know the names of.
Mark is quite good at finding the macro stuff and showing them, (staring at a pgymy seahorse for several minutes sure let me get my bouyancy/hovering act together.)
Verde Island is always a treat and certainly did not disappoint this time, I love wall dives and Verde has some of the biggest seafans and the biggest fish I have ever seen, well worth the extra cost for a larger boat to take you there.
Down side: I like to dive my air or computer and it seems the dives in PG are by time, 60 minutes. Most of the time this is fine, but I'm pretty decent on air and would like those extra 10-15 minutes.
Overall another good trip, with Searider offering a very decent price for semi-private diving.
Alright enough for now.
I will try to post up some pictures when I can.
Taking the ferry from Batangas pier to Sabang is pretty easy, we use Father & Sons, cost is 240P with a 50P enviromental fee, and some sort of 10P port fee. Took the first ferry out at 0730 or 0800. The trip is about an hour, maybe 1.5 hours.
Bringing lots of dive gear, plus other supplies, I find it worthwhile to use porters, the cost is low and it saves my back from hauling all my crap.
I use Mark at Searider, which is right next to Action Divers in small lalaguna. Short walk from Sabang, but Mark will always pick you up using his speedboat and bring you to his shop. Searider is a small "boutique" shop, but they have everything I need, rinse tanks for cameras/regs & masks/fins wetsuits, shower, CR, hanging racks for gears, free coffee/tea/water. He has rental gear and although I have my own stuff, his gear is in pretty good shape with a wide variety of sizes. Mark uses a speed boat to get you to the dive sites, and quick.
Dive briefings are good and we usually only have 1-3 of us on the boat +DM and or Mark.
Searider can arrange acomadations for you in any price range from 800P and up. I choose the Banana Moon, about a 2 minute walk to the shop. BM had everything I need in a "resort", friendly staff, wifi, AC, kitchen (did not use), Frig., Cable, hot water. I love a big balcony with 180 degree ocean view and BM delivers in this.
There is a nice beach bar next to the shop called Full Moon, 10% discount if you stay at BM, and the food is good there plus the bar makes some decent drinks. Happy hour was 5p-10p and the beer was only 30P, pretty sweet price for a cold San Mig pale.
I enjoyed an early morning walk over to big lalaguna each morning for breakfast at a place called Cataquis, great food/decent prices. It is just before you get to the lalaguna beach club and right on the sand.
Diving: Dove every day and using my new 1mm fullsuit found the water to be a bit cool at 26C or apprx 77F. VIS was a bit off, don't know why but maybe because of the run off from rain in the mountains combined with overcast skys. Saw an amazing variety of critters, large jacks, frog fish, lion fish, clown, lobsters, pgymy seahouse, and so many other that I don't know the names of.
Mark is quite good at finding the macro stuff and showing them, (staring at a pgymy seahorse for several minutes sure let me get my bouyancy/hovering act together.)
Verde Island is always a treat and certainly did not disappoint this time, I love wall dives and Verde has some of the biggest seafans and the biggest fish I have ever seen, well worth the extra cost for a larger boat to take you there.
Down side: I like to dive my air or computer and it seems the dives in PG are by time, 60 minutes. Most of the time this is fine, but I'm pretty decent on air and would like those extra 10-15 minutes.
Overall another good trip, with Searider offering a very decent price for semi-private diving.
Alright enough for now.
I will try to post up some pictures when I can.
