I just returned from a trip which took me to the literal end of the road in Samar, this adventure began a few days after I returned from the states. I was really excited to visit an Island that I had read so much about as a child but had never had the chance to visit before. The trip began with a short voyage on the Super Cat from Cebu City to Ormoc, Leyte. I opted for the Business Class fare which was 800 Pesos, the tourist fare was 650P and the only perks for B Class was easier boarding/debarking, a larger seat, complimentary ice tea and crackers as well as a great view during the trip. It was a nice 2 .5 hour boat ride which took us under both Mactan Island bridges, up the eastern side of Cebu and gave us great views of the white beaches of the Camotes Islands as we cut across the Camotes Sea heading into Ormoc Bay. After arriving Ormoc, negotiating with the porters, and walking around 300 Meters I crammed into one of the “complimentary” Super Ferry vans heading to Tacloban, they told me “I” get to ride for free, but had to pay for my luggage. After a 2 hour drive to Tacloban, I found my way via Tricycle to the Leyte Park Hotel on the outskirts of the city where I spent the evening and had dinner. The resort unfortunately was showing serious signs of ageing and the grounds were in pretty bad shape but the room was nice and it had a decent restaurant. The next morning I met my friends at the Regional BFAR office where after lunch we embarked on a van ride across the San Jaunico Bridge which connects Leyte to Samar. We then headed south and after a beautiful 2.5 hour drive through mountains and beautiful coastal and farm communities we made it to the very southern end of Samar and arrived in Guiuan.. We unloaded our bags at the Guiuan BFAR guest house and set about ensuring we had all the logistical support required for 4 days of diving and specimen collection. Everyone at the BFAR facility was very professional, accommodating and helpful. After a quick rest, we headed back into Guiuan town (a 2KM ride) for provisions; I thought it best that I not do the shopping and used the opportunity to do a little sightseeing. Guiuan appeared to be a fairly typical, pleasant little provincial town with one notable exception being the beautiful and well preserved 16th century church. Additionally the town was spotless, no garbage to be found anywhere, this is in stark contrast to the Cities of Manila and Cebu City.
Tuesday morning we set out on a specimen collection dive. We left the Guiuan wharf and after a 45 minute boat ride arrived at the first dive site. It was a small reef off of an unnamed island and after a 65 minute dive we came up empty handed after searching for sea cucumbers and were unable to find even one. After the disappointing first dive we beached our banka on Pearl Island a 54 Hectare Marine Reserve that serves as a teaching station, Pearl Farm and Giant Clam Farm. After lunch we were ready to embark on another search mission when one of my counterparts noticed a group of bankas that ended up being commercial sea cucumber fishermen. We made a b line towards the boats and found them making surface supplied air dives very basic rigs, and no consideration of decompression illness. In fact, when we arrived the divers had already been down for over 120 minutes at depths between 45 and 60 feet. Their rigs consisted of small diameter plastic hoses with no regulators attached; they were essentially sucking off the end of the hoses and breathing the air without the comfort of a mouth piece. We decided to follow the sea cucumber fishermen to document their methods but after following them for approximately 20 minutes they had not found any sea cucumber. During the dive I recorded their search methods on video but the visibility in the sandy/muck filled bottom was pretty bad and the quality of my video was subsequently less than thrilling.
The next few dives went the same way and we didn’t meet any success. We decided to spend the night on Pearl Island and went reef walking at night where we found 7 different species and the following morning we found 2 additional species during our final dive. Despite not finding many Sea Cucumbers I did find several bottom dwellers including blue spotted rays, stargazers and several flounders….Additionally I noticed several large Groupers and Sweet Lips as well as cowries during each dive.
Overall, due to limited visibility, the diving in Guiuan was lackluster but the reefs we dived were filled with many nice corals however the fishes were few and far between. If however you want to see huge giant clams and a small active pearl farm give Guiuan a try, BFAR in Guiuan can rent equipment and arrange for boat transportation at pretty reasonable rates. There are other activities to avail yourself of while down there including a pretty nice surfing area approximately a 45 minute Trike ride from Guiuan.
One more side note on the return trip we stayed at the Asia Star Hotel in Tacloban it was in the middle of down town, close to many restaurants and was reasonably priced, if you find yourself passing through Tacloban I would recommend staying there. The only thing I would have done different would be to add one day on the back end of my trip so that I could experience the MacArthur Shrine in Palo Leyte, but I shall return...
If you want any clarification or further info on this shoot me an email….
Sorry for the long post but thought you would like to know, and I tried to post some pics with no success.
you can find a couple of photos if you follow the photos link to the right of my post..
Tuesday morning we set out on a specimen collection dive. We left the Guiuan wharf and after a 45 minute boat ride arrived at the first dive site. It was a small reef off of an unnamed island and after a 65 minute dive we came up empty handed after searching for sea cucumbers and were unable to find even one. After the disappointing first dive we beached our banka on Pearl Island a 54 Hectare Marine Reserve that serves as a teaching station, Pearl Farm and Giant Clam Farm. After lunch we were ready to embark on another search mission when one of my counterparts noticed a group of bankas that ended up being commercial sea cucumber fishermen. We made a b line towards the boats and found them making surface supplied air dives very basic rigs, and no consideration of decompression illness. In fact, when we arrived the divers had already been down for over 120 minutes at depths between 45 and 60 feet. Their rigs consisted of small diameter plastic hoses with no regulators attached; they were essentially sucking off the end of the hoses and breathing the air without the comfort of a mouth piece. We decided to follow the sea cucumber fishermen to document their methods but after following them for approximately 20 minutes they had not found any sea cucumber. During the dive I recorded their search methods on video but the visibility in the sandy/muck filled bottom was pretty bad and the quality of my video was subsequently less than thrilling.
The next few dives went the same way and we didn’t meet any success. We decided to spend the night on Pearl Island and went reef walking at night where we found 7 different species and the following morning we found 2 additional species during our final dive. Despite not finding many Sea Cucumbers I did find several bottom dwellers including blue spotted rays, stargazers and several flounders….Additionally I noticed several large Groupers and Sweet Lips as well as cowries during each dive.
Overall, due to limited visibility, the diving in Guiuan was lackluster but the reefs we dived were filled with many nice corals however the fishes were few and far between. If however you want to see huge giant clams and a small active pearl farm give Guiuan a try, BFAR in Guiuan can rent equipment and arrange for boat transportation at pretty reasonable rates. There are other activities to avail yourself of while down there including a pretty nice surfing area approximately a 45 minute Trike ride from Guiuan.
One more side note on the return trip we stayed at the Asia Star Hotel in Tacloban it was in the middle of down town, close to many restaurants and was reasonably priced, if you find yourself passing through Tacloban I would recommend staying there. The only thing I would have done different would be to add one day on the back end of my trip so that I could experience the MacArthur Shrine in Palo Leyte, but I shall return...
If you want any clarification or further info on this shoot me an email….
Sorry for the long post but thought you would like to know, and I tried to post some pics with no success.
you can find a couple of photos if you follow the photos link to the right of my post..
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