nankivell
Registered
My buddies and I are the middle of our first dive trip to the Philippines--thought I would report on the trip so far. We had decided to focus on the Visayas--flying in to Cebu --and then transferring largely by Ferry. Our stops are going to be Malapascua, Bohol, Siquijor and Dumaguete.
We flew from LAX to Hong Kong and then on to Cebu via Cathay Pacific (highly recommended). And if you can fly business class--do it--the seats fold down to a bed-- terrific for the long flight to HK. We used AA miles for the flight so it cost almost nothing.
Arrived in Cebu about 7:00 pm on a Friday night. Took a yellow cab from the airport to the Radisson Blu-- cost 250php or about $6.25 US. Taxis are a great deal in Cebu. Radisson Blu is a nice hotel--we got a deal on the room at $80/night using Carlson's friends and family rate. And the breakfast buffet is excellent.
Malapascua---Four nights diving with Evolution. They arranged a van to drive us from Cebu to Malapascua--took about 3 hours. At Maya, you board a bangka for the 30 minute ride to Malapascua. It cost us 10,000php roundtrip or about $250--a little pricey but worth it when divided by four. The Ceres bus takes much longer and then you take the public bangka at Maya. The ride out of Cebu was extremely interesting with all of the trikes, jeepneys and people everywhere.
We stayed at Evolution -- they have some new air con rooms with two beds at 3200php/night -- the food and drink at the Craic House bar is excellent--and eat and drink we did---and they run a first class dive op---highly recommended. Matt and David own the place and know what they are doing. You will not go wrong with Evolution.
Day one--First dive the next morning was to Monad Shoal for the signature Thresher shark cleaning station--about a 30 minute bangka ride. You head out at 5:00AM so you get in the water just after dawn. The threshers did show up--magnificent creatures and larger than I thought they'd be. I wonder how much longer this will last with all of the divers in the water.
Kalanggaman Island. After breakfast, we headed to the reserve at Kalanggaman Island --great vis 100+ 1.5 hour ride, nudibranchs, Pygmy seahorse--at least that's what the DM said he saw and pointed to-- damn hard to see. Excellent dive site--but quite a few other dive boats at the site.
Day two--9:30 am dive Something Bato---a Pinnacle on the north end of the island Great dive for the first 50 minutes---beautiful soft corals. Many nudibranchs, And then near the end of the dive, Exotic (a larger dive op on the island) unloaded 25 divers --chaos---I have never been in the water with so many divers in one place.
1:30 pm dive not far from Evolution. A bit of a current-- not spectacular, but nice. More nudibranchs.
Night dive--house Reef in front of Evolution. seahorse, very large lion fish , schools of small catfish
Day three--9:00am departure for 1.5 hour ride to the Dona Marilyn---sank in a typhoon in 1988. Not the greatest of wreck dives--but very accessible and beautiful white gorgonians all over the place. Deepest part of the wreck is at 35meters
After finishing at the Dona Marilyn, we head back and stopped at Gato Island.
Gato island features a swim through tunnel through this small island-- maybe a 100 meters long. There was a white tip reef shark in one of the overhangs. Another seahorse--yellow one this time. Once again, lots of dive boats at this site. But a very nice dive.
A final late afternoon/night dive at Lighthouse reef. The thing to see here is the Mandarin fish mating just before dark. And they did not disappoint. But very hard to find and even harder to photograph. One of our group was able to get a decent photo.
Overall impression of Malapascua--- Excellent diving and April was a good time to visit--seas were flat--no rain while we were there--vis was good--lots to see. Only negative is the increasing numbers of divers on this small island--but that seems to be happening just about everywhere.
Off to Bohol tomorrow via Ocean Jet ferry from Cebu City.
We flew from LAX to Hong Kong and then on to Cebu via Cathay Pacific (highly recommended). And if you can fly business class--do it--the seats fold down to a bed-- terrific for the long flight to HK. We used AA miles for the flight so it cost almost nothing.
Arrived in Cebu about 7:00 pm on a Friday night. Took a yellow cab from the airport to the Radisson Blu-- cost 250php or about $6.25 US. Taxis are a great deal in Cebu. Radisson Blu is a nice hotel--we got a deal on the room at $80/night using Carlson's friends and family rate. And the breakfast buffet is excellent.
Malapascua---Four nights diving with Evolution. They arranged a van to drive us from Cebu to Malapascua--took about 3 hours. At Maya, you board a bangka for the 30 minute ride to Malapascua. It cost us 10,000php roundtrip or about $250--a little pricey but worth it when divided by four. The Ceres bus takes much longer and then you take the public bangka at Maya. The ride out of Cebu was extremely interesting with all of the trikes, jeepneys and people everywhere.
We stayed at Evolution -- they have some new air con rooms with two beds at 3200php/night -- the food and drink at the Craic House bar is excellent--and eat and drink we did---and they run a first class dive op---highly recommended. Matt and David own the place and know what they are doing. You will not go wrong with Evolution.
Day one--First dive the next morning was to Monad Shoal for the signature Thresher shark cleaning station--about a 30 minute bangka ride. You head out at 5:00AM so you get in the water just after dawn. The threshers did show up--magnificent creatures and larger than I thought they'd be. I wonder how much longer this will last with all of the divers in the water.
Kalanggaman Island. After breakfast, we headed to the reserve at Kalanggaman Island --great vis 100+ 1.5 hour ride, nudibranchs, Pygmy seahorse--at least that's what the DM said he saw and pointed to-- damn hard to see. Excellent dive site--but quite a few other dive boats at the site.
Day two--9:30 am dive Something Bato---a Pinnacle on the north end of the island Great dive for the first 50 minutes---beautiful soft corals. Many nudibranchs, And then near the end of the dive, Exotic (a larger dive op on the island) unloaded 25 divers --chaos---I have never been in the water with so many divers in one place.
1:30 pm dive not far from Evolution. A bit of a current-- not spectacular, but nice. More nudibranchs.
Night dive--house Reef in front of Evolution. seahorse, very large lion fish , schools of small catfish
Day three--9:00am departure for 1.5 hour ride to the Dona Marilyn---sank in a typhoon in 1988. Not the greatest of wreck dives--but very accessible and beautiful white gorgonians all over the place. Deepest part of the wreck is at 35meters
After finishing at the Dona Marilyn, we head back and stopped at Gato Island.
Gato island features a swim through tunnel through this small island-- maybe a 100 meters long. There was a white tip reef shark in one of the overhangs. Another seahorse--yellow one this time. Once again, lots of dive boats at this site. But a very nice dive.
A final late afternoon/night dive at Lighthouse reef. The thing to see here is the Mandarin fish mating just before dark. And they did not disappoint. But very hard to find and even harder to photograph. One of our group was able to get a decent photo.
Overall impression of Malapascua--- Excellent diving and April was a good time to visit--seas were flat--no rain while we were there--vis was good--lots to see. Only negative is the increasing numbers of divers on this small island--but that seems to be happening just about everywhere.
Off to Bohol tomorrow via Ocean Jet ferry from Cebu City.
