Visayas trip report : Cabilao-Alona-Dauin-Moalboal April 18

[Luko]

Just came back monday from a two weeks Visayas diving trip including the areas mentioned in the title of the thread. Happy to share the highlghts -and lower lights- of my trip.

Disclaimer : I am quite hard to satisfy as a regular visitor of the area (probably my 7th dive trip in the Phils), my last trip was two years ago, yet not a long time I found in some aspects some places have really changed for good or for bad.

First part : Cabilao - Sanctuary Beach and Dive Resort.

I planned the first stop in Cabilao arriving from Paris/HKG/overnight in Manila then a domestic flight to Tagbilaran airport and two hours transfer to Cabilao island north west of Bohol.
Usually Cabilao is done on a day trip either from Mactan or Panglao operations, but I wanted to see what was a stay worth on that quaint island.

I booked Sanctuary Beach and dive resort which is a new resort (open less than 2 years ago) hosting what is probably the cleanest & most freshly painted dive center in the Visayas, named Cabilao Divers.
The resort and dive centers are french owned and managed, which normally means good food and a fair level of comfort.
On these aspects the operation didn't fail to deliver : the aircon bungalows looked either brand new or super well maintained,the grassy garden is very nicely planted with various trees or flowers, there is a nice swimming pool and a bamboo deck overlooking the "beach" wherz you can sit on beanseats looking at the sunset, beer in hand.
We didn't take many dishes but what we tasted was always good : since I have a kick on Kinilaw (raw spanish mackerel or tuna salad, marinated in vinegar, coconut, chilli and ginger) I simply ordered it almost every time.

Now for the diving, a young french couple manages the dive center. Loraine is the manager and instructor, Simon her backup also runs the Tech diving courses, trimix or extended EAN if you'd ask. There are also two local dive guides and a senior dive guide available on request if you are a macro buff.

Although the dive schedule is fixed, 3 or 4 dives per day, after each dive coming back to the resort ,, they are very flexible on where you want to go and what you're looking for. Hiring a private guide or even charter a private boat doesnt cost you much (from 4USD to 9 USD per dive for the private boat with guide).

There are at least two speedboats that can ply Cabilao reefs every day on the dive schedule, as we were only three divers at the time I stayed (it's the benefit of newer operations while next door Polaris pulled out two full boats of 6 divers each) I didn't feel the need to privatize a boat for each of my dives.

As for the diving, Cabilao diving is mainly done against walls covered with very healthy hard and soft corals and populated with a respectable number of reef fish, usually the dives terminate after 60 minutes on a grassy plateau covered with some colorful coral reef patches, sometimes very large sized frogfish canbe seen.. It seems the turtles also enjoy the place as there are many around.
There are at least 3 spots where pygmy seahorses (Hippocampus Denise type) can be seen, as much as 4 pygmies per seafan and also a good muck spot for macro (shrimps and crabs mostly but very few nudibranches). .

Unfortunately not many big fish in the fundive range, although Simon told me thresher sharks aren't infrequent when he does his morning solo dives in the 50-60m range.

All in all I would say Cabilao is an excellent introduction to the diving in Visayas with good healthy and colorful reefs that you can also snorkel, good visibility, I never experienced less than 18m and decent macro. Add on on top comfortable accomodations to relax, also easy coming from Cebu in order to start a dive trip. I would be happy to come back for a start or a wind up in my next Visayas trip.

The more serious hardore diver, may find Cabilao lacks the number of dive sites and a specific attraction that some other sites offer (like schools of fish or more macro) to stay more than 3-4 days.
That said I highly recommend the place to families for instance, the big bonus is the freedom the flexibility of the operation allows.

I would rate it :
- Place and surroundings 8,5/10 - Lovely, quaint...
- Hotel accomodations 9/10 - clearly some of the best I've seen for a dive resort.
- Food 7,5/10 - every thing good even though the menu is short
- Diving organization 9/10 : just ask they'll do.
- Reef quality : 8/10 excellent healthy and colorful reefs, even more than Balicasag IMO though no big fish.
- Macro : 6/10 interesting but limited dive sites clearly not up to Anilao nor Dauin. Needs the senior guide to be diving with.

Typical table corals sight in Cabilao

Colorful corals

Coral patches on the plateau

Turtle on the walls

Yellow frogfish at the end the dive

One of the many Denise pygmy seahorses

Hairy shrimp backlit

Spider crab

Coleman shrimp couple

 

[Tippytoes12]

Brilliant review Luke , thanks for sharing. We have Cabilao penciled in for our next Philippines trip , so this is really helpful.

Looking forward to parts 2 , 3 and 4 !

 

[CWK]

Many thanks for the report. I'd be interested to know which places you would recommend for a more serious hardore diver.

 

[Luko]

Part Two : Alona and Balicasag. - Philippines Fun Divers.

Second part of the trip was Alona on Panglao, easy to reach with 20 minutes boat crossing and less than two hours drive from Cabilao.

Alona and generally Panglao are undergoing heavy infrastructure and accomodation developments with the opening in the next years of the international airports.
Even though I stayed in Alona only a couple of years ago, I was stunned how it grew and changed with new hotels, shops and restaurants. Personally I thnk it has reached my personal unbearable point in terms of mass tourism, overrun with Korean and Chinese groups, catered with bigger hotels and mediocre restaurants... but the diving in Balicasag is still there and kicking!

Hence the difficulty was to find a nice accomodation that was not yet booked (Oasis Resort would have been my choice though you need great odds to confirm a booking there) or to find a place outside of the beachfront.
Fortunately I found beautufully laid balinese style villas just 5 minutes walk uphill from the beach, completely away from the night frenzy, the only downside was that it needed to pinch our nose to walk down to the beach and the dive center since some days that small trail seemed to be used by nighthawks or beerdrinkers as a private bathroom.
On the food side, although there is seemingly a lot of option, I would say many of these beachside restaurants are terrible, even for the grilled seafood. Maybe Pyramid and Oasis stand out a little, as well as the Bee Farm restaurant especially for their locally made ice cream (Salty honey, spicy ginger and guyabano favors are outstanding) but th rest is sub-edible.
Big thanks to our friends expats in Bohol who drove us downtown for dinner at Gerarda's for a delicious filipino meal, otherwise we would have just eaten ice cream for the end of the stay.

I had organized the diving with Philippines Fun Divers which was very reactive at replying, they catered for all my needs assigning me their most senior private guide for a 10USD supplement per dive (which seems to be the standard in the Visayas, Cabilao being the exception).
It was a private guide or I would have been diving with a group of 12 russian divers...
The whole team from the reception desk to the boat men or dive guides, was professional -this is where the german management shows up- the local speedboats or the bigger bangka were fast and confortable, they took good care of my photo equipment night and day. Really nothing to complain about except for the tiny size of the dive shop and the equipment/rinse area.

Diving wise, three days diving were enough to explore three diffrent areas.
The local reefs in front of Alona have been badly hit, I used to like them for macro critters, but it was slightly disappointing, It took me only 20 minutes on the first dive to spot myself the local nudi special Okenia Nakamotoensis, remembering past dives with Alvin from SeaExplorers who taught me where to look for (cave around 18-20m,small red branch coral). Apart from that it has been long dives swimming against the walls, from time to time a moderately common nudi, sometimes a frogfish but really nothing to call home about.

Second day, I was booked on Balicasag purposely looking for the jackfish school. Balicasag is now limited to two dives with a restrained number of divers. The grouch may be unhappy with the permit system, although I think it's the best thing they coud do to preserve the dive spots.
Unllike the first day I thought Balisacag diving was even in better conditions I had a few years before. The presence of the impressive jackfish school we came across on two dives (Cathedral and Black Forest) surely drives my assessment, but it's something you like to see while diving.
Add on top the massive coral coverage, schools of mackerels, sweetlips or fusiliers, giant trevallies hunting, large groupers, ever present turtles and the abundance of clownfish, you'l get the picture of what Balicasag can be on a good day.
Luckily enough jumping first with my private guide allowed us to outrun the other groups, so I had the pleasure to have the whole school for myself for a good 5 minutes before other divers came in. My dive #900 was a real satisfaction.
Third day was focused on diving western side of Panglao, Puntod and Gak-An walls. Great soft corals all colors you like reminding me a bit of Pescador, my bad I took the wrong lens and took a bet on macro while it was obviously a wide angle coral dive.
Anyway I think that unconsciously I was already satisfied with Balicasag and was not really motivated rather looking forward the next destination.

In conclusion for Alona would rate it :
- Place and surroundings 5/10 - Eek... I'm afraid Alona is living its last years before it will look like Costa Brava. Go dive there before it's over. .
- Hotel accomodations 9/10 - Kasadya Villas, away from the beach and the noise, retaining a balinese style, very very nice...only problem quite a walk to the dive center.
- Food 5/10 - Tourist prices for tourist food, gets an average mark for Bee's farm ice cream.. Otherwise it's downtown Tagbilaran you should go.
- Diving organization 8/10 : Philippines Fun Divers. Neat, square, german. Recommended, although I think SeaExplorers is slightly better..
- Reef quality : 8,5/10 for Balicasag a great dive in the Philippines, for the jackfish school, the tons of fish, Puntod walls. Try to book a few days in Balicasag before you come.
- Macro : 4/10 clearly not what it used to be. Maybe just for Okenia Nakamotoensis.

The nudi special : Okenia Nakamotoensis

and other nudi portraits in Alona :

the jackfish school in Balicasag :

 

[girellator]

Super report with very beautiful pictures . Glad you liked Gerardas Waiting for Dauin impatiently

 

[Luko]

Part 3 - Dauin at Azure dive resort.

Next destination was Dauin on south Negros, 2hrs and 15USD Ocean jet ferry ride away from Bohol (can’t say too much on traveling by public ferry in the Phils is cheap and easy, it would a be a shame not to use that means of transport).

Our pick for the stay and the diving was Azure dive resort, which we contacted directly : they replied very fast and arranged what I was looking for. I was recommanded for Ricky, -one of Azure’s guides- by one of the most senior diver in the area hence it was a no-brainer for me, so immediately booked him for my three days diving.

In a nutshell, Azure is a beautifully set resort with the straw roofs adding a nice filipino architectural touch, it’s located a short ride south of Sanctuary/car wreck just in front of Masaplod North. Honestly I don’t remember having had any room so strategically located to my points of interest : 20m to the camera room, 30 m to the dive center, 30 meters from the pool, 40 m to the restaurant and .. what… may be 50m from the dive boat.

The rooms are facing the pool, glass doors open wide to the ocean with no building to clutter the view, the restaurant caters good filipino food (hats off to the excellent Kinilaw) served in very hearty portions, one main dish was sufficient for the two of us and ways tastier than the usual tourist gobbledygook fare you get in beach hotels.

Azure provides diving to all dive sites around from a speedboat, most of the time not more than 5-8 minutes ride to the spots, coming back to the resort after each dive. The exception is when we went 20 minutes away south to Zamboanguita for back to back dives, there are also trips organized to Apo Island on a big bangka but I was so happy on Dauin black sand that I didn’t ask going to Apo for the full day, as I didn’t really bother for more corals and turtles, than what I’d already seen in Balicasag.

Now for the diving.

We were only two divers most of the time while the diving factories located a bit north unloaded boatful of divers, I had the pleasure to meet and dive with Lynn Funkhouser a well known American diver/photographer specialist of the Philippines who we spent discussing marine biology, the dive guides we knew …and also US/French politics at the same time Macron was meeting the Donald…, in surface intervals.

The season proved to be juveniles’ or egging, and there were masses of everything, more than what I remembered, strangely enough very few nudibranchs except for a couple of rarities (Cyerce elegans, Trapania miltabrancha, ...) even though the algae fields wre scattered with ribbons of nudi eggs everywhere.

On the first day I was already flabbergasted with the numbers of juvenile frogfish Ricky could shake a stick at out the small algae patches or just lying on the sand, some of them really minute sized. We did come out on each and every dive with “double numbers” of juvenile froggies : painted, clown, giant, hispid, mummifer and even sometimes randall’s or hairies.

In the beginning I was madly pulling out my snoot asking for Ricky’s help to hold steady my Retra flash+snoot combo, whereas he’d also often point me another froggie below me, so I could avoid crashing a piece of equipment on his back if I had to set anything the bottom. Like Forrest would have said It was raining froggies horizontally and even from below. The dive always ended getting completely bored of juve froggies, so we’d agree simply passing afar the common ones and stopping for the less usual ones.

Let’s not speak about the ghostpipefish, ornate, robust or whatever. I’d only care for bunches of 4 OR only if they had their belly full bursting of eggs so I could get down and slow, as close as an additional +15 macro wetlens requires to shoot egg “portraits”.

Even some rarer the critters like Sawblade shrimps were bearing eggs, similar for yellow gobies. I just missed the dragon shrimp with the hindsight.

Three or four boat dives could be scheduled every day, I opted and asked for a night dive the first day, It was easily one of my top 3 night dives. After an early double double of juve froggies and bobtail squids, we focused on the interesting things : a couple of Ambon scorpionfish (the night after I stumbled into a juvenile Ambon scorpionfish), a cyerce elegans nudibranch half the size of my fist (three times the size of a normal one), a couple of tozeuma armatum shrimps, etc.

For my second time in Dauin, it went beyond my expectations for the profusion of critters, clearly a place where in time of the year, you sleep well at night with a sore index finger and all your flash batteries busy in the charger. I don’t think I will get crazy anymore for a juvenile frogfish since then, GPF? Don’t bother mentioning to me. Bobtail squids? Meh.

In conclusion for Dauin would rate it :
- Place and surroundings 7,5/10 - Calm, calm calm... beautifully open to the sea, sunrise on Apo island, yet so calm.
- Hotel accomodations 8,5/10 - Nice settings, this hotel is designed for people who do not like to walk, bigger trees providing some shade would be a nice addition to the garden.
- Food 8/10 - Tasty food heartily served, love their Kinilaw I wouldn't mind a few desserts though..
- Diving organization 9/10 : Can't imagine more comfortable and convenient.
- Macro : 9/10 look at the pix.
- Reef quality : NA/10 Wot reef, I'm not here for a bloody damn reef !!!

The juvenile froggy parade :

And next for some critters other than froggies...

 

[Luko]

And now for the critters carrying eggs ...

and what about the others?

Even though nudis were scarce...

 

[Luko]

Just a pic I wanted to isolate for its specific content, showing what a bottle thrown overboard can do.

That poor tetraodon puffer stuck himself into a bottle, was bumping against the bottom with no way out. Ricky managed to pull him out of the bottle before it had completely swollen, hadn't 2 divers decided to dive San Miguel this afternoon the poor fish would have kicked the bucket later in the evening.

 

[birdman27]

Great photos. Having just gotten back from Dauin, I appreciate the time you took to document all there was around. I am but a novice photog myself, but I can definitely appreciate what a pro does!

 

[Luko]

Part 4 : Moalboal

Last stop of my trip was Moalboal, this is a place I have been diving 4 times every now and then since 2001, last dives 4 years ago. I used to like the sites and the dive scene quite a lot, but I feel now it's over.
To get straight to the conclusion, it will probably be my last time for a long moment, Moalboal has been evolving within the past years to a direction that doesn't suit me at all. Think a mix of Koh Tao for the cheap and Oslob for the circus

The long standing dive centres such as Savedra are not even the ghost of what they used to be. I had used them many times and pigeonholed them as a serious dive center catering for experienced (mostly german hardcore) divers, sensitive and flexible to their customers requests.
Forget that, this is now a dive factory, led by a pool of european instructors some of them haven't been/dived there for even 2 months where you can't expect anything but follow the flow. It's obvious that they are targeting for instruction/selling courses not really for fundives to experienced divers.
The epitome of that evolution is their dive schedule : Pescador is dived as a 2nd dive at 10:30 AM in order to match late awakenings rather than -like it is usually scheduled- as a first dive deeper dive. As a result you get a boatload of young unexeprienced fundivers (sometimes even two boats, but they still refuse to schedule Pescador early morning), worse viz than early morning and absolutely no chance to see anything bigger than a frogfish. Add on top on that a complete ignorance of tides that makes them plan dives on Pescador when the soft corals are as flaccid as a deadman organs.
I then decided to cut my diving short with them after one day and three dives, to have a chance to dive Pescador in teh morning with another dive centre..

The scene in Moalboal (which was once dominated by middle-aged german divers in speedoes) is currently overrepresented by a crowd of backpackers, attracted with the new hostels that have open ubiquiteously downtown, also a myriad of chinese/korean daytrippers coming for a quick snorkel over the sardines school, then rushing.to Oslob.
Diving the sardines school at mid day is not something you'll like : it has become the same circus as in Oslob, dozens of boats unloadng hundreds of people.

The more positive side of Moalboal is that there are still two spots worth the dive : Pescador when dived on the good SE side. I dived Pescdor twice in this trip : first with Savedra, they decided to go on the "wrong" side, fortunately I had a booked a private filipino guide and asked him to stay more on the Southern part, so that we wer able to spot big frogfish and huge Spanish dancers on our own, on the second day I had the beautiful corals early morning but also a group of 12 koreans who rushed like mad on the first frogfish like it was free buffet. Not a nice thing to see!
Neither was the korean or chinese diver picking up things from underwater up on the boat, like a blue seastar... Was she thinking of bringng it back on the plane??? duh...

The other spot worthwhile is of course the Sardines before the snorkelers get to town. always impressive although the walls are wiped out dead at day time, the scarce coral that was left a few years ago has now been completely destroyed on Panagsama walls. Thanks to the crowds.

At night time, the wall fortunately shows more creepy crawly life, lots of crustacea, lots of shells and slugs (dotted cribaria, map cowrie, etc.) and some juveniles hiding in the crevices. That might be another dive worthwhile.

So Moalboal isn't a spot I would recommend anymore for more than a day diving.
I'd skip Savedra to avoid their crowd and whimsical schedule, I don't see any reason now to use another dive centre than Nelson's or Cebu Dive Center who's manager is at least friendlier than most I've met here.

I'd never think I would have been able to write this but I somehow miss the german divers in speedoes.


Pescador walls when current flows and the coral polyps are open

Giant frogfish this size

… and spanish dancer that big!

Turtle closeup on Pescador

Sardines school vortex

Mark and the sardines

Snorkelers are coming

Nightdive surprize, juvenile batfish