Dive Weekend: Back in Balingoan

Finally, I got a chance to dive again in Balingoan. It has been a year since I last visited the place when Ate Claudia and I dive in Mantangale and Mantigue Island in 2010. Since then, I was enthralled with the unspoiled beauty beneath. It is among the underrated dive spots in the country and I promised to return. While most tourist frequent the place only as jump off point to Camiguin,... Read More

Amazing Dives at Sabang, Puerto Galera

It was raining hard for two days prior to our scheduled dives and on the day of our trip, the sky continued to pour its seemingly endless tears. Batanes is not really for us this year. The unfavorable circumstances were enough reasons to give up our dream of visiting the land of beautiful lighthouses and rolling hills. There are reasons for everything and there maybe deeper reasons... Read More

Tubbataha Logs Day 4: Last Day in Underwater Paradise

Down to our last day in Tubbataha Reefs, our ship cruised back to the Northern Atoll. The sky was overcast and the water was choppy. The bad weather was as if condoling with us that our Tubbataha dream was about to end. Dive 1 (Malayan Wreck): Back to Malayan Wreck On our first dive of the day, we went back to Malayan Wreck, the very first dive site we visited on Day 1. Armed with... Read More

Tubbataha Logs Day 3: Close Encounter With A Whale Shark

From the Northern Atoll of Tubbataha Reefs, our boat cruised southwards to the Southern Atoll for our third day of diving. As usual, we woke up before six o’clock in the morning and had light snacks before our first dive. Everybody was enthusiastic, hoping for a great third day of diving in Southern Atoll. A cute juvenile Flagfin Angelfish Dive 1: Delsan Wreck (Wow! Diving... Read More

Tubbataha Logs Day 2: Devil Ray, Sea Turtles, More Sharks and Other Species!

A tiring day on the water and a full stomach put me to an early slumber on our first day in Tubbataha Reefs. I was already down at 2100H and had a good nine hours of sleep on day one. I woke up before 0600H and had a light snacks before the first dive of our second day, still on the North Atoll. Triggerfish are everywhere! Dive 1: Sharks’ Airport (Warning! More Sharks Below!) At... Read More

Tubbataha Logs Day 1: Sharks Tale

From an overcast sky of Puerto Princesa, our boat Hans Christian Andersen cruised for 13 hours in the  vast water of Sulu Sea. We woke up on a sunny blue sky above of the Tubbataha Reefs of Cagayancillo, Palawan. A perfect weather and calm seas, just as what we prayed. There were 25 divers aboard, all excited to dive the reefs of Tubbataha. More than half of the divers were Filipinos,... Read More

Moalboal Revisited: The Sardine Run, Sea Hawks and Remoras, Pipefish Colony and Underwater Macro Paradise

Millions of sardines cloud above us “This is the southern tip of Pescador Island. Below is a wall, we will drift northward around the wall. We expect to see the school of  sardines, of course; nudis; fusiliers; barracudas; tunas; and if we are lucky, the threshers”, our dive master told us in all smile, before we descended in Pescador Island. It took us twenty months... Read More

Three Amazing Dives in a Paradise Called Apo Reef

“Woooooooh!!!”, we shouted as we surfaced after our third and last dive, it was almost dark. We descended a few minutes before sunset. If it was not because we were in this magical place, we could have cancel the third dive. But we were in Apo Reef and we had to make the most of our day to explore its underwater paradise. We proceeded with sunset dive without any hint... Read More

Weekend Dives in Mactan

My dive buddy Ate Claudia and I had an unexpected first dive trip of the year in the waters of Mactan Island, Lapu Lapu City, Cebu. It was unplanned and spontaneous, a simple “hi” and “hello” exchanges on SMS that ended up looking forward for a day of breathing more than 30 feet underwater. So we ended up one weekend of January in Cebu, thanks to the free... Read More