Cebu (moalboal)

If anyone ever asked me if there was ever a destination that touched me from the first time i set foot there, through its quaintness, vibe and just plain amazing diving... I would have to answer over and over hands down it is Moalboal.

Moalboal is a small and quiet town on the western side of cebu island, being an hour and a half from cebu city it is accessible to visitors flying into cebu and getting a van transfer out. With a diving history dating back to the early 70's It is one of the first international diving destinations to flourish in the philippines.

Moalboal boasts of a number of divesites running up and down its shoreline. These sights offer divers a wide variety of marine life both of the big animal and the macro variety; and they are all within a short boat ride of each other. There is never a shortage of things to see and sometimes there is just too much. Of all the places I have visited moalboal is definitely a record setter at one dive our group counted 11 green turtles and recently I heard that the record now stands at 13 turtles all in one dive. The turtles here are used to divers and will gladly pose and hang around long enough for you to get your fill of photographing them. Another animal common for divers to see in moalboal is it's resident giant, the whaleshark. Many argue that moalboal has just 1 resident whaleshark and that he just cruises up and down the coast usually along the walls of the divesites. When he makes an appearance he seems to always want to get extremely close to the divers as if to say hello to the group with him in the water. I personally have seen the animal a number of times, and have been cursed once for telling a group of photographers to strap on their macro lenses only to be buzzed by this majestic giant of the ocean. These are only two of the many highlights this destination has to offer in terms of marine life.

For those of you Macro divers and photographers moalboal offers some of the worlds hardest to find macro creatures; critters like the pygmy seahorse (yellow as well as pink) live on moalboals many gorgonian fans and Frogfish, pipefish and ghost pipefish are just some examples of what can be found at any of moalboal's divesites. The reefs are lush colorful and full of life and there is even a plane wreck which you can visit and photograph as well. These and alot lot more make up the perfect equation for the wonderful diving experience moalboal offers.

For something really spectacular; a visit here is never complete without seeing the sardine shoals of pescador island. Different parts of the world boast of a sardine run season which last for no more than a few months. Moalboal trumps them all as the shoal of millions of sardines and the predators that hunt them are present at pescador year round. A dive at pescador is like a trip into a natgeo special, and as soon as you jump in you will be enveloped in millions of these tiny fish we most of the time see in a can. The guides even warn you sometimes to stick close to the wall because if the shoal surrounds you you may lose your sense of direction in all the confusion. Also at pescador you might be able to witness thresher sharks, and unlike malapacua here they are feeding and it is always a joy to watch them as they show divers this curious way of hunting that explains the need for their extremely long rooster tail. All together pescador is one dive that will never disappoint. The best part of it is: at this point the diving is far from over!...

moalboal becomes truly special for me after the sunset, yes the bars and parties are plentiful and great but what really gets me is the life that comes alive underwater at night. I advice any diver to forget the bars and not miss an opportunity to dive at this wonderful place when the sun goes down. Critters like decorator crabs, sponge crabs, siren shrimps are plentiful and are by no means the only critters in the water at night. And then there are some truly special critters I continuously see on moalboal night dives; these include all star photo subjects such as; star-gazers, mimic octopus, pygmy cuttlefish and the fabled blue ring octopus present in all their glory for all to see. The beauty of night diving in moalboal is that to see all these fantastic critters, it is merely a shore entry dive from all my favorite moalboal resorts and dive operators.

Moalboal is definitely a place no filipino should miss out on, the diving is definitely world class and getting there is relatively easy. The resort staff at club serena are professional and willing to serve and the divestaff at aquaholics are the most experienced local guides who grew up swimming and fishing in these waters so they know it like the back of their hands.

Now everyone deserves to have their favorites and moalboal hands down is mine at the moment. A place i go and know the diving will never disappoint and the people so friendly they make you feel like you're home.

It is my personal happy place and I hope one day you all see it for yourselves.

Photos by: Lee Allan Black


For more info on packages and diving email m.santos@bluewaterexpeditions.net

Masbate (ticao island)

One of the lesser known diving destinations the philippines has to offer is none other than that quaint little island which has served as my home for the past 3 months. Situated in the middle of masbate and sorsogon is an island called ticao. Most of ticao island is populated in the 5 major towns they have, and most of the island is divided into large haciendas consisting mostly of grazing land. Ticao island is one of largest cow producing islands in the philippines and its products reach as far north as ilocos.

Situated right in the middle of this island is a barrio called tacdogan and here is the home of the ticao island resort a quaint little native style resort which is gaining popularity among our country's foreign visitors.

Ticao islands main attraction is a reef in the middle of ticao pass called manta bowl. Manta Bowl is a 6 hectare reef jutting out of otherwise very deep water and it is here in the months of march till october that divers can observe oceanic mantas going about their daily activities. It is a collection of many cleaning stations and a feeding area which mantas frequently visit.

Different manta behaviors can be observed during the different tide cycles. Being a new discovery dating back only 7 years to 2004. Research is still being carried out as to the timing of the mantas arrivals at manta bowl. But as far as the dive pros of TIR have observed: The Incoming Tide, is generally the strongest, and it is at this time mantas can be observed feeding and playing in the incoming currents usually at greater depths towards the rear of the site. It is also during this tide that there is a good chance that the group will chance upon white tips sleeping under the rocks at shark appartment, and big schools of giant trevally and chevron barracudas in mid-water as the group makes its way to the safety stop. Manta bowl on an incoming dive is as exciting as diving ever gets, the strong currents and the fish action will leave a diver pumped up and wanting more.

Later on in the day as the tide changes the current weakens to almost a stand still, and though the visibility declines it is during this time that longer interactions with the mantas are made possible by just sitting around a cleaning station. Cleaning stations are parts of the reef which house cleaner wrasse and mantas can be observed just hovering over these areas having parasites picked of their bodies by these interesting little fish. Interactions to as long as 14 minutes have been experienced and given that mantas are most approachable while cleaning many great photographs have been taken of the animals during this period of the day. .

Many people have heard rumors about the currents at manta bowl, and most of them are true!!! Generally the currents at manta bowl can be quite strong and even at some points harrowing to the untrained eye, but the great guides of TIR know the sight well and as long as you listen to the briefings and stay with the guide the currents of manta bowl becomes a positive experience you wont soon forget.

Although mantas are the main attraction, ticao island also boasts of the san miguel group of islands, sights like bobbys wall, lapus lapus, tres grace, and odok provide photographers with many an interesting critter to photograph. Critters such as sea horses, frogfish, pipefish, mandarin fish and coleman shrimp are all on parade amidst colorful reefs of healthy soft and hard coral formations.

Some guides will opt to do 3 dives out at manta bowl, and others a mix of san miguel and MB but whatever the diving schedule trust the guides they know the reefs and the timing best.

All in all Ticao island is an up and coming star in the world of philippine diving. If you dont believe me check it out for your self!


For more information email m.santos@bluewaterexpeditions.net

Luzon (Donsol)

Big Big Big, now if big is your thing then hands down nothing can beat southern luzon's newest rising eco tourism destination Donsol Sorsogon. The only draw back to this destination is that there is no diving allowed in Donsol. But that being said it is one of the places where you can view one of the seas biggest marvels the whale shark.

Every year from november through june for reasons yet to be fully discovered Donsol bay becomes the haunt of the oceans biggest fish. They come following the food, or the tide whichever it may be but one thing is for sure; they come in droves. Last year 144 different individual animals were identified and tagged in the waters off Donsol and number don't seem to be dwindling as the years pass.

Boats go out everyday for 3 hours at a time, and when the guide shouts ready everyone gets ready to jump in for an experience of a lifetime. The water is murky mostly because of the krill and planktons that these animals feed on and visibility is no more than 10 meters. So the first time you see that dark shadow coming towards you out of darkness of the water, the sheer mass of the animal surprises you, with a mouth that could scoop up a person or two in one gulp fear takes over and your heart races as it swims closer. The fish's sheer size reminds of just how small and frail you really are. But as the day goes on and you spend more time with these majestic creatures; there is a certain calm and serenity in the energy of the animal and one cannot help but be overwhelmed by the experience. My first whale shark interaction was a spiritual experience, it strengthened my belief that there is a god, and no matter how we call him he's there and we are but specs in the greater scheme of things.

Donsol used to be a class 5 municipality the poorest among the philippine rating system. Mainly a fishing village; it remained that way for the longest time until sometime in the early nineties word got out that every year whale sharks would gather in its serene bay. Local enthusiasts and NGO's investigated the phenomenon later confirming the reports bringing people from every corner of the world to donsol to see these massive creatures of the sea. Owing to a strong conservation push and an eco tourism boom this small town jumped two places in classification to the class 3 municipality that strives on eco-tourism that it is today.

For 7 months of the year donsol is a booming tourism spot people of all nationalities can be seen walking the little towns narrow streets in search of an adventure. And when the last of the sharks leave in june it quiets down to a stand still, reminding the locals of what donsol used to be before their precious whale sharks came into the picture. This yearly reminder gives them a reason to vigilantly protect and conserve this gift of nature to their town.

Donsol is one destination i return to every year... one of my favorites as the case maybe... it is so popular now that they even printed a whale shark on the back of philippine currency... and as long as people conserve and protect these magnificent creatures, donsol will always be a place for the world to see one of the ocean's marvels.

Photo by Kwan Chin Hung

For more information email m.santos@bluewaterexpeditions.net

Luzon (Anilao)

If there was one place in the philippines that can say it is the home of local philippine diving, i think it would have to be Anilao. If you are a filipino and you scuba dive most likely you've gone to Anilao, If you took your open water course in manila or anywhere in luzon most likely your first taste of real open water was Anilao as well; it has been a main staple for the manila divers and will remain for a long long time to come.

Anilao is a small town located in the province of batangas It is flanked by the bigger cities of Batangas and Bauan on either side. Though small and for the most part undeveloped, Anilao has a large and continuously growing diving community which shows no sign of slowing down. and resorts and diveshops sprout up like mushrooms lining its rocky shores.

Anilao's popularity stems from its distance being only an hour and a half from manila it is easily accessible to the weekend warriors and being less than two hours by boat from both verde island and puerto galera, anilao boasts of a diverse mix of diving for all levels of diving enthusiast.

That being said, I must also mention that anilao has been a marine protected area since the 70's and diving has kept this strict adherence to conservation alive over the years. It is a town, built by diving and has given so back soooo much to philippine diving as a whole.

Not too long ago Anilao was merely a local's secret spot if you will. Resorts were filled with local guests and foreigners always looked over it as they passed through to the more popular puerto galera.

Today though as the philippine diving industry is starting to boom internationally it is hard to over look anilao and all its splendor. This is the one place in the philippines that i can say really has alot for everybody. And no matter what your skill level, or interests may be Anilao more than likely will be able to satisfy your need for underwater adventure.

For those who like the bigger animals, anilao has little in terms of the bigger animals.  Sometimes  sharks, rays, and the occasional whaleshark or bigger animal could be spotted while diving but your chances are slim.  On the other hand  good-sized schooling fish like trevally and barracuda are not unlikely to spot . These are found at the more advanced sights with good currents and some deeper reefs (eg.mainit point, bahura kanto, mapating larry's garden and twin rocks).

If nice easy diving and colorful soft and hard corals are your thing then anilao satisfies this hunger to the fullest. Being right in the middle of the coral triangle, anilao boasts of some of the widest diversity of coral life you can find on a dive. Good sized hard corals like brain, table and staghorn corals are on almost every dive. Mix this in with an array of soft corals, large sponges and gorgonian fans and you can have the most picturesque dive you can ask for. the greatest part about it is that it doesnt end there.

For those with a keen eye and a love for critter photography, anilao delivers critter diving equal to the best critter diving in the world. Sights like the more recently discovered "secret bay", and the anilao classic "basura" offer critter diving equalling the shores of dauin, and even lembeh in indonesia. Critters like the frogfish(the giant, clown and the hairy), wonderpus, flambouyant cuttlefish, and lately even the pinnacle of critter diving the rhinopias have been spotted on a regular basis off the shores of anilao and have been photographed on a regular basis.

This plus the fact that Anilao has a wide variety of resorts and dive operations to suit all tastes and budgets make anilao one of the best all around diving destinations in the philippines. Yes it cannot offer the thresher sharks of malapascua, and the millions of sardines at pescador island but if your looking for a no frills, easily accessible diving destination then i have to say anilao is it!...

Photo by Lee Allan Black

For more information email m.santos@bluewaterexpeditions.net

Palau.

I know i should be writing about the philippines but i just need to insert this in; because of all the dive destinations in the world, there is one that comes up more than others. A place like no other, to see action like no other. There are grey reef sharks, Manta rays, turtles, leopard sharks, bull sharks and tiger sharks just to name a few of its under water wonders. A place where on most days the current is pushing you faster and faster towards the open ocean. yet thousands if not hundreds of thousands of divers come here annually to jump in and see what lies beneath. The mystic place i'm referring to is without question Palau.

In 2007 I was lucky enough to have been accepted to go and work on Palau's cheapest live aboard the eco explorer. She was an old boat with 20 rooms most of them too small for a queen sized bed. with a crew of 16 plus 5 DM's and a Boat manager. She was no luxury live aboard, but she would be the platform for some of the best dives of my life. I would live on her, and eventually manage her for the 8 months. And diving wise, it was the best diving of my diving career.

Palau had 22 major sites;German Channel, Big drop off, New drop off, dexter's wall, blue corner, Peleliu corner, Peleliu Cut, Yellow Wall, Peleliu Express, Blue hole, Virgin blue hole, Turtle wall, Ngedbus wall, Ulong channel, Siaes Corner, Siaes tunnel, Ngerchong, the iro maru, chandelier cave, mandarin fish lake, and jellyfish lake. (i will blog about the best ones individually later on.)

I dove them extensively the 8 months i was there and there was never a dull moment. Living on a live aboard meant we were to do 5 dives a day, and given that we were short on guides i did almost all the dives we offered while i resided in Palau. It was 8mos of diving, just diving there was really nothing else.

Diving in Palau is technical, i mean this not in the mixed gasses sort of way but in a timing and tide sort of way. It is not like the philippines where you can just jump in on one side of the dive site on an incoming tide and another side of the site on the out going tide.

Site selection in palau depends heavily on the tide tables and the timing should be followed religiously. Sites are either incoming tide sites or out going tide sites, there is no in between here. Dive Masters knowledge of this is a must or you will spend most of your dives fighting insane currents and missing all hook in points and points of interest. So if your DM tells you the group cant do blue corner twice in a row don't be mad, he's just making sure you have the best possible palau experience the truth is deep down inside he probably wants to do it again but knows the tides wont be right.

From the strong currents at Peleliu, to descents into caverns at blue holes and Siaes tunnel, to the exhilarating hook ons at blue corner, and just sitting on the sand at german channel there is almost never a bad dive in Palau and the only limit is the divers air consumption.

There are many land based operators but hands down liveaboards are still the best way to dive Palau, The 1 hour ride out and back to the dive sites from land based facilities is a pain and why do 2 dives a day at one of the best dive destinations in the world when for a little more money you can do 5.


For more information email m.santos@bluewaterexpeditions.net

ER revisited...

At the end of 2001 i met Jed Santos, and the Balai crew. Jed was a guidance councilor at my college and an avid diver at the time. One who liked to pull people and get them hooked on it. We would dive occasionally, and i would later start to help with underwater TV shoots and the like to make an extra buck while i was figuring out what to do with my life.

But it wasnt until our group of mery men made our way to the doorstep of the CAP oceans foundation that i realized that my calling in life would always be tied to the ocean. It was in that water that i remember feeling for the first time that i was finally home. That i had found what i was looking for.

Funny that the CAP ocean foundation was HQd at a place where a lot of good memories from my past were made right in the heart of the madrigal estate. A place i hadn't been to since the death of one of my closest friends in 2002.

Bu Madrigal Warns had put out a call for volunteer divers to build his final legacy, it was a large artificial reef covering some 20hectares of coastline and costing millions of pesos to fund it to completion. There in the same waters where Pacquito died. We were going to build a living breathing reef and i was all for it. I spent almost every weekend at the sight, doing hard work and heavy underwater labor day in and day out. To me it was a way of letting go, Paco had always talked about doing such a project in Calatagan and though he was gone it was finally becoming a reality. One that stands in testament to this very day to what can be accomplished when people put all their hearts into something. It was there during the days at CAP oceans that the seeds of the Ecorescue Foundation were planted.

The ER foundation was born from a need that had to be filled, we had seen the good of the CAP oceans project. Oye the project manager of CAP oceans wanted to bring it elsewhere, maybe not at that scale but to bring conservation no matter how basic to the rest of the philippines. Jed Santos on the other hand with an army of students behind him could provide the workforce for the foundation. And Boy Siojo with his contacts and long time experience in the world of conservation would bring the whole idea together. I would be the project manager, the mule or so it was, conservations soldier; always right in the middle of the action.

The mission of ER was to bring skilled volunteers where they were needed. If there was a conservation project anywhere requiring free labor ER would answer the call; If there was a need for rescue and relief operations ER would be there along with a battalion of volunteers friends and family all willing to do their part. From an idea an army was born, an army of young and willing individuals who would to go the distance to make a difference in this world; no matter how small that difference was. ER volunteers filled roles needed everywhere in the NGO society. ER tried as best it could to provide volunteers wherever they were needed when they were needed. No distance was too great, if they called we would come.

A few years later ER finally found a home in Alaminos Panggasinan, through fate as i see it we ran into mayor Hernani Braganza of Alaminos a staunch conservationist and someone who believed in what we were trying to achieve. From just plain volunteering we were now cast in a Coastal Resource Management role and the knowledge and experience each of us gained from this was extensive. We saw conservation from both ends now, not just the NGO side but also from the LGU side it was an eye opener one i wont soon forget. ER achieved so much in alaminos, many things of which sometimes when i look back i still don't believe we pulled off but we did. The plans were always grandiose and mostly started as silly drunken ideas, but many of them became reality. Ideas like bringing the "Pinoy Big Brother teen edition" tv show to shoot their final episodes at the hundred islands and even coming up with our own acredited National Service Training Program were just a few examples of those drunken ideas becoming reality.

For a good 4 years of my life i was part of a team that did what it could for the good of the earth. And even if it didn't last forever and we all went our separate ways...

I am just happy that i dedicated part of my life to ER's Quest. And the lessons learned and experience gained will always be a part of me.

It was a dream that i was happy to have been an integral part of.

In the Beginning...

In the beginning, I never thought i would dedicate so much of my life to the underwater world. I was just a boy of 11 and my mom wanted to take a course and get her C-card. At the time she would have no one to dive with so by default the eldest son was her dedicated dive buddy, bag and equipment carrier.

We took a course Under Louie Barrios and unknown to us at the time he would be the strictest and most stringent Naui dive instructors in the philippines, an accolade he still holds to this very day. To me it was all fun and games. We learned diving theory and my favorite would be diving practice. We would learn it all or so i thought, basic skills and not so basic skills, louie being the hard ass that he was taught us and required us to know a lot of advanced skills as well. Ditching and donning, buddy breathing, 33foot weight belt retrieval just to name a few. Some skills of which were not even required then; and some of which are almost forgotten in the modern day. Of our class of Eight only two of us passed the two youngest ones at that. My mom and other classmates did go on to get their certifications but elsewhere and under a less stringent PADI program some years later.

The early years were spent diving the philippines and all the run of the mill dive destinations that it has to offer. We did Batangas, Puerto Galera, Cebu, Bohol, Palawan. We did this all as a family my brothers and sisters were certified the year after i was and my older cousins were already all divers by that time. Almost all the breaks from school were spent at diving locations and my mom always tried to make it a trip where we were all complete. I felt sorry for the DMs back then, if a DM was assigned to us most likely he would spend all his dive time chasing us waiting for us or just plain getting mad at us.

No one and i mean no one ever followed the DMs. Mom would just stop and spend whole dives just looking at one thing. Paolo and Carlo would take off at their own pace, and alexis would go head down swimming into the abyss; leaving the DM scratching his head wondering whom he should follow. I on the other hand would just hover close to my mother as from the beginning it was always my job to watch over her these early years really honed my underwater protective instinct and little did i know it would be training for the life i would eventually lead.

I tend to mention my mom a lot when talking about diving. This is because she was instrumental in my early training and early diving experiences. She would put me through things that I would never experience again throughout my diving career. Experiences extremely horrifying at the time but eventually giving me a solid understanding of boats, the ocean, and extreme weather conditions. Believe me she was not a skilled diver at all, she was just plain adventurous, if they said it couldn't be done the more she wanted to do it and she would. She had a relationship with the ocean that to this day i will never understand.

like all kids, as i entered early college life diving was forgotten we were too busy drinking with friends, hanging with our girl friends, or just plain lazy to pack our bags and go diving anymore. Mom lost interest too and i thought that would be the end...

Little did i know it would merely be, the end of the beginning...