phillipines trip report and new photo galleries

[nudilover]

Before the trip report, here are the two galleries from the trip. Go to:
http://www.chumclub.org/gallery/browseimages.php?c=270

and select either: 2010 philippines general nonnudis
or 2010 philippines nudis and flatworms



Back in May, I spent two weeks in the Philippines. Here is the trip report.

I flew the typical Continental route: Houston-Hawaii-Guam-Manilla. That takes about 24 hours with 22 hours in the air. Our first destination was Anilao in the Batangas region of Southern Luzon. After landing in Manilla we went straight to Aniloa, a 2-3hr drive at night without less traffic. Staying a night in Manilla would have killed a day of diving with no real payoff as Manilla does not seem to have much to interest tourists. We arrived at our resort, Club Ocellaris at about 1 am. Club O provided the trasport from the airport. AS we had prepaid, we were shown directly do our rooms as their staff tended to our luggage. Club O, as well as many resorts in Aniloa occupies the hill/cliff that separates the road from the water.

After some good sleep, I woke up somewhat early and prepped my gear for the 4 days of 4 dives a day. We only got in three dives that first day due a late start. The fourth dive each day was a night dive. The resort was AI minus drinks. They served some excellent food buffet style. The mangoes and everything made from them are divine. I can no longer eat the mangoes here. The diving and the service were excellent. All gear was carried to and from the boats for us. We dove from pangas, which are double outriggers. The diving size pangas comfortably serve up to 6 divers. We were never crowded. The diving in Anilao was excellent. The reefs were dense and lush with life. The area also offered some good muck sights and wall dives. Vis was mostly good.

Sad to leave Anilao, but looking forward to Puerto Galera in northern Mindoro, we headed out on our 5th morning in the Philippines. Our resort in PG, El Galleon, arranged for a ferry to pick us up directly at Club O. There inter-island ferries are LARGE pangas that can transport dozens of people. We had one for just the 7 of us with our luggage for the 1.5 hour crossing, not bad for $10 each.

Our first day in PG was all about logistics, setting up our gear for the first and last time as we did not have to touch it again until it was time to pack. El galleon runs a first rate dive operation with a dedicated nitrox crew always waiting by your next tank with O2 monitor in hand ready to read the tank. Our El Galleon 10 day package was also 4 dives a day AI buffet style minus drinks. The 4 dives were day dives, night dives were extra. El Galleon is the only resort/dive shop in PG with a dock, which is a great advantage there. Almost all the dive sites were with 15 minutes of the resort. El Galleon has two large speed boats perfectly decked out for diving and several pangas. The diving here was also great, but different than Anilao. Anilao had fewer dive sites but the ones they had were more dense with coral, lush with life, and imho had better topography and more unusual nudis. Anilao also has some good muck. PG had a larger variety of dive sites: walls, GREAT muck, patch coral, some solid coral, shipwrecks, and a field of giant clams. Also I found some of the more unusual critters in PG, including mimic octopus, 2 species of ornate ghost pipefish, electric clam, giant clams, 2 species of pigmy seahorse, several tiny frogfish, and the flambouyant cuttlefish.

So Mike you ask, should I go to Anilao or PG? I say go to both, they are very close and taken togther offer just about everything you could hope for, minus pelagics and penguins You cannot go wrong with El Galleon or Club O. Packages and prices between to two are very similar. Food is great at both. One note, not all Club O rooms have AC. Mine did not, which is what I requested, but I did not mind one bit as I had a great cooling breeze, a fan, and pretty much all of Club O is in the shade.

Technical note: although referred to as Puerto Galera, the diving in northern Mindoro is actually out of the small town of Sabang. Puerto Galara proper is a larger city about 15 minutes away by car or boat.

Enjoy the photos. I have have some great videos that will not upload to the site.

[24%]

Thanks for the trip report!!! Sounds like a great trip.

While our gallery does not support video, you can embed them here. Let me know if you have any questions on how to do that.

[diverg]

Thanks for the report.

[bozo]

I am amazed at your pictures.

The quality is amazing but even more amazing is that you have tons of pictures of animals I have never seen before, and I have seen lots of animals.