We recently spent three glorious weeks diving some of the best areas of the Philippines, exploring three main destinations – Sogod Bay, Puerto Galera and Subic Bay.
Our second week in the Philippines saw us heading four hours south of Manila, by bus and boat, to the most established diving area in the country, Puerto Galera.
Located at the northern tip of Mindoro, Puerto Galera was a safe anchorage for Spanish galleons with the name meaning ‘Port of the Galleons’. The coral reefs in this area have always been popular and were protected as a marine reserve in 1973. The area is now virtually over-run with dive resorts, which crowd the beaches at Sabang, Small La Laguna, Big La Laguna and Coco Beach. We had booked a week at La Laguna Beach Club and Dive Centre (LLBC) one of the oldest dive operations in area and owned by Aussies, Frank Doyle and Michael ‘Donno’ Donaldson.
Arriving at the resort by boat we knew we had picked a fantastic place to stay and dive. LLBC is located at the less crowded Big La Laguna Beach, situated on a white sandy beach with clear blue water lapping the shore. The resort has 31 rooms, a restaurant, pool, bar and large dive centre, and run several dive boats to the 40 odd dive sites in the area.
Quickly unpacking our dive gear, we were soon heading out to our first dive site, the Sabang Wrecks. This dive site, like most in the area, is only minutes from the resort, so most trips are run as single dives.
We were soon over the dive site and into the water, descending on the remains of a timber vessel in 22m. The visibility was 18m and we were to enjoy 15m to 30m visibility on every dive.
A number of wrecks, of varyin
g
size, have been scuttled off Sabang Beach. This small wreck, though broken up,
was covered in fish, including schools of batfish. After exploring this wreck we
headed over the sand to the next wreck, seeing sea pens and gobies on the way.
This second wreck was of a yacht and was more intact, decorated with sponges and
soft corals. On the wreck we saw lionfish, nudibranchs, hawkfish, rock cod,
mantis shrimps, catfish and two lovely anglerfish.At the next wreck there were two giant anglerfish, and by the end of the dive we had seen another two anglerfish, plus clown anemonefish, octopus, pipefish and many more species. This was a brilliant dive with many critters, the only annoying thing was we didn’t have time to set-up the camera before the dive, so knew we would return.
The service at LLBC is simply wonderful. Your dive gear is carried to the boat for you and off loaded after each dive. There are large fresh water tubs to wash your gear and plenty of racks to hang the gear to dry. They offer a wide range of dive courses and are one of largest Tech diving centres in the Philippines. Dive groups are kept small, in fact most of the time it was just the two of us and our guide Ogin, who was to prove invaluable for finding critters. They also have no set dive times, so you just organise when and where you want to dive with your guide.
With the camera set-up the next morning we headed to a site called The Boulders, hoping to find sea horses. This site has large b
oulders,
hence the name, decorated with lovely soft corals, sea whips and abundant
featherstars. Ogin took us to 30m onto the rubble bottom where sea pens,
nudibranchs and gobies were common. Within a few minutes Ogin pointed out the
first thorny sea horse. He then found two more of these delicate creatures
before we headed up into the shallows. Here were nudibranchs galore, including a
few species new to us. We also saw a tiny octopus and a juvenile pinnate
batfish.We returned to the Sabang Wrecks on our next dive, seeing all the same animals, but this time able to photograph them. Ogin also found us a few extra treats, including a couple of ornate ghost pipefish.
More sea horses and critters were on the itinerary for the afternoon dive at The Hill. This site is only 15m deep and features pretty corals and giant clams. We saw an ornate ghost pipefish, a group of shrimpfish, mantis shrimps, pipefish, jawfish and prolific reef fish. Ogin located several thorny sea horses and a smaller weedy variety amongst the sea grass.
Each day we enjoyed lovely meals at the LLBC restaurant, which serves a varied of Asian and Western meals and is located overlooking the beach. Above the restaurant is the Gecko Bar, a great place to relax with a cold beer or nice Australian wine after a hard days diving.
We quickly learnt to request an animal and Ogin would know the dive site to find it. So the following day we requested sharks and pygmy sea horses. First dive we headed to the Shark Cave. This site has several ledges where white tip reef sharks rest. Heading to the first ledge in 27m there was one shy reef shark. At the next ledge we found three more sharks. The reef here was typical of the area with pretty soft corals, gorgonians, sea whips, ascidians and large barrel sponges. Heading up to the shallows there were more nudibranchs and reef fish, and we enjoyed the antics of three moray eels crammed into one small hole.
Sinandigan Wall was our venue for pygmy sea horses, a glorious wall dive with lots of colour and fish, including two Maori wrasse. Ogin quickly located the gorgonian where these tiny sea horse live and pointed out four of them. You need very sharp eyes to see Bargibant’s pygmy sea horses, as they are perfectly camouflaged against the gorgonian and incredibly small, these ones only 10mm high.
We wanted to see mo
re
pygmies on the next dive, so headed to Sabang Point, another brilliant wall
dive. Ogin headed straight to 26m to an isolated gorgonian and showed us two
more pygmy sea horses. These ones were much bigger, 20mm high, but still hard to
see. One of them even decided to take a little stroll, swimming 5cm across the
face of the fan. The rest of the dive was filled with more fish and invertebrate
species.LLBC also run a liveaboard vessel, Rags II, a 30m boat used to explore Tubbataha Reefs, Apo Reef and the Coron Wrecks. We were fortunate to do a day trip on this very comfortable boat to do a double dive at nearby Verde Island.
This island offers some of the best diving in the area. Sheer walls, strong currents and lots of fish action. We jumped in to explore the East Point Drop-off. The visibility was brilliant, 30m, and below us was a steep wall dropping to 60m. We headed down to 30m where some fabulous gorgonians, barrel sponges and soft corals sprouted from the wall. All around us were masses of fish; schools of blue triggerfish, fairy basslets and even golden trevally. As we drifted along the wall with the slight current there was so much to see; moray eels, anemonefish, hawkfish, angelfish, rock cod, batfish, a sea snake and numerous nudibranchs.
Our second dive was at The Washing Machine. Here we dived on pretty coral gardens with very healthy hard corals. Reef fish were abundant, but the highlight was finding a beautiful yellow leaf scorpionfish. During the dive the current was very mild, so we didn’t think this dive site would live up to its name. That all changed when we hit the edge of the reef. The current pickup in strength, and was pulling us up, down and side
ways.
We were happy to exit the water.For our final day of diving in Puerto Galera we first headed to the Alma Jane Wreck. This 35m long cargo ship was scuttled in March 2003 and now sites in 30m. We followed Ogin around the ship and into the cargo hold, seeing several lionfish and banded pipefish. You can also explore the wheelhouse, but we were too busy photographing all the fish swarming around the bow; sweetlips, rabbitfish, surgeonfish and batfish.
Heading over the sand towards the shallows we were amazed to see the bottom covered with Ijama’s sea urchins. These colourful urchins are usually rare, but there were literally hundreds of them. We also saw sea stars, sea pens and a group of lovely purple royal hypselodoris nudibranchs. The coral gardens in the shallows here were incredibly beautiful – soft corals, gorgonians and lots of sponges. We found cuttlefish, a large black anglerfish, moray eels, shrimps and a jawfish.
Even though we had dozens of other dive sites yet to explore we couldn’t help returning to the Sabang Wrecks for one last dive. Ogin did a fish feed, getting mugged by batfish. Each time we dived this site we saw something new, this time it was two very pretty spotted soapfish and a group of shrimpfish.
For our final dive, Helen put a request in for a Mandarin fish. So Ogin took us back to The Hill for a late afternoon dive. We again saw sea horses, ornate ghost pipefish, nudibranchs, moray eels and a jawfish. Ogin then lead us to a rather plain looking hard coral and there amongst the coral were three splendid Mandarin fish. We watched these magic little fish for quite some time, hoping to get a photo, but they remained deep within the coral.
In five days of diving we had barely scratched the surface of what Puerto Galera has to offer, but what we saw was simply outstanding and made us keen to return to this fabulous area of the Philippines.