December 14th, Wednesday.
1st Dive. We came all the way up to the North of Cebu, to Malapascua Island, which means in Spanish bad Eastern, because when they first arrived here they wrecked their boat and they had to stay over during Eastern. We are starting the trip with the best encounter we could have, first dive in Kimud Shoal, looking for the Thresher shark. All the 9 guest were pretty lucky and we had some nice encounters with these magnificent sharks, also we saw 2 octopus, 2 juvenile sweet lips, 9 reef squids and some nudibranchs.
2nd Dive. We repeated the same dive site, “Kimud Shoal” just in another side of the shoal. At this second dive most of the local dive boats were gone so we could enjoy our time with the thresher sharks more alone. They came really close to us and we did some great videos of them. We also saw a little school of tunas looking for other fish to feed on. And at the end of the dive when ew all were on the speed boat ready to go, we saw a thresher shark jumping out of the water 3 times in a row, it was spectacular.
3rd Dive. We sailed from Kimud shoal to Gato Island, which means Cat island. This island was a marine sanctuary for sea banded snakes few years ago. Once we arrived there, we went to the dive site called “Tunnel” because we go through a 100 feet tunnel. Where we found lots of nudibranchs, many different kind of crabs, snails, and some other reef fish.
4th Dive. We did a night dive at Gato island. This is a pretty cool night dive where we could find lots of Spanish dancers, many sea banded snakes, 8 super cute coral cat sharks, different kind of nudibranchs, cuttle fish, crabs, shrimps…
December 15th, Thursday.
1st Dive. We started this second diving day at Malapascua Island, we went to a dive site called “Secret Wall”. At this place we saw the cutest sea horse, the pigmy sea horse, also we found one of the most poisonous creatures under water, the blue ring octopus, Zebra shrimp, and a juvenile cutle fish.
2nd Dive. This time we went to another dive site called “Deep Slope”, which is pinnacle about 70 feet deep at the lowest part. Plenty of soft corals around, and we saw ghost pipe fish some dragon sea moth, cow boxfish, some cute nudibranchs, a school of cat fish, and the first turtle of the trip carrying two big remoras on top of her shell.
3rd Dive. We went to Lapus-lapus, which means something like corridor in visayas. Nice diev with plenty of corals. We could find again a couple of ghost pipe fish, 2 dragon sea moth, school of fusiliers, some big trevallies and many other reef fish swimming around.
4th Dive. Last dive of the day it was a sunset dive, in order to see the mandarin fish mating, because they only do it at sunset time. It was a nice dive and we also enjoyed some night creatures swimming around.
December 16th, Friday.
1st Dive. For this first dive we went to Monad shoal, which was until a couple of months ago the perfect spot where we used to see the thresher sharks, now they moved to Kimud shoal, for a reason we don’t know yet, but still we saw one thresher shark there and 7 white tip sharks, a couple of octopus were found also for us to enjoy.
2nd Dive. We sail to Kimud shoal, where the thresher sharks are used to be nowadays. We had pretty close encounters with these beautiful creatures and we had such a great dive there.
3rd Dive. We came to Capitancillo island, which is a tiny island on the way south of Cebu, it just has a little light house but the corals surrounding are amazing. We saw a yellow frog fish, a file fish, anemone shrimps, a huge lion fish, and beautiful school of anteas swimming around.
December 17th, Saturday.
1st Dive. We came to the south of Cebu, to Oslob. This place is well known because they feed the whale sharks, so it’s almost guaranteed the whale shark experience. There were around 10 whale sharks, the biggest one was around 8 meters and the smallest one only 3 meters.
2nd Dive. We moved to Sumilon island. Beautiful hard and soft corals everywhere with a great visibility made this dive a great one. We saw plenty of fish here, one Hawkins turtle, 3 black tip sharks, giant trevallies, one big king Spanish mackarel, 2 mantis shrimp and a very cute porcupine fish.
3rd Dive. Still at Sumilon island but this time is on the eastern part of the island. Another great dive with the encounter of big school of barracuda and Big eye trevally
4th Dive. The amihan wind was getting stronger and we needed a nice place for shelter and good diving as well so we decided to go to Liloan, the southern most part of Cebu island. The dive site name is Emoha, known for strong drift dive. We descended to 60 feet and saw green turtles, giant frogfish and plenty of reef fish. The shallow part is covered with soft corals. Indeed a very pleasant dive spot.
December 18th,Sunday
1st Dive. From Lioan, we travelled to Apo island and did our first dive at an area called coconut point. Its name is obviously derived from about 15 coconut plantation that you could see from the distance.It was a very exciting dive site. A very strong 15 min of drift then the rest of the dive was very slow. We saw huge banded sea snake, turtle, school of big eye jack, surgeon fish. Probably the best coral reef dive here in the Visayas.
2nd Dive. Second dive was on the southern part of the island called katipanan. A very nice coral garden on the very shallow part and hard corals on the deeper part, little current and plenty of turtles all around the reef, a very relaxing dive.
3rd Dive. We move to Dauin for our afternoon dive. The dive site name is called bonnets corner. A sandy slope without any coral reef at all. At first when you descend to the shallow part if feels like a deserted area but its not, in fact we saw about 10 octopus here and for different kind, a wonderpus hairy ,coconut and algae. Plus an ambon rhinopia ,napoleon snake eel, and mantis shrimp to end the dive.a bucketlist check to some of our guest.
4th Dive, We went down south to Zamboangita for a night dive. So very exciting dive, at the start hundreds of shrimp fish together, a juvenile broad club cuttle fish, coconut octopus,3 thorny sea horse, a pipe horse, a pair of robust ghost pipefish and a little tiny orange frogfish.
Dec.19th Monday,
1st Dive. Thalata reef. The visibility was very bad maybe just 3 meters because of the siltation cause from the waves. Still we continue the dive and found 3 harlequin shrimp and everyone got so excited
2nd Dive. The wind is continue picking up so we decided to do our second dive at Apo island for cover from the waves and wind. We went back to coconut point ,current was slower this time so it was a slow drift where we could enjoy more and appreciate the beauty of its surrounding, we did see again the school of jacks ,sea snake, turtle, we end our dive at largahan where we could see the bubble coming out from the sand which tells that Apo is a volcanic island.
3rd Dive. We moved to Siquijor island for the remaining 2 dives. It was a very calm area since we were protected from the Amihan wind. The first dive is called Paliton wall. A very nice dive site with overhangs, We saw a juvenile batfish, scorpionfish, plenty of flatworms and a lobster.
4th Dive.We went to Tambisan wall for a nightdive. A very interesting place, we saw squid, cuttlefish, huge green turtle, nudibranch and flatworm.
Dec.20th Tuesday
1st Dive. Balicasag island. First dive is at black forest, the popluar dive site here in Bohol. An amazing reef with plenty of reef fish. We saw so many turtles here, octopus, mantis shrimp and the big schooling of big eye trevally.
2nd Dive. Balicasag island still at black forest but on a different direction towards south, another amazing dive but more busy this time, plenty of divers and snorkelers coming from Panglao.
3rd Dive is at Panglao island close to Alona beach. A beautiful wall dive where we saw a giant frog fish, juvenile grouper, scorpion fish, a comet fish and different types of nudibranch.
4th Dive is at at kalipayan house reef, a very interesting dive where we saw a Spanish dancer, stargazer, octopus, sea hares, sea snake, carpet flatworm, juvenile spotted sweetlips and a marble shrimp.
Dec. 21st Wednesday
1st Dive. We went back to Balicasag for another 2 dives. We did dive again at Blackforest, we saw two big broadclub cuttle fish, green and hawksbill turtle and a frogfish, another amazing dive.
2nd Dive. Balicasag island, the cathedral, a very interesting wall dive with plenty of over hangs, we saw 2 banana nudibranch, the top reef is one of the best coral formation in the Philippines
3rd Dive, Doljo point, Panglao island. A very deep wall with gorgorian seafan all over the place, surprisingly we saw 2 huge thresher shark at 30 meters depth, a great dive….
4th Dive, Panglao island, doljo corner, a very shallow dive, just 5-10 meters, full of antias fish, and damsel fish, we did find a white frog fish here, xenia crab and a snake eel.
5th Dive, A night dive here in doljo point, we stayed at the sandy seagrass area, no deeper than 10 meters, plenty of crabs and shrimp ,towards the end of the dive we also found a desirable flabellina and a juvenile bird wrassed.
Dec. 22nd Thursday
1st Dive at Gilutongan, a very nice wall dive with plenty of fish all over the area, we saw about 40-50 Giant trevally patrolling the shallow reef. On the deeper part a large school of batfish can be seen moving together fast, few spadefish were at stationary as they were getting cleaned by wrassed,
2nd Dive at Gilutungan island, our last dive of the trip and few decided to stay dry to have a longer preflight interval as a safety precaution. Another dive here, mostly a shallow dive at 10 meters. All the guest were very happy and more than satisfied on this dive trip.