in october i spent a month in boracay, and it was incredible. there were numerous great dive sites, but my favorite local site was called yapak. this is a gut wrenching drift dive, with giant sea fans, colorful tube sponges and giant barrel sponges. the scenery is unbelievable as you fly by at breakneck speed. the wall seems to go on forever, as the adrenaline races through your body. when we finally reach the end of the wall, everybody holds on and watches some very large gray reef sharks glide by. you will also see some big rays and grouper. there are fish everywhere. when we first dropped in, the vis was only a few feet, and i expected to be disappointed. as we dropped past 15 meters, there was no change. however, suddenly at 20 meters it broke into 20 to 30 meters of vis, and we were less than ten meters from entering the super hiway. at 30 meters we were all of the sudden moving very fast. it was simply awesome! there were many other nice sites like the flower garden, and fridays rock was terrible the first day, but when we went back it was booming with life. then their is a super coral site, called crocodile island. wow! giant soft corals, fields of cabbage corals and stags in different colors. we also made three night dives on crocodile, and they were really nice.
then i took a liveaboard trip to what is called the best dive site in all of the philippine islands. this is a site that only a few operators know about. it is out in the middle of nowhere, and there is only native villiages around it. it was called panagatan. here you can see giant pelagics everywhere. at panagatan, every dive is a deco dive. the wall doesn't even begin until you hit 40 meters. but then you see everything! big sharks, rays and several species of giant fishes.
most nights we would hang out at the victory bar, as they had really nice happy hour prices (two rum and cokes for less than an american dollar), and it was right on the beach. around 1 am every night we would go jump in the ocean for a late night swim. the water was always so perfect, with an unbelievable night sky. the water was so clear, that at 1 am, i would wade up to my neck, and could look down and clearly see my feet on the white sand bottom. i've never been able to do that anywhere else we have traveled. great trip.
then i took a liveaboard trip to what is called the best dive site in all of the philippine islands. this is a site that only a few operators know about. it is out in the middle of nowhere, and there is only native villiages around it. it was called panagatan. here you can see giant pelagics everywhere. at panagatan, every dive is a deco dive. the wall doesn't even begin until you hit 40 meters. but then you see everything! big sharks, rays and several species of giant fishes.
most nights we would hang out at the victory bar, as they had really nice happy hour prices (two rum and cokes for less than an american dollar), and it was right on the beach. around 1 am every night we would go jump in the ocean for a late night swim. the water was always so perfect, with an unbelievable night sky. the water was so clear, that at 1 am, i would wade up to my neck, and could look down and clearly see my feet on the white sand bottom. i've never been able to do that anywhere else we have traveled. great trip.