17 replies to this topic

[Parrotman]

I just returned last night from a fabulous trip to Anilao, Philippines. I stayed at the Crystal Blue resort for 10 nights and did 36 dives. Anilao has a wide variety of diving from some of the best muck diving in the world to stunning coral gardens, mini walls, drift dives and some dives with a combination of muck and reef.
The trip started with a very long travel day. Flight to Seattle, then an 11 hour flight to Seoul Korea, another 4hr and 40 minute flight to Manila. Top that off with a 3 hour van ride to the resort. Got checked in and then did my first two dives. One of the reasons that I went on this trip was that it was an underwater photography workshop and I learned a lot and really improved my photography. The resort was very nice. On small side with 12 rooms, a restaurant, bar, camera room and dive op. The dive op was very well outfitted for divers with separate rinse tanks for dive gear and photo equipment. They dive boats are bancas, sort of like a large canoe with outriggers. Very stable, fast and efficient. Due to the small size there were only 4 divers on a boat which was perfect. Food was fresh and plenty of it and the offering at the bar was good and very inexpensive. The local rum costs about $1.70 for a 750ml bottle and beer is about $1.

With 36 dives there were too many to list but some of my favorites were the muck dives where I got to see and photograph Mimic Octopi, ornate ghost pipe fish, pygmy cuttle fish, the elusive flamboyant cuttle fish, mantis shrimp, frog fish, wonderpus Octopus, oscillating octopus, to many varities of nudibranchs to list.

On the reef dives we saw some enormous frog fish. I have never seen them so big. the largest one, a grey was about 14 inches long and about 10 inches tall from pec fins to the top of its head. The abundance of sea life in this area is amazing. Not a lot of big stuff as the locals fish for their meals and unfortunately their is a lot of commercial fishing in the area. But the small to medium size fish are abundant. Interesting thing, there are lion fish everywhere. So many of them that you had to be careful when taking pictures. This would raise the question of how damaging they really are to the reef system. I asked the local dive masters what killed the lion fish and they said that the Octopus and the eels would hunt them but there were no large fish that eat them. The locals also spear them and eat them.

The weather was warm and muggy, a minor typhoon blue threw one night and really blew up the seas with wind and rain but it only stopped us from doing one dive.

Of the four divers on my boat, three of us were pretty good on air so our dives averaged 70 to 75 minutes with a couple of 80 minute and one 102minute dive. We were all carrying cameras and working on our photography skills so our dives were shortened abit.

I would highly recommend a trip to the Philippines. The diversity of marine life is amazing. The people are friendly and it is an interesting cultural experience as well. Probably the only negative is the fact that like many of the countries in that part of the world, enviornmental causes are rare and there is a lot of garbage on the shores and in some cases on the reef. The local dive resorts are trying to get this cleaned up. Hopefully they will succeed.


I would post some pictures but I am not a premium member so I do not have that option.


Jim

[secretsea18]

I just returned last night from a fabulous trip to Anilao, Philippines. I stayed at the Crystal Blue resort for 10 nights and did 36 dives. Anilao has a wide variety of diving from some of the best muck d


I would highly recommend a trip to the Philippines. The diversity of marine life is amazing. The people are friendly and it is an interesting cultural experience as well. Probably the only negative is the fact that like many of the countries in that part of the world, enviornmental causes are rare and there is a lot of garbage on the shores and in some cases on the reef. The local dive resorts are trying to get this cleaned up. Hopefully they will succeed.


I would post some pictures but I am not a premium member so I do not have that option.


Jim

Hi Jim.
Now that you have been here, it is necessary for you to join the "Don't tell too many people about Anilao" Club.
This membership will help to allow you to book again in the future, as it is not a well known secret that Anilao is one of the best values for fabulous diving.

Shhhhhhh!
Glad you enjoyed your trip.
R

[Parrotman]

Thanks Robin,

I won't tell anyone else! :-)

Your right though... people do not know what they are missing.. I wish I could post some of my pictures.. I am debating on Lembeh or Thailand. What do you think?

Jim

Edited by Parrotman, 01 June 2011 - 10:31 PM.

[scubaski]

Jim, Post some photos onto Flicka or Piscaro or Youtube and link to page. Sounds like a good trip.

[secretsea18]

Thanks Robin,

I won't tell anyone else! :-)

Your right though... people do not know what they are missing.. I wish I could post some of my pictures.. I am debating on Lembeh or Thailand. What do you think?

Jim

Both are good.
As for me, I am going to Amsterdam and Ghent, Belgium for the next 6 days. I leave today!

Then I will leave on June 15th on a trip that is RTW! I will dive in Anilao later this month, and Ambon and Komodo in July. Interspersed in there is a 13 day trip to Australia (not to dive, though) and several stops in Singapore and Bali. I finish it up with 2 days in Frankfurt.

[WreckWench]

Jim, Post some photos onto Flicka or Piscaro or Youtube and link to page. Sounds like a good trip.

Of course he could just renew his premier membership too!

We've missed him as a premier member!

[drbill]

Sounds like you were attending Scott Gietler's photo workshop. Very cool.

[Parrotman]

Sounds like you were attending Scott Gietler's photo workshop. Very cool.

Yes, I was at Scott's workshop. It was great. I learned a lot about photography. So of my pics were amazing. I even won a 2nd place in the portrait contest with my picture of a Mimic Ocotpus. Considering that all my pics looked like poo before the trip, that was quite an accomplishment.

[Capn Jack]

I loved my trip to the place that should remain unnamed - I seem to always end up with Air-Generating dive buddies so the run times were all long. My photo workshop consisted of daily coaching by Peri and whippings by SecretSea - but I also learned a lot so the pain was worth it.

It is a beautiful locale - very pleasant in Feb (90F daily highs) - and the bio-diversity is truly astonishing.

For the budget-minded diver who can snag a cheap or points-based airfare to Manila I can't think of anywhere better - $140/day all-inclusive for 4-5 dives, all meals and a room.

[secretsea18]

I loved my trip to the place that should remain unnamed - I seem to always end up with Air-Generating dive buddies so the run times were all long. My photo workshop consisted of daily coaching by Peri and whippings by SecretSea - but I also learned a lot so the pain was worth it.

And you begged for more! In the end you learned your camera, and got magnificent images out of it!

[Parrotman]

I finally got an account set up so that I could share some of the pics from Anilao. Here are a few. This was my first attempt with a strobe and I am using a point and shoot camera. Most of these are macro.


https://picasaweb.go...CLLnv5f2kZDpxwE


Jim

[Parrotman]

I finally got an account set up so that I could share some of the pics from Anilao. Here are a few. This was my first attempt with a strobe and I am using a point and shoot camera. Most of these are macro.


https://picasaweb.go...CLLnv5f2kZDpxwE


Jim

[soonerdiver]

Incredible pictures for a point and shoot camera. Looks like great diving, were you able to spot a lot of the critters yourself or did the guides know where everything was.

Definitely on my list of places to go.

[Parrotman]

I found a lot of the critters and the guide found some as well. The flamboyant cuttle fish was my big find. I got pretty good a finding Mimic Octopi as well. There is so much to find there that it is actually difficult to go on a dive and not find something really cool.

Jim

[Landlocked Dive Nut]

The dive guide would point some things out, but the 4 of us that were diving together were great critter spotters ourselves, and shared our finds with each other (and later with the rest of the divers at the resort). You definitely need to keep your vision in 'macro mode' to see everything! In fact, in the case of the pygmy seahorse, I could hardly see it with my bare eyes, but the camera picked it up. The guide had to find that one for us!