Dumaguete Diving Delight

Well...to be honest! I expected more! I expected to go diving off Dumaguete and watch their black sandy bottoms crawling with critters. Unfortunately that was not the case....it was long swims till we found something to "play with" or "blind" in my case (coz of my strobes with my underwater camera) Expectations tend to get more of a reality splash when you are actually diving and then you remember that most dive trips are like that! Long swims....critter.....long swim....critter!!

Overall it was a good trip. The resort was nice...will be posting some nice little pictures...
There were things that i have never seen (a different type of seaslug). If you dun know me by now then i will have to inform you that i'm a sea slug nut case. I luuurrrvvveee them. They're soft, bright and colourful and looks soooooooo huggable. Sure as hell beat the pillows back at the resort!

By ranking with best dive site at first place isssss.......

Dumaguete Island (The Pier)
This is a commercial pier (fairly large) with large columns going into the seabed at odd angles to support the weight of the concrete pier and all it's loadings. The first meter and a half at the surface has a yellowish tinge to the water....but once down it's blue and these great pillars are covered in soft coral growth. With the sunlight it looks like some kinda of underwater cathedral! It's fantastic. Loads of seaslugs - and i mean loads...you have to be careful not to land on any. But it is fairly mucky down below and in certain areas it gets realy dark (best to bring a torch)

Balicasag Island (Blackforest)
Hmmm...just like my favourite cake this comes in second place. It's a slope off to a wall dive. Excellent visibility - loads of sunlight and seaslugs. There is a slight current and i was told that if the currents were strong then we would catch the majestic sight of barracudas hanging out. Good thing current wasn't strong so i could rest easy in taking my pictures of all God's smaller and much slower creatures!!

Dumaguete Island (Banca Wreck)
There's a wreck (literally) around 26m. It's almost completely disintegrated leaving half a hull on its side. Nice dive site...marine life in abundance with pregnant mantis shrimps, all sorts of cleaner shrimps, giant moray eels, leaf fish etc...
On one of my dives here i got molested by a remoras. It found me whilst i was taking pot shots of the preggie shrimp then it started sucking on my wetsuit near you know where!! and it followed me all the way to the shallows where it was reluctantly relieved of it's position by a swoop of my charlie stick! Cheeky little bugger!

Dumaguete Island (Sarah's Place)
Another great place to dive. The coral life is healthy and marine life abundant! It's great to just drift along and see it all happening around you! Fishes feeding, pooping, getting cleaned, protecting their home making babies...etc This is where i saw my not seen before nudi! Fab place and just between the Pier and the resort.

Dumaguete Island (Dauin and Luca Sanctuary) & Balicasag Island (Diver's Heaven)
Both on either side of the resort. can be reached ia shore or boat! I prefer boat! It's a santuary so the coral growth is extremely healthy and marine life is definitely exploding like in any city in any part of the world! Ain't great for macro photography - would suit anyone with a wide angle lens with big ass guns for strobes! Nice site anyway!

Diver's Heaven is a wall dive with a great variety of soft coral hanging off the wall...they have lots of grooves in the wall and appears very canyon like - nice easy dive!

Apo Island (Chapel, Rock Point West & Cogon)
This is a little stump of an island about 30 minutes from Dumaguete! The diving is nice and again more suited for people with wide angle lens...loads of jacks/trevally/barracuda cruising and hanging out. At one point we saw a lone barracuda! Massive boyo! Scary indeed! Some turtles but all very shy! It's alright but i probably would not venture there again especially since my interest in is the small critters.

Dumaguete Island (CarCar Wreck & House Reef)
Not my favourites but good to be underwater...nice place to get reaqquainted with diving after a long break. Easy to dive except in the house reef where you have to battle current to get back to the shallows near the resort.

All in all - i would say a fairly good trip. I would probably come back but not so soon as there are many other places that i want to visit. Balicasag Island is very near Bohol and the sand is white unlike Dumaguete where the sand is black. I think Bohol may be more for a critter hunter like myself. All experiences count for something!

The travel to get to dumaguete is a long and fairly butt aching one (in a car for ard 3-4.5 hours depending on traffic conditions from Mactan Airport, Cebu to Santander, Liloan)
Along the way you see a lot of doggies running free and this makes me miss my babies at home. We get to see loads of goats, cows, pigs, chickens and one snake! The coastal road back (I was alseep on the way in and it was the wee hours of the morning when i was going in so i could not see JACK!) reminded me why Cebu is a place to dive with crystal clear blue waters as far as the eyes can see.

anyway - this got me thinking that i should start a separate blog for my dive trips instead of lumping everything into one blog! hmmmm.....
~Queen Bubbles~