Diving day in Puerto Princesa, Palawan

I was about two weeks on Palawan during Christmas time and my first day in Puerto Princesa was of cource diving day.

Dive #: 229
Date: 16.12.2012
Place: Philippines, Puerto Princesa, Broken River
Depth: 35,6m Average: 20,7m
Dive time: 39min
Visibility: 15m
Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: No wetsuit, shorts + sleeveless Weight: 5Kg

Dive Center: Moana Dive Center

Price: 2800PHP/53€ (2 dives)

Our first dive spot was Broken River. I have dived there many times before and there are always lots of marine life.

 Red clown fish. "Nemo".

Nudibranch.

Huge fan coral.

Very big yellow nudibranch.

Safety stop and back to the boat.

Dive #: 230

Date: 16.12.2012
Place: Philippines, Puerto Princesa, Maris Rock
Depth: 24,3m Average: 14m
Dive time: 51min
Visibility: 5-8m
Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: No wetsuit, shorts + sleeveless Weight: 5Kg

Our second dive spot was Maris Rock. This time the visibility in Maris was quite bad. Maris Rock is anyway interesting dive spot and there are always some creatures, which are not so common.

Octopus trying to hide.

Jav fish on her hole.

Giant puffer from close.

 Moray eel ready to attack.

Pygmi sea horse. There was five tiny sea horses in one coral. Pygmis are only about 1-1,5cm high, so it´s difficult to find them and especially to take photos. They always disappear from the focus.

Nudibranch.

Porcupine fish try to look bigger than it really is. It looks funny when it make itself almost like a ball and then try to swim.

In the end of the dive we saw quite strange looking crab. Instructor Dani has dived many years on these water and he told he has never seen this kind of crab.

Some coral, which looks almost like flower.

Two relax dives in Puerto Princesa again. This time the visibility especially in Maris Rock was quite poor. Anyway there was again some interesting creatures to see. 

Regards,

Mika

Diving day in Puerto Princesa, Philippines

I had a long weekend trip from Manila to Puerto Princesa and I had a one diving day.

Dive #: 227
Date: 25.8.2012
Place: Philippines, Puerto Princesa, Crossing
Depth: 22,8m Average: 15,5m
Dive time: 54min
Visibility: 15-20m
Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: No wetsuit, shorts + sleeveless Weight: 5Kg

Dive Center: Moana Dive Center
Price: 2800PHP/53€ (2 dives)

There was diving two guys from USA, our dive guide Dani and me. Dani is an instructor and have around 3000 dives and he knows the dive spots very well Puerto area. I have dived with him about 30 times before in Puerto.
Our reliable boat man Elinel. He doesn´t use GPS, but he has landmarks for every dive spots and he finds the places as well as GPS. Elinel has also nick name "human GPS".
Then to dive.
There are always lots of different kind reef fishes in Crossing. Especially red tooth trigger fishes.
More fishes.
Hard coral.
Frog fish hiding.

Dive #: 228
Date: 25.8.2012
Place: Philippines, Puerto Princesa, Maris Rock
Depth: 23,4m Average: 15,2m
Dive time: 48min
Visibility: 8-12m
Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: No wetsuit, shorts + sleeveless Weight: 5Kg

Lots of soft corals.
Jav fish was at home again.
Fan corals
More fan corals.
Two relax dives. On the first dive I saw also turtle. During the both dives I had some problems with my camera and it didn´t work properly. When I switched on the camera the screen was just black and nothing happened. I also didn´t get any photos about the turtle.

Regards,
Mika

Diving day in Mactan Island near Cebu, Philippines

I had a long weekend trip from Manila to Cebu. One of my good friend, Petri, lives in Mactan Island in Cebu and he is also scuba instructor. We did three dives together in Mactan area.

Dive #: 224
Date: 22.6.2012
Place: Philippines, Cebu, Mactan, Talima
Depth: 27,7m Average: 14m
Dive time: 40min
Visibility: 15-20m
Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: No wetsuit, only shorts and sleeveless Weight: 5Kg

Dive Center: Diving with the friend
Price: Special price

Talima has deep walls. There is also one wreck, which is already seen the best days.
Near wreck is possible to see lots of different kind of fishes. Diagonal-banded sweetlips.
I showed to Petri, look cuttlefish. No, two cuttlefishes. No, three! Four!

Dive #: 225
Date: 22.6.2012
Place: Philippines, Cebu, Mactan, Tambuli (Plane wreck)
Depth: 31,4m Average: 16,7m
Dive time: 36min
Visibility: 15-20m
Sea Temperature: +30C

In the beginning of the dive we saw banded seasnake.
Reason why we came to this divespot was anyway to see plane wreck. Here it is. Depth is something 23-24m.
On the front.
"This is my plane."
Petri and the plane.
Plane inside.
My first plane wreck. Hopefully not the last one.
In the end of the dive we came to shallow area. There was lots of grass. In fact it looked quite nice.

Dive #: 226
Date: 22.6.2012
Place: Philippines, Cebu, Mactan, Dakit Dakit ("Two Rocks")
Depth: 25,3m Average: 15,2m
Dive time: 47min
Visibility: 15-20m
Sea Temperature: +31C

Our third divespot was Dakit Dakit, which means Two Rocks. There are also deep walls. Lionfish on the wall.
Lizardfish.
This divespot has also something special. Huge school of fishes. Here is a small part of the group.
It's very interesting the see how the group moves and change the formation.
Petri with the fishes.
There was thousands and thousands of jacks. Or are these sardines? Anyway many.
Do you want to count?
Petri is somewhere behind the group. You can see only little bit bubbles.
Petri took this video clip which helps to understand how big was the school of fishes.

It was great diving day in Mactan. Must go diving there also some other time. If you are also interested to dive in Mactan just contact Petri.

Diving at Siquijor Island, Philippines

I had a weekend trip from Manila to Siquijor Island near Dumaguete City. I did one relex dive in Siquijor.

Dive #: 223
Date: 18.5.2012
Place: Philippines, Siquijor Island, Cedrics Wall
Depth: 25,9m Average: 15,5m
Dive time: 53min
Visibility: 15-20m
Sea Temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: 3mm long wetsuit Weight: 5Kg

Dive Center: Kiwi Dive Resort
Price: 1300PHP/22,08€ including equipment rental

There was a lot of different kind of nudibranches.
Bigger red one.
Scorpionfish try to hide.
DM Raul and the corals.
Mantis shrimps are colorful and looks beautiful.
Very small and almost transparent blue class shrimps.
Pipefish.
Bigger striped pipefish.
I did only one dive in Siquijor, but it is good place for diving. There was diving only me and DM Raul so there was a lots of time to take photos and watch what I wanted.

Salamat Raul!