Diving at Crossing and Maris Rock in Puerto Princesa, Philippines

I had a diving day in Puerto Princesa. Here is something from our dives. Our dive guide was Dani, who is also instructor. Other divers were local guy Jonathan, French Sarah and me.

Dive #: 241
Date: 6.12.2013
Place: Philippines, Puerto Princesa, Crossing
Depth: 18,9m Average: 16,1m
Dive time: 54min
Visibility: 20m
Sea temperature: +30C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air)  Wetsuit: No wetsuit, only shorts and sleeveless  Weight: 5Kg
Camera: Canon PowerShot G15 + Ikelite´s housing  Computer: Suunto Stingray

Dive Center: Moana Dive Center
Price: 3300P / 2 dives including equipment

Our first dive spot was Crossing. Let´s dive!

In the beginning we saw black ribbon eel.

Nudibranch couple.

School of yellow striped snapers.

More snapers.

Blue-spotted stingray on the sandy bottom.

Flat worm.

Dive #: 242
Date: 6.12.2013
Place: Philippines, Puerto Princesa, Maris Rock
Depth: 20,1m Average: 13,1m
Dive time: 52min
Visibility: 6-10m
Sea temperature: +30C

Our second dive spot was Maris Rock. Visibility in Maris is not so good usually, but there is many times interesting and not so common creatures. 

Leaf scorpion fish.

Mantis shrimps are always cool to see.

School of striped cat fishes.

Pipe fish on the bottom.

Porcypine fish try to be bigger than it really is.

Talking to me?

Very small pygmi sea horse. Difficult to take good picture, because the sea horse is only like 1cm.

Huge fan coral.

That´s me in the safety stop. 

It was great to dive after few months again. Hopefully next dives come soon.

Regards from Manila,
Mika

Snorkeling day at Modessa Island in Palawan, Philippines

We did a day trip in Palawan from Roxas town to Modessa Island Resort. The beach on the island looks very beautiful.

View to another direction.

Modessa Island is a resort island, so there is possible to rent also cottages.

Home reef.

Reef has a lot of different kind of fishes.

Lyn snorkeling.

Lion fish.

Looking for Nemo?

Whole family.

Clam.

When I snorkeled on deeper area there happened something very cool. First came small school of jacks.

Then more and more.

Finally there was hundreds of jacks around me. Never seen so many jacks before when snorkeling. 

I have seen huge school of jacks especially in Tubbataha Reef in Philippines and in Pulau Mabul in Borneo Malaysia when diving, but never when snorkeling.

Resort has also dive center on the island, if you want to go diving.

I uploaded this short video clip from Modessa to Youtube. In the end you will see a video clip of the jacks in Modessa.

I really liked the island and I will go back for sure. 

Regards from Manila,

Mika

Island hopping and snorkeling day in Coron, Philippines

Old story. I wrote earlier in February something about wreck diving in Coron. The area is also great place for snorkeling and there are beautiful islands. Here is something from our island hopping day.

Our boat left from Coron town, which is the centre in Coron area. Some beach resort near the Coron town.

Our first stop was Cyc Island.

Mask, snorkel and fins and to the water. I Feeeel Good...!

Lyn snorkeling.

Second place was Coral Garden.

Same place under water.

Next place was beautiful Kayangan Lake. In fact it´s only hidden bay, but it´s called lake.

Not bad?

Same place from the view point. 

When continue walking the stairs down there is a real lake.

This place looks very cool under water. It´s like snorkeling in the stalagmite cave.

Small seashells.

Lyn dives.

And explores.

I have never seen this kind of rock formation under water before. 

I have everything "ok". 

Our next place was Coral Eden. There was a lot of mangroves.

Leaves under water.

Our last stop was Twin Peak Reef. There was also more fishes than other places. Some people saw there also turtle, but we missed it. 

I took small peace of bread to the water and I had a lots of friends.

Corals and fishes. 

Lyn was like a dolphin in the water.

Staghorn corals and reef fishes.

It was great snorkeling day in the beautiful places. Price for the full day trip was 850PHP/15,30€ per person including great meal. 

This was also my first real under water test for my new Canon Powershot G15 and Ikelite´s housing. Before the trip I tested the camera and housing only in the pool. Package seems to work well with out problems.

Regards from Manila,

Mika