Atlantis Dive Resort, Dumaguete
The team was waiting for my travel weary buddy and me when we first stepped off the boat at Sibulan. We had been traveling for 10 hours, so a friendly porter to help with our bags and a refreshing drink of water were exactly what we needed. And they continued to anticipate our needs for the rest of our stay such that we wanted for nothing.
On day one, they took us to Apo Island, a reserve that sits about 45 minutes off the coast. Our gear was set up and waiting for us on their banka before we were able to rub the sleep from our eyes. The only preparation we had to do was throw some breakfast down our throats and climb aboard. If you travel to Dumaguete, Apo Island should not be missed. The amount of coral hanging from the walls of the island is breathtaking. I tried capturing the scenery on dive 1, but by dive 3 I had resorted to just soaking in the stunning magnitude of life around me. We had humphead parrotfish, a multitude of hawksbill sea turtles, batfish and schooling jacks, all against a backdrop of unimaginable colors. Between dives, they brought a chef that cooked up a feast for the divers and crew.
We made it back in time for a night dive. I mentioned to the divemaster that one of the critters on my bucketlist was an ornate ghost pipefish, and sure enough, we found one on the dive mooring as we descended and later we saw pairs of robust and halimeda ghost pipefish as well. This pretty much set the mood for the rest of the dives. We would request an animal, and they would find it. We didn't make it easy on them. Blue ringed octopus, ribbon eels, bluespotted stingrays and many other creatures materialized from the sand under our divemaster's helpful eye. We didn't make it easy, either. They had not seen a flamboyant cuttlefish for months until we asked for one, and then they found 2! We did the nearshore sites for the rest of our stay and knocked nearly every macro creature we could think of off our list. The diversity of life offshore from Atlantis was pretty incredible.
Atlantis has a mantra that they strive to live up to. "Come as a guest, leave as a friend." Thank you, Atlantis, we had an unforgettable time.
