Philippines Dive Travel Review by cjfigg23 - Bluewater Dive Travel

Philippines Dive Travel Review by cjfigg23

Philippines

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How would you like to wake up to THRESHER SHARKS, swim UNDER an island, and do night dives with blue ringed octopus? Uh, YES PLEASE! SIGN ME UP! Oh wait, I've done this trip twice. For me that's pretty crazy because I'm cheap and have too many destinations I want to go in the world. It has to be a very special place to get me to pay to go back again…Malapascua IS that kind of a place:)

First thing to know about Malapascua is that it does take a bit of travel to get there: At least 2 flights (Manila and Cebu for me), then a very long taxi ride (at least 2.5 hours, I can't remember exactly), then a short ferry boat ride to take you to the island.

Second thing you should know is that Malapascua (or any tiny island in the PI for that matter) is not extremely modern in the sense of banking. Make sure you do all of your money exchanging in Manila at the airport. There will be no banking/atm on Malapascua. You can use a credit card at the resorts, dive shops, and most restaurants, but they charge at least 6%. It's better to have cash.

Now to the BEST part…..THE DIVING :D EVERY morning we got up around 5:00am to dive with THRESHER SHARKS! Out of the 2 weeks I've spent in Malapascua, there was only one shark dive that I did not see the sharks. There was still stuff to look at even though the sharks did not come. So, it wasn't a wasted dive. In fact, that is where I found my first ever sea moth! After the shark dive, we went back to the resort for breakfast. then 2 more dives in the morning/afternoon. Either come back for lunch or pack lunch on the boat and dive kinda far from shore. And, if you're like me and LOVE night dives, that is also an option.

Monad Shoal is the name of the cleaning station that the sharks come to. However, this last trip I went on they took us to a new spot. It was even better than Monad Shoal! I had 3 threshers swim right in front of me!!!! Seriously, it. was. AWESOME!!! The island you can swim under is called Gato Tunnel. After you swim under, you can look around for frogfish, sea horses, pigmy sea horses, pipefish, sea snakes, cuttlefish, etc. All of the other dives include the small animals I just mentioned. And another amazing aspect of the PI is how much life and color you see in the ocean. There is one dive in Malapascua that has a reef covered in the most gorgeous soft coral ever. No dive in Malapascua was disappointing. Each one had something to offer.

I do have to give a special shout out to the night dives. If you want to see a blue ringed octopus, night diving is a must! BTW the first day (of my 2nd time to Malapascua) I got on the boat and said, " 500 PESOS (about $13 US) to the one who finds me a blue ringed octopus!!!" Guess who those guides came swimming after EVERY TIME a blue ring was found:) I spent about 20 minutes with my first blue ring…I just got goosebumps writing that!!!! I saw 3 altogether:) And yes, each dive guide got the 500 peso blue ring tip because they were both awesome:) So not only did I get to dive with one of the cutest, coolest, deadliest critters in the ocean, I also saw so many crab species in was crazy! Plus there were sea horses, cuttlefish (one as tiny as my thumb nail), and mandarin fish too!

I feel as if Malapascua has such a huge variety to offer. I try to base my trips on getting to dive with some type of shark species along with the awesome macro stuff:) I honestly cannot recommend a better place for you to dive:)

Visited on 06/2013 - Submitted on 02/26/2014
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