This was a nice boat but it was the only boat that I have been on where the back of the boat always swinging from side to side aggressively in the water. It made it hard to get back on the boat. You would catch the tag line and then during the decompression stop you would be hanging on and looking like a flag blowing in the wind.
Puerto Galera - Mindoro. This is a special place to dive. The marine life around the island is special and very special. A lot of small like 3inc and less specimens due to the local pollution of the waters. If you can get away to a outer island trip the reef and animals are much better and larger and in better shape, The flight over and back is about 24 hours each way so you should plan to stay for two or more weeks at a time.
This dive resort is special. It is very different. The accommodations are on one side of the road in a city and the rooms are cut into the hillside so if you visit plan to climb quite a few stairs down for breakfast, back after the morning dives, down for the afternoon dives back before dinner then again for the night dives. The dive shop is located on the other side of the road. The divemasters know your name, face and take care of all your gear.
This is a great resort with good divemasters and personnel. The food and accommodations were very nice and accommodating. Be sure and take as many trips to the outer islands as they offer as this is the best diving anywhere in the area. The large boat is really weird accouraging to our standards, a wooden boat with a fire box in the middle and a head that if you stand up you can see everyone on the boat and everyone can see you.
This is somewhat a budget resort. You should book it with food as the onsite restaurant is good as well as the food. The diving is good and be sure and take the twilight dives. The local shore diving is ok and this is about the only resort that had shore diving. There are lockers near the beach and you can dive day or night. The rooms are ok just be careful if there is a rain storm as the patio drains may not be working and flood your room.
We have been on this trip two times in August and have been blown out for multiple days and missed the opportunity to see the Blue hole. I would suggest that you travel there in June or July. I would also suggest that you plan to spend a week on land and see the country. There is river cave tubing, ruins to see, butterfly farm, zip lines and a great zoo.
We stayed at Orange grove and went diving with Stuart Cove’s. They transported us to and from the dive site daily. the diving was good and was the service. There was a dive on an old shark feeding site that was very good. The sharks remembered that there used to be food there associated with scuba divers. I did not enjoy the shark feeding dive as it is a non natural state for the sharks as well as the divers and I would not recommend that dive.
This place is similar to scuba club Cozumel in the fact that it is somewhat basic accommodations. The freedom to dive whenever you want and the nearness of the on site diving is great. The wall dive at the location is well worth spending some time exploring. I would also recommend that you plan some boat dives to other sites, even though you could drive there the boat rides are short and easy.
Real cattle boat operation with very little marine Life. We booked 4 days of diving with Stuart Coves 4 am and 2 Pm trips. The first day we had the same pickup problems, They were supposed to be there at 8:10, and at 8:30 we called and they were running late, arrived at 8:50. When we arrived, the site was very busy, disorganized, and disjointed, unlike the old place we remembered 10 years ago. The diving was sub-par as the area was basically void of animal life. we did two dives and canceled the upcoming afternoon dives and it was not worth the experience. We later canceled one of the morning dive trips as there was very little to look at as the reef was severely damaged, so they were taking us to wrecks.
Date of experience: August 2021
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