| Philippines scuba diving offers some of the best diving | | | | Bohol is attached to Cebu by a bridge. Alona beach is |
| in the world and it can be done on a Shoestring | | | | on Bohol, and is the main jumping off point for |
| budget if you go at the right time of the year. | | | | Balicasag, which is where the best diving is located, |
| There are not too many places in the world where | | | | roughly a 25 minute boat ride on the local catamarans |
| you can do 2 dives for under $40, but the Philippines | | | | from Alona Beach. Shore dives are also possible off |
| offers many places where this is possible, and if you | | | | of Alona Beach. I was rewarded with a sea snake |
| have your own dive gear, and dive more than 5 | | | | and a hoard of schooling catfish, as well as some |
| times, you might even bring the price down lower. | | | | very beautiful pipefish when I first arrived, and did a |
| My two favorites while I was there was Puerto | | | | free diving snorkeling sortie. From the beach it took |
| Galera and Cebu -Bohol. Both dive areas are very | | | | about 10 minutes to swim too and went down to |
| easy to get to. For Puerto Galera I went using local | | | | over 40 meters. The main place for the divers that |
| buses and a local ferry an easy cheap trip from | | | | go to Cebu -Bohol is Balicasag island which is a marine |
| either Angeles City where Clark Air base is located | | | | park, while I was there we had some high winds, so |
| and even easier from Manila. Getting to Cebu-Bohol | | | | were on the lee ward side for two days of wall |
| was equally easy and cheap with a few regional | | | | action that was great!. A highlight of the trip was |
| airlines like Cebu Pacific and the Philippines national air | | | | swimming right into a large group of tunas in 40 |
| carrier, Philippines Air offering lots of cheap flights | | | | meters of water, who swim by close enough for me |
| from either Manila or Clark. | | | | to see all of the beautiful coloration. Balicasag Island |
| The diving at Puerto Galera was a real treat seeing | | | | had a few different types of nudibrachs as well that |
| numerous butterfly species including tear drops, | | | | were quite beautiful to behold in their outrageous |
| saddle backs and lots of different noses including | | | | fluorescent color schemes. There is also some real |
| orange nose, blue nose, and hump nose. There were | | | | good shallow reef that held at least 4 different types |
| also a lot of angel fish including everyone's favorite | | | | of clown fish, finding Nemo here is a snap |
| the regal and some great pipefish and nudibrachs | | | | For all our dives in the Philippines we had local dive |
| action as well. Puerto Galera also has some wreck | | | | masters. I must point out that they were not very |
| diving, with 3 wrecks doable in one dive at Sabang | | | | good at briefings, and I found it a little disconcerting |
| Beach. These wrecks are shallow enough that open | | | | not getting a boat safety brief, especially when the |
| water divers can swim around the outside of them | | | | life preservers were not in sight. English was the |
| without a advanced open water card or wreck diving | | | | language that was spoken mostly on the dive boats |
| specialty rating. | | | | that I scuba dived off of. All in all I will go back and |
| Cebu is one of the larger islands in the Philippines. | | | | dive there as it is a great value in the off season. |