In March of 2016, Joyce and I went on a Philippine dive adventure. Our base camps for this journey were Ticao Island Resort, Donsol and Thresher Shark Divers, Philippines.
Philippine Dive Adventure Video
Ticao Island
Our first Philippine Dive Adventure location was the Ticao Island Resort. Here our guide was Jan Esteban. He was a tremendous help in finding all these amazing small creatures. The Ticao Island Resort is right on the beach. In addition, it has a fabulous view of the distant volcano. We were fortunate to find several large Frogfish, the peacock mantis shrimp, an abundant amount of nudibranchs, pygmy seahorses and turtles.
Donsol
Our second location for this Philippine Dive Adventure was for just two days at the Elysia Beach Resort in Donsol. Donsol is the world’s most reliable place to view and interact with whale sharks as they travel between November and May. Our experienced whale shark snorkel guide was Gerry, who scored us a whale shark on every entry. These whale sharks average in size from 18 – 25 feet in length. On one occasion, I had to back-peddle to get out of the way of the oncoming whale shark.
Malapascua
At our third Philippine Dive Adventure location, Malapascua, we were very fortunate to have as our guide Wilbert Arriesgado at Thresher Shark Divers. Again we lucked out with an experienced and extremely helpful dive guide. The highlight of diving in this area of the Philippines is the Thresher Shark. The boat for the Thresher Sharks dive leaves at 5 am. Threshers come up from the deep water to mingle with the scavenger cleaning fishes, and then they leave for the dark water soon after the sun comes up. Monad Shoal is the best destination to see these incredibly sleek creatures.
You will find photos and videos of manta rays, thresher sharks, turtles, nudibranchs, tropical fish, mantis shrimp, and much more in this video.
