For our Christmas holiday from school, we went diving in the Philippines. We chose this location due to the positive comments we heard from diving colleagues at CISQD related to the health of the corals and biodiversity of wildlife that could be easily seen. We went to two locations in the Philippines; the first week in Moalboal, Cebu and the second week in San Rogue, Southern Leyte.

The two spots were demographically different. Moalboal is a tourist destination and had countless dive resorts and snorkeling/dive excursion locations. The community of Moalboal was a 3-hour drive from the Cebu airport, but that doesn’t deter people from visiting its amazing reefs. San Rogue was the exact opposite; we stayed at one of three dive resorts in the area. When we walked around the town on the day before leaving, there was not a souvenir in any of the stores. San Rogue is a simple fishing village and doesn’t cater to tourists. 

Here are the highlights from both Moalboal and San Rogue put together by Grant.

The following photos are from both locations. It became a running joke that I take a ridiculous quantity of photos. Based on the movement of fish and me, for every 50 photos taken, 1 might be good. 

Healthy coral ecosystem

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Needless to say, we got our diving fix… for now.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 🙂