Three years ago, a massive school of sardines left the coast of an island that was a 15-minute boat trip away from Moalboal, and moved to Moalboal itself. More specifically, one million shiny fish dumped themselves off the banks of all the dive shops. As of 2017, Moalboal was still a popular destination for snorkeling with the sardines. For divers, a “sardine run” was just one of many delightful scuba surprises to suit up for.

 

 

The Philippines is a country you don’t want to leave before you do some diving. PADI open water courses are offered everywhere, yet I chose to do mine in Moalboal with Cebu Dive Center.

 

 

The price, $360, was a lot more than say Thailand, but the shop owner, Cameron, made sure my instruction was one-on-one so that the course would be at my own pace and catered to me. I could have also done my open water at home in Florida so that I could focus on fun dives on my trip, but by waiting to do my PADI in a place I wanted to dive regardless, sardine runs and finding macro were a part of my certification. While it is common for enclosed dives to be done in a swimming pool, all of the skills I needed to perform were done over coral.

Other popular dive sites in the Philippines:

• Coron, for WWII shipwrecks and the visible thermocline of Barracuda Lake.
• Malapascua, for Thresher sharks.
• Apo Island.
• Alona Beach, because my Belgian friends swear by this place.

Other majestic wildlife that I did not see, but that can be spotted at most dive sites throughout the Philippines include eagle rays and whitetip reef sharks.

 

Getting There

Flights to Cebu (CEB) are cheap from other Filipino cities such as Manila, as well as other Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia, and can be found using Skyscanner.

The southbound Ceres Liner bus takes four hours to reach Moalboal from Cebu city, $2.50. A short tricycle ride will take you to the hostels and dive shops along Panagsama Beach for a couple dollars.

 

 

 

Accommodation

The comfortable Cebu Dive Center dorm was included as part of my course. I had it all to myself which was much needed after 2+ months of travel. I was able to watch the PADI videos and do the bookwork from my bed.

 

 

Dive

Some find love at first dive. I loved diving, but I am not in love with it. My experience in Moalboal was actually so excellent that if I never got the opportunity to dive again, I would be at peace with it. I am so ridiculously privileged to be able to make such a statement, but what can I say? This blog is for being truthful.

Hiking or walking is my thing. I feel the same towards rock climbing and caving and meditation as I do with scuba diving. While I would not plan my travel around diving and furthering my underwater skills, I would of course not hesitate to jump back in when passing through unique destinations around the world.

 

 

Day 79

Videos and videos.

Having been on the look out for sea turtles my whole trip, I practically walked into one.

 

 

Day 80

Diving is insane.

My first ever open water dive was with sardines x 10⁶. Like the ones who form make arrows and faces in Nemo, except more in number. I could swim under them for half an hour and without seeing the end of the school, or the sun.

In my log book, I wrote down some other notable wildlife Kat and I spotted: sea turtles, scads, pufferfish, pipefish, sea cucumbers.

 

 

Day 81

Today I completed my PADI. To celebrate, I had my first burger since leaving America at Cafe Miguel, made by the sweetest server. We talked about nutrition (yes, while I was stuffing my face with beef and buns and fries) and she made me a smoothie with parsley in it.

The morning had started with another group of PADI students. We boated to Moalboal Bay and Tongo and I got to master the compass skills in water that was full of life. My logbook notes sightings of sand eels, batfish, striped eel catfish, parrotfish, lizardfish, damsel fish, clown fish, and butterfly fish.

I felt a sharp pain along my wrist that lasted for several seconds before beginning to dull. After surfacing, I applied vinegar to my jelly stings. The jellyfish that got me don’t look like the traditional umbrella/mushroom with tentacles… they appeared to be wispy transparent strands, and also pretty harmless.

 

 

I was thankful that I was allowed to film during my fourth dive at House Reef and capture the incredible movements of the sardine galaxies. I was still mourning the drowning of my second GoPro at Kawasan, but Katy sold me her DB Power camera that worked perfectly under water.

At this point I must have met every Belgian traveling the Philippines, which is a rarer sighting than sea turtles. Two medical students from said country did some diving at the shop. I had one of them examine the swelling underneath my jaw that was most likely diving-related and not a big deal.

Furthermore, when my scuba app pulled up the dive spots around me, one was named “Asian Belgian reef.”

Wtf is that??

 

 

Day 82

I’ll describe my first ever fun dive at Dolphin House that set me back a mere $20 by quoting my real time notes:

“WHALE SHARK.

Literally.

Coming at me.

A wild one. A m-f-ing wild one. Tomorrow I was gonna go to a place where they get fed and you pay to swim for half an hour. Those ones are wild but they rely on food every day.

But no more. A wild one. On a scuba dive. With no tourists. Just other divers who have been on 7000+ dives and said it’s a 1/600 kinda thing and here I am at 1/1.

I think I’ll go pass out.”

 

 

It happened so fast. Suddenly the dive master was screaming, which is always the funniest sound under water. There was a huge shadow, I briefly saw it, and it disappeared. Suddenly the young whale shark was back and as it came up to me, I couldn’t wrap my head around anything except to keep filming. Keep. Filming. National Geographic where’s my job offer?

Bubbles were everywhere, blinding me, surrounding me, because our whole group was flipping out. I was way too buoyant, everyone was far below me, or maybe I was just having an out-of-body experience.

 

 

Things calmed and we finished the duration of the dive, but as soon as we broke the surface, more screaming. This time, it was all of us.