Anilao is in the municipality of Mabini, Batangas, the Philippines. It is located south of Manila, about 2.5hrs drive, on the large island of Luzon. Diving in Anilao is famous for its macro, nudibranch and critters; pelagic and large fish are not common. We didn't see any mantas nor sharks, not even turtles. Definitely a macro diver's paradise.
Our dive resort was Planet Dive, a nice base for diving adventures, winner of Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence 2015. It had cosy rooms, aromatic Batangas coffee, good food, large tanks for rinsing equipment and outdoor chairs to laze around by the sea. Ooh the dinner was so good, bbq every night! Did I mention the beer was cheap too?
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| Idyllic outdoor seating to laze around after a long day of diving |
Having said that Anilao is a macro heaven, the equipment I had was hardly suitable. My new underwater housing that I ordered online arrived a few hours before I left my home for the airport, but when I was at Anilao I realised the housing didn't fit with my tray (different screw size). So I ended up shooting with just the housing, or attaching the Gopro to the tray which wasn't good for macro shots at all. Well it was still fun chasing after fish and shooting underwater video with the Gopro attached to an extension pole.
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| Dive boats were the crampy boats with outriggers common in the Philippines |
One of the first dive sites we went was aptly named "Bubbles", for the little bubbles that rise from beneath the seabed due to some natural geographical phenomenon. Don't ask me to explain.
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| CY diving in "Bubbles" |
