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Diving The Philippines: Apo IslandApo Island comprises a protected coral reef surrounding a volcanic island in the Visayan Sea, Negos Oriental province. Getting ThereNegros Oriental lies south of Manila. The flight from Manila to Dumaguete takes about an hour. From the airport in Dumaguete it is about 45 minutes drive (25 km) along the coast to Malatapay. Apo Island is a further 30 minute banca (a motorized outrigger boat) ride from Malatapay, the "mainland" (what does that mean in a country which is a collection of islands?) of Negros Island. Dive Operators and Accomodation
There is a dive shop and lodging on Apo Island itself and a number of operations that work from Dumaguete. The Philippines has a good internet presence so information is easy to find on the Web. Apo Island itself is a marine sanctuary and hopes to use tourism as an alternative revenue source to destructive fishing practices. For a map of the coast see the official web-site at http://www2.mozcom.com/~admsucrm/apo.htm. We dived with Rene Juntereal (juanm@mozcom.com , tel: 63 35 255 5257) who I'd strongly recommend not only as fun and competent dive leader but also as a gourmand. He arranged some wonderful lunches on the beach prepared with curious and delicious local foods (once we'd convinced him that we were more adventurous than average tourists)! The DivingThe diving is excellent with a selection of walls dropping away from a convenient 5 m or so to 25 m and deeper. Highlights of the diving include: turtles, drifting through shoals of several hundred large jacks, myriad (tons, lots, even more than you are thinking of) clownfish among the anemones of "Clownfish City" in the fish sanctuary, fields of grass eels, lots of coral in good condition, and many more tropical fish than I shall ever remember the names. Simeon Warner Books to Take
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