For the Philippine Siren’s first trip, we greeted onboard the group of crazy Dutch and Belgian divers, organized by Touria Diving.

After checking in and setting up kit we headed around the island of Mactan for the first check out dive at Tambuli. The gently sloping reef with coral bommies and sea grass was the perfect site introduction to Philippine diving. With sightings of painted frogfish, pipefish, a wide variety of nudibranchs, crabs and other crawling critters.

The following day was spent of the reefs around Cabilao island, where white tip reef sharks were found resting inside a cave. The infamous pygmy seahorses proved too elusive for our local spotter; however divers were rewarded with ornate ghost pipefish & the odd looking sea-hares.

The steep walls and amazing overhangs were the next on the agenda, to be found at Balicasag Island off the south western tip of Bohol. Schools of jacks hung in the current at the edge of Rico’s wall, whilst barracuda schooled and swirled on the sloping reef of Black Forest. On the shallow reef top divers spent their safety stops looking for pipe fish & nudis. The Cathedral did not disappoint giving us the chance to swim along with a turtle and Marcelle to spot a painted frogfish and a leaf fish! Night diving was spent at Alona beach with the elusive blue ringed octopus, “communicating” with cuttlefish & fighting off the feather stars which seem to jump upon you!

The witch craft island of Siquijor offered a wide variety of dive sites from the steep Paliton wall to the beautiful coral garden at the Lighthouse. Whilst the night dive at Coco-Grove was hailed as the dive of the trip due to the wide variety of creatures and critters found at the site….the hard core Belgians made an 80 minute dive!

Our last stop at Apo Island rocked literally! With our first dive at Rock Point East we were able to spend more than 20 minutes photographing and filming turtles, whilst schools of triggerfish swarmed the reef. A dusk dive at Chapel was in order to see Mandarin fish emerge from the staghorn corals to mate. The final dive of the trip was spent in the super swift current at Cogon, which turned up schools of jacks, 3 turtles and even a giant frogfish resting in the sponges.