Philippines Dive Trip March 2009

SASS Philippines Group

Larry, Dawn, & Rick ready for the night dive

Yellow Tube Sponge

Butterfly fish with coral

Yellow Box Fish hiding under Crinoid

White Seahorse

Tomato Clown Fish

Spotfin Lionfish

Shaggin Mandarin Fish





Hungry Turtle

Purple anemone with 3 clownfish

Manta Ray

Mandarin Fish

Eel



3 Ornate Pipefish


Clown Fish

Crab

In March the SASS group of 17 traveled halfway across the world to experience 2 weeks of diving in the Philippines. The first week we stayed aboard the Stella Maris, a liveaboard, where we dove the Tubbataha reef which took about 11 hours to get there from Puerta Princessa. Eat, dive, Eat, Dive, sleep, dive, eat...that was the daily routine on the boat. The 5 dives a day with great weather was more than I could have asked for. From there we flew back to Manila, then another short flight to Dumaguete. We stayed at the Bahura resort which was WONDERFUL! Our bathroom was bigger than our entire room on the boat! 2-3 dives a day, plus 5 star gourmet food that was prepared for us everyday! Plus, we were able to do beach dives directly in front of the resort which had a great reef, including the infamous mandarin fish. Overall, the trip was wonderful!