Southern Leyte scuba diving

Here is an incomplete report on Padre Burgos. It was raining cats and dogs during my visit. I took the Cokaliong ferry from Cebu to Maasin a port in southern Leyte. Maasin has a few places to stay and a number of restaraunts and shops and internet cafes but I got a lift to Padre Burgos from a guy I met on the ferry. His brother, Richard,  from California was staying there and graciously put me up for a few days. real cool guy. We stopped in at Gunters dive shop and found that he was fully booked as it was near Christmas. It was a nice place, good food, nice view. Looks like a well run shop. You could easily stay in Maasin and comute to the dive shop by jeepney or multicab more common in this area. About 25 peso each way. If you continue on through Padre Burgos along Sogod bay you run into Peters dive shop. Seems like a nice enough place but I only got in 2 dives on account of the torrential rains at the time. One of the dive guides there saw a newly born whale shark a few weeks prior. That would have been quite a sight. We did see an almost clear color frogfish. Under the pier in town there is a variety of critters that make for a good night dive. It seems that Gunter does more dives on Limasawa Island and Sogod bay while Peters does more dives in Sogod bay. Across Sogod bay is a splendid reef called Napantao where a French guy is building a large concrete structure that really looks out of place there. I had to take a look and got rides from a series of jeepneys around the bay and got dropped off at the side of the road a few kilometers short of the village of San Fransisco. There was a trail and a kid showed me a footpath that led to the backside of the lodge. The dive shop is not accessible by road so the staff was surprised to see me come walking down the side of the hills through the trees. They gave me a glass of water but only one of the older women spoke English well. We had a nice conversation. The owner was hoping to open sometime in the next year. He probably is aiming for an exclusive clientel because the place is inaccessible by road. There didn't seem to be any shortage of funds to build such an elaborate place in the middle of nowhere I was thinking to myself. Having an injured foot I didn't relish the idea of walking all the way back to the road uphill so decided to organize a banca (small outrigger boat) to San Fransisco and catch the bus from there. One of the boatmen agreed to run me over there for 70 peso. Gliding over that reef was just spectacular.Such clear water and fantastic soft corals. (These corals were exceptional - Napantao is a protected sanctuary)  Many of the fish were jumping out of the water to get out of the way as we glided past. I wish I had brought my snorkel and mask! We got over to San Fransisco and asked around about lodging as it was getting late in the day. They came to the conclusion that it would be best for me to make it up to Liloan to find a place to stay there for the night. A bystander with a motorbike agreed to run me up there for 100 peso. Found a pretty good room for 120 peso and stayed the night there. Only problem there was a brown out (power failure) so I didn't have water till morning. (Around 50 peso to the USD) It was a nice place, helpful people, good location. I went to the harbor to find a restaurant that might still be open to get something to eat. The first was a halal place where the people were a bit hostile but there was another restaurant across the street that was really good. By the time I got back to the hotel it was pitch black outside but the hotel manager had a candle for me to light the way. In the morning I caught a jeepney to Sogod and from there back to Padre Burgos anticipating setting up a dive on Napantau, but then the rains set in. I waited about three days and decided to move on. Even if the rain stopped the vis would not be very good. Incidentally I met Ron down at the pier one night. A really friendly Brit that used to be pals with Peter but they apparently had a falling out. Ron was in the process of setting up a new dive shop near Peters. It looks like it is going to be a good one and I am looking forward to going back there sometime this year to check it out. Will post new info at that time. Southern Leyte Scuba Diving Shops Gunter's www.leyte-divers.com Scuba Resort www.sogodbayscubaresort.com Peter's www.whaleofadive.com Philippines www.dutchpickle.com

 

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