Pandan - Philippines

After a 8 hours journey by plane, bus and bangka (local fisher boat) we arrived on Pandan, a small island off the west coast of Mindoro. This privately owned island is a real tropical paradise with its crystal clear water, white sand beach, surrounded by beautiful coral reefs and only one resort on it!

On his first dive at Pandan Island, Frank saw sea turtles grassing the bottom of the beach right in front of our resort, in shallow water. So right after his dive we went snorkelling at the beach and were impressed! Full grown sea turtles (approx. 1.2m/4ft tall), trigger fishes in abbundance and even blue spotted sting rays, all only a few meters from the beach!

Our main purpose was that Frank could go diving at nearby Apo Reef with hammerhead sharks. No hammer heads though but the under water wildlife there was just amazing!
At a visibilty of around 30m/90ft (crystal clear water that is) and to be able to swim with some pretty impressive fishes at beautiful coral walls, which descend to 90m/270ft, Apo Reef made it probably Franks nicest dive so far. Also, diving with sharks was quite a thrill, even if they were harmless reef sharks of only about 2.5m/8ft length.

Unfortunately we don't have pictures of Apo Reef yet. However Frank went diving with a bunch of Czech semi-professional photographers (every second of them has had a pretty nifty under water camera), so photos should be coming at some point.

Our accomodation was very basic here though. The walls were so thin and front doors to the rooms basically non existant, that we could hear our neighbours making all kind of s.ounds during the night ; )

Anyway, the dinner buffet made up for the budget accomodation. We feasted on all kinds of grilled fish in a French-Philippino cuisine style - delicious! And we don't have to mention that especially Frank enjoyed the all-you-can-eat buffet : )

Some turtle videos...