It was April 2025 when some Marin Scuba Club friends and I journeyed to new locations (to me) in the Coral Triangle in the Philippine Islands. We flew into Manilla from both Los Angeles and San Francisco. We stayed the night at the Belmont Hotel near the airport then flew to Dumaguete in the morning.

We spent four days of diving at Pura Vida Resort in the town of Dauin, on the island of Negros Oriental, Philippines. There we dove nearby reefs and muck diving and saw beautiful corals on Apo Island.

Following, we spent five days of diving at Magic Ocean in the municipality of Anda, on the island of Bohol, Philippines. It included lots of wall diving and some muck diving. Here are some photos extracted from the video below:

On one of our first dives, we had a young dive guide, Oliver, join us on Apo Island. He was enthusiastic about diving and was actively teaching young local children to dive. Throughout the trip on two islands, we met warm, friendly local people and had outstanding dive crews to shepherd us on amazing adventures. The following video looks better if you view it on Youtube.

Content Notes

All of the videos and photographs were shot by me with the exception of a couple of photos shot by Mike Smith.

All visual content was captured at the trip described above with the exception of three videos which were also shot in the Philippines but at a different location a year earlier. They were used because of their compatibility with the imagery and tempo of the Coral Triangle presentation.

Two of the audio tracks used are from “Step into Liquid”, Richard Gibbs.

One audio track used is from “On the Road Again”, Canned Heat.