bshort4
Contributor
This is the trip report I was looking forward to posting the least. Some folks will get butt hurt if you say anything negative about their favorite dive site but I feel I need to include the good with the not so good for the sake of future travelers. This was a last minute decision to travel to Puerto Galera after spending two weeks in Dumaguete and Bohol diving. As I was staying with friends in the Calamba area about a hour south of Manila we decided to make a quick trip to Puerto Galera for four nights and three days diving. I didn't invest a lot of time or energy picking a hotel or dive op like I usually do and that's on me and no one else. I picked a place only 60 steps away from the Muelle pier where one of the ferries arrives in Puerto Galera. I had been to Puerto Galera for a week the previous year and after only one dive we were blown out of the water by a typhoon that ended our diving. I didn't want to stay in the Sabang area as I found it not to my liking on the previous trip. I picked Badladz Dive Resort a small resort right on the bay with fast access to dive sights and very close to town (7 minute walk). I had contacted the dive operations the night before we left to ensure they had room for me if I decided to dive with them--no problem they said--nitrox? Yep again no problem. Took the one hour bus ride to Batangas pier (the bus drops you off right at the pier). Went to the area selling ferry tickets to Puerto Galera--there are several different companies--looked for the next ferry to depart---paid the ticket price--230 pesos and the port fee of 90 pesos and proceeded into the nice waiting area. A 15 minute wait and we left on a Father & Sons Bangka boat for Puerto Galera. The one hour crossing was smooth and the sun had come out so I was hopeful it was a good omen. We made a fast stop at Sabang pier to drop off passengers and then another 10 minutes to Muelle pier where we got off. The hotel was right there and we could see it as we pulled into the pier. Small resort with maybe 15 rooms right on the bay--restaurant and check in and dive shop downstairs and rooms upstairs. I knew for $50 I wasn't getting a deluxe room and that was the case but if would do. Went back downstairs and checked in with the dive shop and dropped off my gear--told I would be the only diver the next day and to show up at 8:30 to gear up and we'd leave at 9 am. Back to the room where the wall a/c was struggling to keep the room cool but a fan on the ceiling really helped out. Went to use the comfort room and the toilet wouldn't flush--I looked in the bowl and the float was broken off and a piece of cardboard was under the fill arm to let the water fill the bowl. I used water from the shower bucket to fill the bowl to be able to flush it--then let the front desk know the problem. It was never fixed. The next morning I got up (early riser at 5 am) and we had no water at all. At six I walked down to front desk and told them about the water and they flipped a switch somewhere and we had water but continued to fill toilet bowl from the water bucket. A hot water heater in the shower was nice for warm showers after diving while it worked. The second day after returning from diving I noticed a electrical smell in the room and the plug in for the water heater had blown out and wouldn't turn on. Reported that--they moved us to a bigger room next door with a working toilet--yippee! Except the shower wouldn't turn on at all or the water heater--bucket shower it is! The next morning again no water, again reported it and instant water--I think we were the only guests in the resort and someone thought no one was there so they shut off the water every night.
Diving---After our free breakfast (good by the way) I'd go to the dive shop and suit up and they'd haul my gear to the small Bangka boat for the short trip to the dive sites. They said I'd be the only diver but a young lady from Canada was getting on board and she had dived with them the day before and they knew she was diving again today--strange. The weather had turned rainy and windy as we went to the dive site. As we got out of the bay the chop was pretty severe so we headed back into the bay for our diving. Vis was pretty poor pretty poor (comparable) at 35 to 45 feet with a lot of silt in the bay from the wind and rain I'm guessing. This was the case for all my six dives there--best vis was maybe 50 plus feet on a dive in front of Sabang when the wind had died down a little. Dive briefs were good--good sketches of the dive site, depth and time. Time 45 minutes at 60 feet? We'll see. After a mix of muck diving and some coral heads that day the guide did signal for the 3 minute safety stop at about 40 minutes into the dive. I still had almost 1,400 psi remaining in my tank. The next dive was the same. Longest dive for the trip was 45 minutes and shortest was 35 minutes--deep dive to 100 feet on a wreck in front of Sabang in a pretty swift current. I talked with the woman from Canada after I second day of diving together and she was wondering why the dives were so so short too. The water was a bit chilly at 76 degrees and all we could think was that our guide was getting cold--he was wearing two wet suits! I admit I was a bit chilled in a 3 mm shorty but then again I'm not diving day after day like our guide. We didn't get to dive the Verdi Passage which is "THE" place to dive there--not enough divers and weather was a bit iffy too. So I was overall a bit disappointed in my diving there with bad weather (not controllable by the dive op) short dives and bad viz. But its the luck of the draw and I'm not counting out diving in Galera again--just wouldn't pick this hotel or dive ops again and hopefully the weather will cooperate next year! Dive prices were good--1,350 per dive and 300 pesos per fill for nitrox 32--they had a analyzer there to check my tanks and record them. We did spend two rainy afternoons at White beach which was about a 25 minute trike ride from our hotel. Decent beach with lots of restaurants and bars, hotels, gift shops and of course all the street vendors trying to sell you stuff and tours. There were several dive ops there at White Beach but its a bit of a longer haul to the dive sites at Sabang--they may dive at other sites closer but I never enquired about that. Badladz resort sits right next to a Coast Guard sub station---I never seen them leave and they played loud music all day starting at breakfast in the morning with karaoke jams every night--lol.
Diving---After our free breakfast (good by the way) I'd go to the dive shop and suit up and they'd haul my gear to the small Bangka boat for the short trip to the dive sites. They said I'd be the only diver but a young lady from Canada was getting on board and she had dived with them the day before and they knew she was diving again today--strange. The weather had turned rainy and windy as we went to the dive site. As we got out of the bay the chop was pretty severe so we headed back into the bay for our diving. Vis was pretty poor pretty poor (comparable) at 35 to 45 feet with a lot of silt in the bay from the wind and rain I'm guessing. This was the case for all my six dives there--best vis was maybe 50 plus feet on a dive in front of Sabang when the wind had died down a little. Dive briefs were good--good sketches of the dive site, depth and time. Time 45 minutes at 60 feet? We'll see. After a mix of muck diving and some coral heads that day the guide did signal for the 3 minute safety stop at about 40 minutes into the dive. I still had almost 1,400 psi remaining in my tank. The next dive was the same. Longest dive for the trip was 45 minutes and shortest was 35 minutes--deep dive to 100 feet on a wreck in front of Sabang in a pretty swift current. I talked with the woman from Canada after I second day of diving together and she was wondering why the dives were so so short too. The water was a bit chilly at 76 degrees and all we could think was that our guide was getting cold--he was wearing two wet suits! I admit I was a bit chilled in a 3 mm shorty but then again I'm not diving day after day like our guide. We didn't get to dive the Verdi Passage which is "THE" place to dive there--not enough divers and weather was a bit iffy too. So I was overall a bit disappointed in my diving there with bad weather (not controllable by the dive op) short dives and bad viz. But its the luck of the draw and I'm not counting out diving in Galera again--just wouldn't pick this hotel or dive ops again and hopefully the weather will cooperate next year! Dive prices were good--1,350 per dive and 300 pesos per fill for nitrox 32--they had a analyzer there to check my tanks and record them. We did spend two rainy afternoons at White beach which was about a 25 minute trike ride from our hotel. Decent beach with lots of restaurants and bars, hotels, gift shops and of course all the street vendors trying to sell you stuff and tours. There were several dive ops there at White Beach but its a bit of a longer haul to the dive sites at Sabang--they may dive at other sites closer but I never enquired about that. Badladz resort sits right next to a Coast Guard sub station---I never seen them leave and they played loud music all day starting at breakfast in the morning with karaoke jams every night--lol.
