Southwest Negros

Mabuhay!

Off to Cebu in 10 days and doing my research for places that have great diving and are not Moalboal, Cabilao, Malapascua, Alona Beach, Apo Isl or S. Leyte - as I have dived these before and know how good these are. (Recently inquired about Bantayan on the board - great place but no diving in its vicinity, it turns out).

Just bumped into diving around Sipalay on the Sulu Sea coast of West Negros. There are a number of places around there, all claiming that the area is the new Boracay. Most resorts list 20 plus dive sites around Sipalay - anyone on the board has been diving there? How do they compare to the much better know sites in the Visayas? Have only two weeks in the area and would love to just try them out, but it will take a total of three days of travelling from my base at Alona Beach and want to "hedge" my position (want to go diving in Leyte again as well). All thoughts much appreciated!

Best regards - Arie.

I'm not sure if this will be at all helpful, but I spent about 6 weeks in southwest Negros about 3 years ago, working with a conservation organization doing dive research. We were staying on Danjugan Island, which was uninhabited at the time and privately owned. Since our research concluded (3 years worth of work) it has been converted into a high end eco-tourist resort, or at least that was the plan. The diving there was awesome because during the course of our work a marine sanctuary was established, modeled on Apo. Perhaps if you do a search of Danjugan Island you'll get some helpful info. It's about 2 hours south of Bacolod. I'd definitely go back.

Good luck.
Beck