h3o
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I was in Yap earlier this month and it was awesome! Plenty of Mantas of course but the viz was lower than usual at Mi'il Channel (about 20'25') according to the dive boats. There were definitely a lot though, I must have saw about 15 the whole time I was there. And they all swam really close, like a foot or two over your head. Besides the Mantas at Mi'il channel, I strongly recommend diving the southside of the island... particularly the drift dives between Yap Caverns, Magic Kingdom, Gillman Wall and Lionfish wall. The coral life was very healthy and colorful (except for parts of Magic Kingdom that were damaged from a typhoon a few years ago). The viz was really good at the south side sites, over 100'. The fish variety was great too. We also saw several white & black tip reef sharks, schools of barracuda, schools of jack trevally and tuna, morays, and lionfish. The underwater landscape at the south side was amazing, even if there weren't any fish, just the healthy wall/reef would have been reason enough. A guy I met there said just those south side dives were far better than any dive he has dove at GBR. I dove with Beyond the Reef most of the time and the service and staff were very good and friendly. I also dove with Yap Divers for one day (manta ray bay hotel), only because they offered underwater video service for $60. Out of the two though, I would recommend Beyond the Reef. The service at BTR was a lot more personal and the boats were not crowded at all. There were only 3 of us diving plus the divemaster. As with Yap Divers, they have a little bit of a bigger boat but there were at least 12 other divers. I recomended the south side to other divers on the Yap divers boat, and when they asked the guy in charge if they could go there the next day, he seemed very reluctant to go and told them it would be pointless because they were just there yesterday(the same day I went and the viz was great) and the viz was bad. It seemed he didn't want to go to the southside because it was a 45 min. boat ride and also probably because the choppy water. The water was however choppy on the south side, but not too bad. The video filming and editing however was pretty good, and pretty cheap too considering he followed and filmed just me for 2 dives.
I also did a Macro dive and a Mandarin fish dive. The macro dive was cool, lots of cool looking nudis and little wierd stuff. Seahorses, pipefish, crocodile fish, and a leaf fish. The Mandarin fish dive was great too, we saw at least 20 of them. They were also mating, they would swim out of the coral briefly side by side and you could see them shoot out their sperm and eggs. It was like watching a nature documentary right in front of you.
As far as accomodations, there are only a handful of choices in Yap. I stayed at Oceanview hotel, which had the cheapest rate at $40 per night. The rooms weren't too bad... motel style, not too small, two beds, bath, fridge, desk and air conditioning. It was also convenient being located in the center of town and being just walking distance to the restaurants(all 4!) and dives boats. There definitely isn't much to do in Yap other than dive... Surprisingly, there are only about 3 beaches on the entire island, all a 4560min drive from the main town. Most of the water's edges are atoll-like or lined with mangrove trees. At night, the only other place really to hang out besides your hotel room was one of the four restaurants in town. One of them, the MNUW (manta ray bay hotel's restaurant) is a huge 3 story pirate ship type boat that is permanently parked at Manta Ray Bay Hotel(right across the street from Oceanview hotel). All in all, the town is VERY quiet and the Yapese people are very friendly. The guy at the hotel even hooked us up with some 4:20 free of charge =) Most of the people that I met were only in Yap for a few days and continuing on to Palau. Continental Airlines' route does a little island hopper loop from Guam>>Yap>>Palau. I would skip Guam though and add more days in Palau or Yap. The diving in Guam is decent, but nothing compared to Yap and Palau.
I also did a Macro dive and a Mandarin fish dive. The macro dive was cool, lots of cool looking nudis and little wierd stuff. Seahorses, pipefish, crocodile fish, and a leaf fish. The Mandarin fish dive was great too, we saw at least 20 of them. They were also mating, they would swim out of the coral briefly side by side and you could see them shoot out their sperm and eggs. It was like watching a nature documentary right in front of you.
As far as accomodations, there are only a handful of choices in Yap. I stayed at Oceanview hotel, which had the cheapest rate at $40 per night. The rooms weren't too bad... motel style, not too small, two beds, bath, fridge, desk and air conditioning. It was also convenient being located in the center of town and being just walking distance to the restaurants(all 4!) and dives boats. There definitely isn't much to do in Yap other than dive... Surprisingly, there are only about 3 beaches on the entire island, all a 4560min drive from the main town. Most of the water's edges are atoll-like or lined with mangrove trees. At night, the only other place really to hang out besides your hotel room was one of the four restaurants in town. One of them, the MNUW (manta ray bay hotel's restaurant) is a huge 3 story pirate ship type boat that is permanently parked at Manta Ray Bay Hotel(right across the street from Oceanview hotel). All in all, the town is VERY quiet and the Yapese people are very friendly. The guy at the hotel even hooked us up with some 4:20 free of charge =) Most of the people that I met were only in Yap for a few days and continuing on to Palau. Continental Airlines' route does a little island hopper loop from Guam>>Yap>>Palau. I would skip Guam though and add more days in Palau or Yap. The diving in Guam is decent, but nothing compared to Yap and Palau.
