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Philippine Paradise Divers7,107 Islands of Diving Heaven (yes, we counted). The meeting place for those interested in some of the best diving in the world - the Philippines.
Hi folks, I'm planning to go on a diving trip to Southern Leyte in May. Was looking at the web and found Peter's dive resort. Anyone stayed there before? What's the accomodation like? Looks like the standard diving eco diving cottages on the webpage.
Also, is May a good time to see any whalesharks in that area? Please advise.
There have been several previous threads on Southern Leyte, so you should try doing a search. Here is one of the threads from before: How about Southern Leyte??.
When I stayed at Peter's he was just building his cabins and I stayed in the main house, so I can't comment on the cabins, but I would anticipate they are relatively basic. The diving was fantastic and my understanding is that the season for sighting big stuff is Jan-Jun, so if you are there in May you should be OK.
Enjoy Southern Leyte, I'm jealous!
Drew
__________________
"...cause everyone here is just more than
contented to be living and dying in three quarter time. " - Jimmy Buffett
Hi folks, I'm planning to go on a diving trip to Southern Leyte in May. Was looking at the web and found Peter's dive resort. Anyone stayed there before? What's the accomodation like? Looks like the standard diving eco diving cottages on the webpage.
Also, is May a good time to see any whalesharks in that area? Please advise.
I was there last fall (Nov). Accomodations are ok, nothing fancy, close to the shore. You want to try and get the units furtherest away from the kitchen/bar area. (more quiet) Beds are HARD! no hot water (I didn't need any). Units are clean and fairly large, with celing fan. Really a nice small sleeper. Food was tasty, varied menu with large portions, beer was cold and diving was good, excellent coral, small critters, good viz, didn't see any whale sharks. Be careful around the marine sanctuary dive site. MAJOR downcurrents, you won't die, at least I didn't. However getting slammed from 60 feet to 130 was unexpected. Just remember your skills and you'll be ok. I really liked the place except for the hard beds. Extremely relaxing, laid back, no tourists, dive personnel and entire staff friendly and accomodating. YOU WILL HAVE A GREAT TIME. By all means do it if you want excellent diving at righteous prices.
...a very experienced German guy who has been diving for 30 years around the world and now settled down in Padre Burgos, pretty close to Pete's resort. Gunther has build four bungalows on the beach that you can rent, his wife will cook you food and breakfast. I think that Peter's place is a bit better situated but do not know for sure. You can check his webpage www.leyte-divers.com.
Met an instructor in Thailand, Koh Lanta, last November who has worked for Gunther. This guy has dived a lot in the region and reckons that it has some worldclass spots, especially the walls of Limasawa. When I was with Gunther in 2003 his boat was to small to make the crossing in anything but perfect weather, not sure whether this has improved yet...
We saw one whaleshark in July - it was trapped in a tunatrap, we went it with a bunch of 8 divers to try to get it out. Failed miserably (fantastic experience though), next day it had decided to swim out itself. Too bad for the Chinaman that was already bidding for the fish's fin :-> The closer to March / April you get the better the chance, reportedly.
Let me know if you want further details - it is great area but remote - in July I was the only tourist in the area, I think. So if you travel alone, bring plenty of books and a 60gb iPod filled with whatever you like.
My understanding is Gunther is located on the west side of the peninsula a bit north of P Burgos and primarily dives Limasawa (which would be a bit of a boat trip) and never goes around into Sogod Bay. Peter's is located on the east side of the peninsula just past P Burgos and dives Sogod Bay and Limasawa. Peter's house reef is pretty amazing for a house reef and the marine sanctuary across Sogod Bay (which Peter was involved in founding) is good as well.
Drew
__________________
"...cause everyone here is just more than
contented to be living and dying in three quarter time. " - Jimmy Buffett
Hi there
Peters dive is ok but very commercial and basic and now they are concentrating on large groups of hong kong people ( nothing wrong with chinese) but i feel more interested in taking money than giving the diver the ultimate experience.This last year there was no whaleshark however peter stil did tours well that says it all.I met some guys in the centre of padre burgos called gary and mick they also have been there a long time and seem to know their stuff on the area they was building a new resort and they said will be ready in the summer their web is philippine scubadiving, Philippine Scuba diving, Scubadiving in the philippines,Scubadivng southern leyte, whaleshark, padre burgos scuba diving in the philippines. so check it out .
I dove with Sogod Bay last year. The diving is one of the best dives that I have done anywhere. The Coral had just about eveything in that bay and the visiability was great! The resort was very clean, though I felt it was a very peaceful way to get away from everything.... I played basketball with the local kids to pass my time, as I traveled alone...
its a sleepy town but it holds a underwater treasure that is yet to be discovered.
Southern Leyte Divers: Don’t go there, or read this before you do.
Went to Leyte Philippines this past month (Feb 28-Mar 6) and stayed at Southern Leyte Divers Resort. They said I had a room at the "House" What a house of horrors that turned out to be. Arrived after a 26 hour flight around 3pm. Had a well cooked dinner, and kept waiting for the room to be finished. At 9pm, we were told we had to walk across a dark dirt bridge, across the highway to a private home because that was what all they had left to say in. When we got here, the house was empty of furniture except for a few guest rooms; our room had 3 beds shoved in it, with no place to put our suitcases. There was one full mattress, with one pillow, and no sheets or towels. After saying we needed sheets, towels and another pillow, we received a plastic table cloth as a bottom sheet, a top sheet and 2 pillows with dirty pillow case. I then had to beg for 2 towels and clean pillow cases. Which I finally got. While waiting we went into the bathroom, which was a catastrophe, and did not have toilet paper, nor anything else, like hot water. Only cold. We then had to beg for toilet paper. So we get a roll, which we put in the bathroom, but it disappeared the next day. So we had to beg again for toilet paper then again. Bur silly us, no water was to be had that morning, so no need for toilet paper.
Then I have to tell you about the dust in the closet about an inch thick, no hangers. And the bugs, since there were no windows and no screens in them, we were eaten alive, (I slept in an inch of deet) but still had 1000, bites by the end of the night, and after 4 nights I had had it, and was marked from head to toe. The people who stayed at the resorts had no bites.... I'm thinking the mattress had bed bugs as well.
The diving in Leyte was beautiful, but I strongly suggest finding a different resort, the owner, Gunter, didn't seem to care that we were living in such shabby conditions, and said that I should write a letter complaining to the company that booked my reservation.
I would have hope your first post was an inquiry to good accommodations in Southern Leyte not the post trip/4,000 insect bites later report above. I'm surprised you still lasted four nights with that kind of accommodation.
Glad you found ScubaBoard and the PPD forum. Welcome aboard, you can't go wrong again.
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