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Philippines

Scuba Diving in El Nido, Palawan

In February 2005, Preston came to visit the Philippines and our first stop (after Manila) was El Nido in Palawan. He didn't have very much time to recover from the jetlag, less than 24 hours after we touched down on the little dirt runway in El Nido on the ITI bush plane we were fifteen meters underwater at Popolcan Island on Palawan's Bacuit Archipelago. This gallery covers some of the...

Palawan Liveaboard Trip to Tubbataha: Exploring A UNESCO Site

In April 2006, I was invited by Tubbataha Marine Park Manager Angelique Songco to join the WWF survey trip to Tubbataha aboard the Minerva liveaboard dive boat. Experiencing Tubbataha with Angelique and her amazing staff of marine park rangers is by far one of the highlights of my entire time spent in the Philippines--thanks again for the invitation, Angelique!

Palawan Blue Water Sea Kayaking: Overnight Island Camping

In February 2006, Kris, Kristen, and I loaded up our sea kayaks and paddled out from El Nido on a perfect sunny afternoon. We planned to do a loop of about 30 miles, traversing the amazing karst limestone islands of the Bacuit archipelago. We almost finished the loop. But unfortnately a huge storm darkened the sky and threatened to blow us to Malaysia, across the South China Sea. Luckily we were...

Palawan Travel Photography: Exploring El Nido

El Nido is probably my favorite town in Palawan, and I've been lucky enough to make the trip back there several times since the first visit with Preston in February 2005. Set in a quiet bay with a view dominated by Cadlao, a large tropical island with steep karst limestone cliffs, the town is home to less than 10,000 people. Still it can feel sort of crowded in places because the dramatic...

Philippine Island Beaches: Eastern Samar Near Guiuan Island

In November 2007 I joined the marine biologists from the Silliman University Marine Lab in Dumaguete on a field survey of the coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangrove forests near Guiuan Island in Eastern Samar. I was assigned to map the boundaries of the coral reefs with a GPS, which basically meant I circled the small islands of the archipelago near Guiuan in a little "bangka" outrigger sea...

Apo Island Clown Fish Underwater Photography

Apo Island is by far my favorite dive site anywhere in the Visayas, and over the three and a half years I lived in Dumaguete I was very lucky to visit the island regularly. The famous "Clown Fish City" dive site within the Apo Island Marine Sanctuary is still one of my favorite dives, and many of the clown fish photos you'll find in this gallery were shot there. Special thanks to Liberty for her...

Palawan Island Hopping: White Sand Island Beaches and Blue Water

Palawan's Bacuit Archipelago looks a lot like the amazing tropical islands around Southern Thailand near Phuket but without the huge crowds. Sapphire-blue water, white sand beaches and towering karst limestone cliffs makes this one of the most photogenic in the entire Philippines. So it's probably no surprise that one of the most popular travel activities around El Nido is island hopping.

Clown fish underwater photography in the Philippines: Best shots

Ok, yes, I like to take underwater photos of clown fish. Maybe it's because they're colorful, photogenic, generally stay in one place, and finally I did like "Finding Nemo". So approximately six years, hundreds of dives, four cameras, and thousands of underwater photos later, these are my favorites. You'll find pleny of "Nemo" look-alikes from the ocellaris variety of clown fish, some pink...

Tubbataha Underwater Photography: Sea Turtles & Tiger Sharks in

Tubbataha is the most amazing reef I've ever been able to photograph underwater. With visibility sometimes approaching 140 feet and home to some of the healthiest populations of large pelagic fish species and sea turtles in the entire Philippines, we saw something incredible on every dive. Highlights included 'Buknoy' the most photogenic green sea turtle I've ever met, and coming across a...

Philippines Surf Travel: Surfing Cloud 9 On Siargao Island

Siargao was my first introduction to surfing (or trying to surf) big waves. I had heard about Cloud 9 and Siargao from my great friend Sande Fuentes in Dumaguete for years, but since visiting Mindanao was off-limits for Peace Corps volunteers I had to wait until I completed my service in 2006 to visit the forbidden land. My friend Corey and I still felt like we were breaking the rules when we got...