Eskaya Resort & Spa, Panglao Island, Bohol

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While at the last Scuba Show in Southern California, we were pleased to see the Philippines Department of Tourism had quite a large booth occupied by native dancers, Department of Tourism staffers, and owners of many Philippines dive resorts.

I noticed one dive resort photo book and start flipping through the pages. It was the most impressive, fanciest, most upscale dive resort I have ever seen. Next I was introduced to Richard and Phoebe Lim, owners of Eskaya Resort and Spa on Panglao Island in Bohol, Philippines.

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Now I had heard plenty about the great diving to be had on Panglao Island, and the unusual nature based activities to be had on the main Island of Bohol that Panglao is almost attached to, so we made arrangements with the Lims for us to come out and review Bohol, Panglao Island and to sample the Eskaya experience.

Bohol is a very large island, situated just east of the more well known Island of Cebu. Although one can fly into Manila, then take a flight from their to Bohol, we elected to fly into the International airport on Mactan island in Cebu.

Mactan Cebu airport is set right in the middle of a smaller island next to Cebu island proper, and adjoins via a large motor vehicle bridge. It is a breeze getting through Cebu Mactan airport, but one of the more unusual things we encountered was a request for a really large money deposit with Customs for our HD video production equipment. I had never encountered this flying into Manila. I did speak with the Customs supervisor, and they said their concern was people flying in with expensive equipment, and selling it without paying import duties. I found it odd they didn’t care about our $15,000 worth of dive gear. I did recall the fees were in the $300-$400 range, but they did say they can accept a credit card as a deposit, which is refunded upon departure.

After they asked who we were, they elected to waive the hefty deposit requirement. Do contact Customs in advance and see what the formalities are, but I suspect they are infrequently enforced unless they know you have expensive electronics, but you don’t want to be the one traveler caught by surprise. My concern is these fees may be an impediment to dive tourism, especially those of us with expensive imaging equipment, whose images and HD videos ultimately promote tourism to the Philippines.

But all in all, the extra 15 minutes dealing with that issue STILL resulted in less time getting out of the airport than crowds at Los Angeles International.

Once out of Cebu airport, taxis are waiting close at hand. Now a word about taxis in many countries. Whatever you do, agree in advance with the taxi driver before you get in that he has a meter, and will be using the meter. Some will say yes to both, then proceed to not turn on the meter. Do not fall for it. Another stunt they pull is if they begrudgingly agree to use the meter, some will try to charge you extra for your baggage, but they will not pull this stunt on you till you arrive at your final destination. My favorite lame excuse they offer up is that my bags are heavy, to which I reply, If you carried them all on your back, it would make a difference, but cars have wheels that roll”.

So start off by asking if they have a meter, and if they say yes, then let them know if they are honest with the meter, you will reward them with a bigger tip for their honesty, and follow through with it. It costs about 200-250 pesos to get from the Cebu Mactan airport to Cebu City. That is only about $4-$6 USD! And remember, this is easy for Westerners to pay, so give a good reward tip for their honesty, these guys are just trying to feed their families, and we can afford to tip well.

You can elect to be taken straight to the ferry terminal. All the taxi drivers know where it is. You can either let Eskaya do all the planning for you, or you can wing it like I do. I figure if we can figure out how to get somewhere new, ANYONE can get there!

Getting around in the Philippines is normally easier for me to figure out than doing so in the U.S.!

As you can see below, the air conditioned ferry terminals are large and uncrowded, and most are playing older but well know American movies on the flat panel TV's.

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Which ferry terminal you go to depends on which ferry you take to get to Bohol, which somewhat depends on what time of the day it is. The terminals are never really crowded, and everyone who works there speaks English, as English is mandatory in all Philippines schools. The Country speaks English better than most inhabitants of Los Angeles!

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The above ferry terminal is the one in Tagbilaran, Bohol, and as you can see, they all have food courts, and some even have massage concessionaires where often times blind people are employed. Give it a go, it might be 1/10th the cost of what it would be in the U.S.! It is even worth arriving too early!

The 3 main ferries are the Oceanjet, the Weesam and the Supercat. I have found the Oceanjet and especially the Supercat to be the newest and cleanest. Their schedules are available online by clicking on the respective names.

The Supercat has a “business class” section which is on the upper floor of their speedy boat, which we elected to try. The seats on the bottom or top deck were similar-all nice. When you get in, take your seat near the flat panel TV screens they always have some American major movie theater shows on. Now I never ever get motion sick, but I have to admit I was forced to watch the remake of Charlies Angels, and it was as close to being nauseous as I have ever been, even the locals were laughing at how bad it was, and considering how much they like American movies, that says a lot!

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All 3 main ferries charge about 750 pesos per person to take you from Cebu to Tagbilaran in Bohol. I think weighing bags is rather silly, as airplanes consume more fuel when heavier, but ships don’t really. Anyway, baggage fees can be in the 200 pesos per bag range when loaded with heavy dive gear. Our video production gear bags and my rebreather bag are always about 75 lbs each, times 4. But 750 pesos is about $16, so don’t sweat it!

All fast ferries have snacks and drinks on board as well as restrooms. I think the Supercats business class is nice while traveling during the day as you can look out at the beautiful seas.

Arrival is at the ferry terminal in Tagbilaran. Hang out on the dock next to the boat and wait for your luggage. On the way out, be sure to carefully throw your peso coins to the kids and mothers on little hand made bangka boats, all of whom seem to have the ferry schedules built into their circadian rhythms!

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Once out of the ferry terminal as seen above right, there is a white building to your left that has all sorts of cool printed info on all the nature based tour destinations on Bohol. This is the Visitor Center. Grab the stuff- it is interesting and will come in handy later, and the staffers are really helpful.

The new Eskaya air conditioned van will be waiting to pick you up right at the ferry terminal. From the City of Tagbilaran, it takes about 45 minutes of driving to Eskaya.

On the way, you are welcome to ask the driver to stop for cool drinks along the way. Eventually you will come to the entrance to Eskaya, where desk attendants will wave the driver in. Down a crushed limestone path you will be taken till your arrival and the turn about in front of the reception office.

Here we were greeted by the office staff who immediately place umbrellas over our head to shade us, then gave is a floral necklaces as expat South African Bollie the resort manager personally greeted us along with staff.

Up the short steps we went into a really classy looking office reception area. All bags were taken to the room for us, and when it was ready, a staffer escorted us with an umbrella to keep us out of the sun again. The only problem I had with the umbrella thing is the staffer that takes you to your room is usually a woman, and where I come from, a gentleman always opens the door for and holds the umbrella for the lady. I usually prevailed, but for women staffers who refused to let me hold the umbrella for her, we reached a sort of diplomatic detente by both of us holding the umbrella for each other.

Each private room is more like a small private, exclusive residence. Eskaya calls them “Balai’s”. We were taken in for the tour, and oh wow, I could not believe where we were going to get to stay!

Let me back up for a moment and say that I have been in some of the fanciest, most exclusive hotel rooms around. Yet when I travel to the tropics, I don’t want to feel like I am in a gaudy Las Vegas hotel room. I want to feel like I am in the Enchanted Tiki Hut at Disneyland, yet with all the modern amenities. Eskaya has that down perfect, and more.

On the Balai steps is a place for umbrellas and shoes, and once in the door, you are on a natural polished wood floor that has a custom wooden cabinet for your hang up style clothes. The Eskaya staffer opened the hanging closet door, to which a light automatically opened up to reveal brand new, lush white robes. Turning around, there is a desk with a granite countertop that has drawers, charging jacks, and an iPhone charging dock. Turning into the main living quarters is a huge bed with the finest, most luxurious new white linens I have ever seen. In front of the bed is another custom local wood cabinet with a mini-bar style fridge packed full of all the goodies. Above that is more electrical outlets, and a nice 40” flat panel HD TV, along with a PlayStation 3 and DVD player.

We won't show you all yet, but just wait till you see the HD video coming soon that includes a complete Balai tour.

I noticed the nice chairs and table next the bed, with a welcome card on it along with fresh cold fruit. That was a really nice touch!

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Passing that, we were taken through a room door to what can best be described as a luxurious semi-outdoor bathroom. A huge fancy European double vanity counter with contemporary German made faucets is against one wall. To one side is the tiled toilet nook, to the other is a huge tiled European style shower with room for 4.

Behind all that is a large, 2 person tiled-in American made jacuzzi tub with seemingly more jets than the U.S. Air Force. Behind that, and at the back of the grounds was a tropical shower set into a bamboo wall, with a bamboo tube used as the shower water fall, and even a bamboo tube handle that operates the cool fresh water that falls to your feet on a smooth black stone natural outdoor ground. Imagine taking an outdoor shower in the buff under a tropical “Swiss Family Robinson” style bamboo waterfall shower in complete privacy. How cool is that?!

Next we were taken back into the room, and out through the large slider patio doors. This leads to a huge wooden decking platform with new lounges and lounge padding, then to a stunning large private pool. The private pool shown below was deep enough so you could swim, but still stand up with your head just above the water if you were inclined. The water temperature was perfect, just enough to cool off in, yet warm enough you could stay in for hours.

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The entire Balai grounds is encircled in lush bamboo and greenery, so if you want to lay out, jacuzzi, shower or swim ala St Tropez, you will have complete privacy.

If it were not for the incredible remaining Eskaya Resort grounds and fantastic natural adventure Bohol and Panglao is legendary for, you may never want to leave your Eskaya Balai, it is that spectacular.

After a refreshing shower, it was off for a tour of the rest of the resort. We were met at the front Balai doorsteps by a staffer with an umbrella, and the tour continued. The large Eskaya Spa grounds and facility was really tranquil. The entrance has a large European glass bowl centerpiece with fresh flower petals floating in it. Off to the side of the decking was a really clean Zen style pond where I was looking at interesting large stone frog sculptures on the rocks...till I noticed one move. They must have had formal training as mimes, as they were the most still frogs I have ever seen.

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The Eskaya Spa has sauna rooms, large steam showers, a huge peaceful massage room, and various facial and other body treatment facilities. And you can bet we were going to sample that later!

The dining area was really nice. Guests can elect either for a closed room with a huge table, our outdoor dining under the enclosure. Sit down and a staffer will greet you with a hot, thick mint wet towel to freshen up with. The menu has all the fine International dishes one would require, so for breakfast we choose the below classic American, smoked ham, eggs, toast and orange juice, well, and American champagne, which is coke.

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Next to this was a huge Infinity edge pool with crystal clear water as seen below. They even had a Cancun style swim up bar island with seats in the water and cold fruit, mixed and bottled drinks.

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We toured the remainder of the grounds on a self-guided tour. There are waterfalls, a hanging bridge as shown above, streams, a really clean, really large private beach, gardens, and to the North, Eskaya's new dive shop that was nearing completion. This had plenty of outdoor rinse showers, gear racks and dive and photo rinse tanks.


After returning to my room, a call to the front desk was made, and my dive gear bags were loaded up into the air conditioned Eskaya van. A quick 10 minute drive down the main road and we turned left and parked at Philippine Island Divers Divers, the dive concessionaire used by Eskaya as see below.

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There my dive gear and underwater video production equipment bags were taken.

I set up all my gear, and had pure oxygen available for my rebreather. For you rebreather divers, cylinders and lime are available from a dive shop right on Alona beach.

At Philippine Island Divers, I was introduced to the staff there, and shown the large dive site maps and asked where we wanted to dive. How about that?! I met up with my buddy and assistant cameraman Randel van Heerden out of Manila. It was nice to see an old chum and general Philippines diving co-conspirator.

I spent the next several hours setting up and checking out all my gear. I hung out with Randel for the early evening sampling the fresh seafood stands along Alona Beach. As always, the Philippines dive destination private vendors have these humongous shrimp, and Alona Beach did not disappoint! It is sort of fun haggling over the price of shrimp, as they have 2 prices, the local price and the tourist price, which they will deny all the way to the grave. Off to the barbecue at the food stand we went as they barbecued the shrimp with a butter garlic sauce. Mmmmmm.

A nice breeze blows throughout Alona beach, especially in the evenings. After dinner there, it was back off to that awesome Balai at Eskaya. Another quick cool shower, and it was right into the middle of that giant bed, and on the HD TV went, channel surfing till something was found, then an early evening worth of sleep.

The next several days we decided to take a tour of the interior of Bohol, something Eskaya will completely take care of for you.

The first order of business was checking out the Tarsiers. These little critters are the smallest primates in the world, and are quite endangered. There are 3 places you can go to see tarsiers. 2 are tourist style affairs right off the side of the road with the tarsiers on small trees in round planters. They animals are quite lethargic during the day, but in the early evening, they become quite active, I saw them leap quite far onto the outside of their main enclosure. I asked about this and was told that feral cats are about in the evenings, and the tarsiers want into their main larger enclosure because they feel safe inside.

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So off we were to the Official Bohol Tarsier Sanctuary, the one I would recommend. This is a large facility with a huge enclosure the size of a half of a football field. Guests are asked to be quiet, and a guide will take you through the enclosure and having made an early morning reconnoiter, will show guests the new resting spots the tarsiers pick each morning. You will see them, and up close enough to ouch, but don’t! Flash photography is prohibited as it is really hard on the eyes, so if you want to get the best shots, bring a tripod so your camera can handle the slower exposures of low light under large leaves fronds.

The Bohol Tarsier sanctuary has an interesting visitor area with lots of facts on the tarsiers and local animals, and a small donation is requested, like 25 pesos, which is about 50 cents in US currency. Put in a dollar, will you?! You will see plenty of HD footage of the Sanctuary and more tarsiers, so hold onto your hats.

Next it was the Loboc River tour in Loboc, Bohol. This is about a 30 minute drive from Tagbilaran or 20 minutes from the Bohol Tarsier Sanctuary.

The Loboc River and Loboc Region is a natural river that winds down from the north of Bohol. Cruises take place every hour, from lunch through the evening. During low season there may only be 1 river cruise boat, but in season, and especially on weekends, there will be up to 8 boats. Guests can wait inside the air conditioned waiting hall and watch TV, or you can tour walk along the embankment till your cruise boat departs.These boats are best described as floating pontoon houseboats with open sides and a roof. A complete buffet is in the center of each boat with dining tables all around. The food is quite good, with a good blend of local favorites and International foods.

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Once the Loboc River cruise boat gets underway, one can just jump in and get your food on your own time frame. There are usually two guys on the boat that provide the entertainment in the form of two acoustic guitars and singing. As usual, locals know the words to American classic rock songs better than Americans do, so join in the singing. I found the singers to be quite talented, and it is fun to join in the singing if you are not shy.

The boat cruises up the river. You will pass the 400 or so year old Church of San Pedro. In the evening it is all dark inside, and from the outside, the lights shining up on the old white walls cause me to remark how it would make a perfect setting for a good scary movie!

Along the banks you will pass small villages and homes where life is more peaceful and traditional. In the evenings the river banks are lined with small white lights. The boat travels about 30 minutes upstream till it arrives at the river headwaters.

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During more seasonal times, near the end of the north part of the cruise, there is a floating platform that the cruise boats dock at on at a time. Supervised by their parents, about 50 local village children sing some traditional songs mixed in with, you guessed it, classic American folk and rock songs accompanied by 20 or so varying type of stringed instruments. As usual, the children are adorable. After 20 or so minutes of that, we had to leave before I wanted to hug them all! They all sang a goodbye song and waived to us goodbye as we headed south back and eventually back to the departure point.

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We really enjoyed the Eskaya excursion to the Loboc River Cruise and recommend it to all, for lunch or dinner.

After the cruise, we had to go check out the Church of San Pedro we had passed by on the cruise. Mass was in session, so in I went and sat in the back. I asked and was told photos in the rear that did not interrupt the service were acceptable. Here is where a zoom lens comes in handy!

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The present Church of San Pedro was first erected by the Jesuit Missionaries and then later was taken over by the Augustinian Recollects. The church complex is composed of the church structure, a three story convent, a bell tower and a mortuary chapel. The Jesuits and the Augustinians shared in the construction of the church in 1734, although records refer to an older structure which may have been incorporated into the church’s convent.

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It was really interesting seeing several hundred year old ceiling and wall paintings, and a centuries old huge pipe organ. One could even sit inside the rear confessionals where people over 200 years ago prayed for forgiveness. I spied several young boys bored with services passing the time by playing in the confessionals during mass. How things don’t change much anywhere or anytime!

After the Loboc River Cruise, it was off to the last destination of the day, the Chocolate Hills. The Chocolate Hills are named so because they ostensibly look like light brown chocolate drops dotting the countryside. Although they are said to turn brown during the dry season, they should change the name to the “Green Hills”, as every time I have seen them, they are green from the lush tropical growth.

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The Chocolate Hills are the Philippines 3rd National Geological Monument and they are proposed for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List, and there is no natural formation like them in anywhere else in the world.

The Chocolate Hills are karst hills believed by geologists to be previously sub-aquatic coral reef structures where the oceans either receded below, or the reefs were pushed up through geologic activity, then rain, wind and erosion carved them into symmetrical formations.

There are several local legends on the origins of the Chocolate Hills. One legend has it that two feuding giants hurled boulders, sand, and rocks at each other for days till they were completely exhausted. In that state they forgot what they were fighting about in the first place, and became friends. When departing, they are said to have forgotten to clean up their battle mess.

Another more romantic legend tells of an extremely powerful, youthful giant named Arogo. Arogo fell in love with Aloya, a simple mortal girl. When Aloya tragically died, Arogo grieved so deeply, in his sorrow he could not stop crying. When his tears dried, the Chocolate Hills were formed.

The Chocolate Hills visitor area has a round about as the vehicle destination drop off point, with parking elsewhere. This allows one to be dropped off, and they will radio your driver when you are ready to leave.

At the central arrival area, there are a host of small mom-and pop shops selling food, drinks, shirts and souvenirs. I grabbed a few Bohol themed T-shirts with Tarsiers on the front. Shirts are about $6-$7 USD, really inexpensive. I did see one store that had puffer fish that were killed, inflated and varnished and sold as curios. Now I am a guest in another country and always conduct myself accordingly, but I did have a discussion with the staffers. Rather than scolding them, being a deeply religious people, I asked them if in their opinion, doing that and selling those animals would make God proud of them, and I left it at that.

I stopped into one of the sandwich shops and got a nice sandwich and cold Coke. I sat down with some of the workers and we engaged in the 3rd most popular Philippines National Sport, which right after texting, then karaoke, is watching Philippine boxer Manny Pacquiao “put the hurt” on an opponent on a TV in the eating area.

To the east of the general area are the steps that lead up to the highest hill in the region. I had my big HD videocamera on a large pro tripod. I did notice a couple of teen guys drudging their way up, huffing like a freight train, so to show them up, I had to run all the way up without stopping, right past them.

Up on the top, the view is magnificent! For miles in every direction one can see a total of 1,776 perfectly formed small, uniform mountains randomly spaced in a 20 square mile region. I spent about an hour up top, just taking in the incredible view before it was time for the hour or so return trip back to Eskaya, where upon return, we enjoyed some fantastic Italian cuisine in the restaurant to soothing sounds of easy listening music.

The following day we had to tear ourselves away from our awesome Balai, so it was back into the deep countryside of Bohol, this time to the North. It is visually rich driving throughout the provinces, as it is interesting seeing a primarily agrarian culture.

Rice fields are everywhere in the flats, farming of which is done all by hand, figuratively and literally as ecologically “green” as can be. Cows are used to till the grounds by hand, and all harvesting is also manually done.

Deep interior roads are frequently made of steamrolled crushed limestone, and every few miles you will see off to the side a giant pile of tan colored limestone gravel waiting to be used. All throughout the countryside roads you will see plastic tarps on the paved road edges with rice being sun dried. And yes, you do have to weave a little to avoid them. Also shown below is some bizarre fruit being harvested by local farmers that could probably be used as a weapon in a last ditch effort.

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Speaking of avoidance, there are peoples dogs and goats and some sheep everywhere. I watched other local drivers that do not stop or slow down at all. Local drivers are just that way. Although our Eskaya driver was quite conscientious of Western sensibilities, if you run into this, whether from a tour operator or taxi driver, just politely explain to them that your trip would be totally ruined if he hit a dog or an animal, and to please slow way down when approaching, and how much Americans appreciate that, even if the animals are experts at avoiding cars, which most are.

After a 90 minute scenic drive with a few stops for cold cokes and to say hello to locals, we finally arrived at the Dagahoy Caves in Danao, about 2.5 hours north of Panglao island.

Now I always enjoy the story behind the nature spectacle, and the Dagahoy Caves in Danao does not disappoint!

The Dagohoy Rebellion was one of two significant revolts that occurred in Bohol, Philippines during the Spanish Era.

Francisco Dagohoy led the longest revolt against the Spaniards in Philippine history. The revolt took the Spaniards 85 years (1744–1829) to quell. Forced labor was one of the causes of the revolt. But what triggered the decision to rise up in arms against the Spanish authorities in Bohol was the refusal of a Jesuit priest to give a Christian burial to Dagohoy's brother.

These strings of events led Dagohoy to make a vow to correct the wrong done to his brother. In the process, he stopped paying tribute to the Spaniards and refused to render the required "forced" labor. He also called upon his relatives, friends and the other residents to do the same and fight for their freedom.

Being so infuriated with the priest, he instigated the people to rise in arms. The ground was fertile for Dagohoy's call. Around 3,000 Boholanos rallied to his call and joined him in a revolt against Spanish injustice and tyranny. Together with other leading members of the Tagbilaran, Baclayon and Dauis principalia, Dagohoy proclaimed the "Independence of Bohol" in the mountains of Talibon and Inabanga.

Dagohoy defeated the Spanish-Filipino forces sent against him and established a free government in the mountains, and had 3,000 followers, which subsequently increased to 20,000. The patriots remained unsubdued in their mountains stronghold, and, even after Dagohoy's death, continued to defy Spanish power.

Up there in the mountains, the revolutionaries established their headquarters, which they fortified with trenches of big rocks, just like the way some upland farmers pile up big rocks on top of one another in their farms. They also built dwellings for their families and cleared up some of the forest areas so that they can plant crops for their subsistence. Since Dagohoy has experience in leading a community being a cabeza de barangay, it is safe to assume that he set some rules and norms to maintain peace and order in the new community. When the other Boholanos heard about the revolt, they expressed their sympathy by joining the revolutionaries or by supplying them with arms and money.

The Francisco Dagohoy Cave in the town of Danao was the headquarters of Dagohoy. One of the many crystal-studded passages within Dagohoy's cave has an underwater route leading to dry land, and it is said that every time Spaniards would search the cave, Dagohoy would swim underwater through this passage to hide in the breathing space.

We weren't going to be doing any underwater swimming, but we sure had a plan to check out the Dagahoy Caves!

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The entire area has been turned into an adventure nature park, with zip lines, scenic overlooks to the river below as shown, and there is white water rafting too, but we wanted to see where the Philippine National Resistance Hero and his men hid from the Spanish invaders.

The Dagahoy Caves are not for the physically timid, there is much climbing to do inside, and it is slippery. Unlike the U.S., if you slip and hurt yourself, there will not be an ambulance chasing lawyer waiting outside with a retainer agreement who will blame everyone but you.

The Caves are full of all sorts of unusual limestone formations that are in really excellent shape.

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The caves are humid, and full of thousands and thousands of bats, and a host of bizarre insects. I could often feel the woosh of wind go right by my head from bats escaping our piercing lights. I asked our professional guides if the bats ever fly into anyone, and they said never, their sonar is too good.

If you look closely at the below photo, you can see a bat in mid-flight. Also shown are some of the bizarre insects to be found inside, including a bat dung eating beetle, a blind cave dwelling cricket, and this bizarre cave dwelling spider, which was huge and spindly.

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The spider was as still as can be, but when I touched it's leg, it had no shortage of speed!

Some of the Dagahoy Caves take hours to explore, some can be done in an hour. Some you will get wet up to your neck, but the one we were in kept us out of the water. Upon our exit, a rain had started and it was dark, so we stopped to take a photo of our expert cave guides, and once we started off again, I noticed this huge, fat millipede that was about as big around as my thumb, so a quick photo and we talked about the Boholano names for the bizarre we insects we saw.

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Eventually we returned back at Eskaya in the late afternoon. Dinner was served up, this time some huge barbecued garlic shrimp, my favorite before retiring to watching the Discovery Channel in on the flat panel TV.

The next morning it was off to Alona beach via Eskayas aircon van for some diving! Gear was loaded up by Bohol Divers staff, and off we went to see what all the ruckus was about Bohol diving!

Most of Alona Beach is shallows out to at least a 100 yards, where at the end you may be in only 20 feet of water. The waters are so clear it seems like 10 feet deep. There one normally descends down a fairly steep wall to the bottom which is about at 70-90 feet in depth. There are lots of finger crevices along the way, and like most Philippines dive destinations, the wall was just covered with an incredible variety of hard and soft corals, invertebrates, crustaceans, fish, etc.

The dives along Alona Beach’s wall finish up in the shallow end of the reef where it meets the wall, and you can do your safety stop while diving, something I always find cool. Here we ran into a mooring line that was about 1.5” in diameter. I spied a huge black frogfish up about 5 feet off the bottom on the line, and I placed my had near him without touching him. He decided to leave his perch and descend down to the bottom sand that is interspersed with reef. I backed swam away in a big circle and fiddle a bit with my videocamera settings, and her come Frankie the Frogfish, waddling along the bottom straight towards me. I was already kneeling on the sand, and he swam right up to my knees, then rotated skywards and swam up to my chest, where he promptly settled on my chest facing towards my chin. I guess I was the coolest black around he or she could find, and there it sat, in all its glory. For humor I made petting motions as if I were stroking its back like a cat...Now how often do you get to do a safety stop along with a huge frogfish on your chest?!

After lunch, we headed back out to a dive spot that had a large bangka wreck at about 100 feet in depth. Just to the east of it is a flat area with garden eels everywhere. For the life of me I cannot get close to these guys with my video HID lights on. So since my videocam is slightly negatively buoyant, I set it down in the sand right in front of the previously exposed garden eels, then swam away.

Now there is a certain leap of faith with leaving $20,000 worth of underwater video gear at 100 feet and swimming away 50 feet, but apparently the garden eels had my number, and Randel my assistant cameraman just shook his head watching my antics from afar. You should see his garden eel footage.

Early evening we did a night dive along the same wall, and this is my favorite. Right away I noticed there were these small red gorgonians about 1-2 feet tall, and most had a commensal crab on it that had the same polyps on its body as the gorgonian. Now these weren’t just camouflage mimicry, these tiny crabs actually remove live polyps from the gorgonian and place them permanently on their shell, where they continue to thrive.

I got some great HD macro video footage of these characters. Once while videotaping one, I noticed something odd in the viewfinder slink its right by, but it was just a fleeting glimpse and I didn’t catch what it was as I was doing some really tight macro on one of these unusual crabs. A minute or two later, this thing reappears and gets stuck right on the gorgonian. I pulled my eye away from the viewfinder and here was this meter long colonial salp about the diameter of a pencil, where each one of the individual salps come together in a colony and rythmicly pulsate as a means of rather aimless locomotion. it looks like a long string of clear jelly with 50 dark brown dots in the center of each individual clear linked animal. You can see the tiny rows of cilia on each salp as it pulsates them to propel the colony. My previous reaction would have been to try to free it from being caught up in the gorgonian, but salps and ctenophores have almost no structural integrity and would be damaged or killed if touched, so I let it do its thing while videotaping it, and within 30 seconds it had freed itself.

There were numerous other types of gorgonians that were less polyp laden, and looked more lattice-like in nature. 1 our of every 5 had this crab that looked sort of like a cross between an arrow crab, but with a proportionally much smaller body. Some were the size of a large coin.

I also ran into this bizarre looking crab with jagged legs about the size of a half dollar piece. The poor guy had a flat piece of dead gorgonian stuck on his body as he walked along the reef. Always one to pick up even worms and bugs that may get stepped on, I held my videocam housing off the the side with one hand, and with the other, tried to remove the dead piece of seafan stuck to the crab. It was quite difficult as it seemed really stuck, but I finally removed and placed it about a foot away. Now I zoomed in to get some good macro footage of this bizarre stilt-legged crab, and what does he do? He runs straight over the the dead piece of seafan and he has the thing hoisted back over the top of him in 2 seconds flat! I looked close and it used its two rear legs which seemed to be strangely pointed upwards with two hooked ends to hang onto it.

Off it scurried, and I now realized it wasn’t stuck, it was deliberately holding this latticed dead seafan piece over the top of its body like some sort of Aquatic Roman Gladiator shield. How cool! I have since learned they are called carrier crabs, who will grab all sorts of objects and hold them over tis body, from spiny sea urchins, anemones, stinging jellyfish held upside down, etc.

On one night dive I forgot to full charge my dive lights, and they went dead after about 45 minutes. I indicated to our dive guide and Randel my buddy to continue the dive, and I just hung out close and watched them looking for suitable critters to shoot. As I got further from them, and when their lights were not pointed towards me, as my eyes adjusted I could actually see fairly decent just from the moonlight penetrating through the clear Alona waters. Since I make a habit of never crowding other divers, especially the ones with enough brains to fully charge their lights, I amused my self for the next 15 minutes swatting the water in front of me and watching all the phosphorescent animals put on a green light show.

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After our guide and Randel made their obligatory safety stop, it was back to Philippine Island Divers where we had some cold drinks and dinner like my dish above available at many of the Alona Beach al-fresco diners while Randel and I shared stories of the days worth of diving till Randel headed off to his accommodations at a different resort owned by his friends.

Back at our Eskaya Balai, one can just grab a cold drink, throw all your clothes in the laundry bag, and after a quick shower, go through the sliding patio door and go for a cool night swim in your own completely private pool, where only the occasional and similarly nude bullfrogs will stare.

The following day we planned on taking Philippine Island Divers' larger dive bangka to Balicasag Island, a 30 minute trip from the Alona beach area. Even the local kids were having an adventure too!

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As I boarded the large dive bangka, once again one of the staffer girls from Bohol Divers came running out calling my name; “Mister Dave, did you forget this?!” She must have done that at least once a day holding up a dive glove, a spare battery, or some other essential item. She was really a sweetheart for always thinking about our dive experience, and I found that personal attention quite endearing. All the staff who stayed back at the dive shop always asked us how our dive went and what we saw. We always felt like we were one of the family sitting on the table in front of the shop drinking the cold drinks they would always offer and bring us after a dive.

Balicasag has just amazing water clarity, with half a dozen popular dive sites. The whole small island is encircled by a medium sloped coral reef structure. Some sites are known for regular barracuda cleaning stations under the right tide settings. On the frontside I saw several carpet anemones that were at least a meter in diameter, they were huge! I always scull my hand near the edges so any detached portion of the anemone might well up, often revealing hiding porcelain crabs.

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The above photo is what you will see when your bangka approaches Balicasag Island.

During our mandatory 1 hour break between dives, Randel and I jumped off the bangka dive boat and swam to shore. Now we were told the island management would extract a 100 or so peso fee for coming onto the island, but that didn’t happen. We had an outdoor lunch on the island cooled by the breeze while we watched smiling students from a hotelier trade school be put through their paces.

Now we had spied this tall aluminum lighthouse structure in the center of the island, so we walked to it and it was all enclosed with wire link fencing. We asked around, and we were told it was owned by the Philippines navy, and that a detachment was on the island somewhere having lunch. We were escorted around for about for 20 minutes looking for them, and we finally were introduced to the navy Captain and his mates. We told them we were producing a Pinas dive tourism promo video, and the next thing you knew, were were invited for lunch, which we had to decline as we were already stuffed to the gills from our previous lunch, but it is just another in a long list of instances of the type of warm hospitality you can expect from total strangers who after 1 minute are your friends. Permission was granted to enter the lighthouse, and we unlocked the water tight access bulkhead at the bottom and climbed several hundred feet up inside the aluminum lighthouse structure. The view from the top tiny platform was stunning! You could see the island 360 degrees. Too bad I couldn’t swim with my large HDvideocam, but we did manage to take lots of panoramic photos from the top of the lighthouse as shown below.

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Walking back through the village, we saw little smiling wide eyed children running around naked without a care in the world...you could never let your kids do that in Los Angeles! We also saw several villagers working on the small wooden bangka shown below. You could just see the pride in the way they worked, and if you saw the craftmanship we did, you would know why. Considering they lacked table saws with laser edge guides, powered routers, planers, drum sanders, edge finishers, etc, you sure couldn’t tell from the look of their work.

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Back we eventually made it to the dive bangka for the 3rd and final dive of the day at Balicasag.

After a long days worth of diving, there is nothing better than taking an outdoor private tropical shower, then retreating to your private jacuzzi shown below for a blissful relaxing jacuzzi massage on your private Eskaya Balai grounds.

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The following day we decided to hang out at the Eskaya Resort for the day and explore the resort in the morning, then in the afternoon spend some times at the Eskaya Spa.

In case you want to swim in a pool much larger than your private pool on your Balai grounds, there is the Eskaya main Infinity pool with a swim up bar. We walked around the grounds and found the waterfall and stream than that made its way down to the shores, and we checked out the hanging suspension bridge over the lush tropical plants.

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Everywhere you turn, there is a nice bench and tables, some new padded lawn chairs with fresh new towels, or some place to stop, relax, and take in the amazing views of the grounds and scenery. Relax on the beach under shades, and you will be greeted by a staffer offering cold fruit or mixed drinks. You want a snack or meal brought to your resort grounds resting place? No problem.

Next it was time to sample the Eskaya Spa experience. Grab your lush new robe from your Balai, and head over to the huge spa. There were those large frogs again in the Zen pond, who obviously also had some pleasure in mind.

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After a shower, it was a steam room, followed by a cool shower, then into the hot sauna. Another quick shower and it was time for a 90-minute Hilot kaayo or a Swedish style relaxing massage to melt you into a state of bliss as you drift off to happy places to the tune of quiet tropical music.

All manners of spa treatments are available at Eskaya Spa, so even non-divers can spend a day at the spa relaxing, getting a facial, body scrub, seaweed wrap and all the treatments and pampering one would find at a high end European spa. Does she look like she is enjoying the massage in the photo below?

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In the evening it was a stroll along the quite Eskaya beach, where adorable local village children occasionally walked by on their way home.

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We enjoyed the magnificent sunset at Eskaya beach, and snapped a few final photos of an incredible Eskaya experience.

I must say, the Eskaya Resort and Spa was the most luxurious dive resort we have ever been to, or will probably ever visit, and the diving, nature related and cultural experiences they offer throughout Bohol was an experience of a lifetime.

As soon as we can get a hi resolution graphic of the Eskaya logo, we will finish up the 22 minute long HD video of the entire Eskaya Resort and Spa experience, including all the Eskaya inland tours discussed above, the fantastic Eskaya Balai's, grounds and Eskaya Spa experience, and of course the incredible diving of Alona Beach and Balicasag, with some AMAZING marine life footage.

https://vimeo.com/47374588

Thanks Dave! Excellent report! Reminds me of the trip I had to Panglao last month! Waiting for your video footage! :)

Excellent report. Diving seems to be very awesome. Prices for 2 boat dives are $160 and that may be a bit high for the military group that I will try to sell the package to. That is almost as high as Palau. Perhaps they can give me a break for a group. I will ask. In the meantime I guess I will continue to shop around for some middle range hotel and dive package in PI. Thank you very kindly for this link and your help!

Tarzana

Thanks for the report. It looks wonderful. A dream place..

Thanx,

Sea Explorers is popular, Bohol Divers may either not be there anymore or under new ownership.