Anilao
Never miss a night dive. Never. Ever. You never know what you'll find on a night dive in Anilao. The Pier, Arthur's Rock, Twin Rocks, Secret Bay - these and other sites have plenty of weird stuff out and about. Common and mimic and blue ring octopus, bobtail squid, magnificent and common cuttlefish. Spiny devilfish, stonefish, waspfish, a variety of scorpionfish including rhinopias. Stargazers and flatheads hiding under the sand. Anemones, some actively feeding, all enjoying the dark. Crabs and shrimps peeking at you from everyplace. An astonishing assortment of nudibranchs, including some mind-blowing mimics of various plants and corals. Flatworms and various mollusks out looking for love, or a meal, or both. Bobbit worms standing there with their jaws wide open, waiting for something to blunder into them.
But don't miss the daytime dives either. Most of the time, you are muck diving. No matter how bleak things may look from a distance at a particular site, sand and silt as far as you can see with only an occasional island of "life", take your time and look around slowly. There is plenty of life waiting for you to discover. Other sites may have coral rubble and nothing taller than a few inches standing above the plain. But critters are all over. Ghost pipefish, ornate and robust and hairy. Frogfish, seemingly scattered all over, some quite well camouflaged against the sand or a small outbreak of life among all that sand. Seahorses and pygmy seahorses, tiny pipefish anchored to a blade of seagrass. All types of dragonettes. Nudibranchs, some just out for a stroll, others having a meal of a sponge or some bryozoans or some coral ... or making a meal of another nudibranch. Or maybe enjoying the company (wink wink) of another nudibranch of the same species. Just look around carefully, and be astonished by what you, your dive buddies, and your divemaster find.
But then there are the lovely reefs of Anilao: Sombrero, Layag Layag, Mainit's Point, Beatrice, and many others. Corals of uncountable types as far as you can see. Clear blue water. All types of small fish flitting about. Anemonefish of nearly every type, inhabiting a stunning number of types of anemones. And still, there are small things to look for, if the beautiful reef hasn't distracted you.
The water temps when we visited in April/May were typically 82 degrees F, but some sites had upwellings of colder water at 78 F, and there's always the chance that you'll go deep enough to find some specific critter that you'll encounter a significant thermocline. Usually, there is no major current to deal with at most mucky sites, but some of the more clear water, wide angle sites could have strong currents if they are dived at the wrong time. Your topside activities will consist of whatever your resort has to entertain you, and walks through some of the little villages and small towns during your surface intervals. That's it. The Filipino people are wonderful hosts, happy to see you and glad to help you. And the Philippines are a bargain destination, when you consider the quality of diving.
If a diver is looking for lots of big fish, maybe even some pelagic life, and diving in clear blue water ... Anilao is not a suitable destination. If a diver wants to enjoy lots of shopping and nightclubs and casinos with major entertainers when not diving, Anilao will disappoint. If a diver really want to dive, and is looking for a place that has lots of critters, some really weird stuff, and is willing to look around in muck and sand and coral rubble carefully to find these strange animals .... Anilao is a destination that should be visited. And then visited again.
