Dumaguete, Philippines is a pretty good distance from the US but well worth the travel to get there if you're in to muck diving and macro photography. The marine life was incredible and way too much variety to mention them all. I went there with a list of 25 different species to photograph and I got them all but 2 and one I missed was there I just ran out of air.

My favorite sites were Ceres, and both Cars sites - Ceres for the Hairy Frogfish and Nudibrachs and Cars for the various Pipefish and Tiger Shrimp. I went to Deep Cars twice to make sure I had at least one good photo of the Tiger Shrimp. But to be honest all of the sites were great we saw at least one different creature at every site.

There's not a whole lot to do between dives but that's not really a problem when you're making 5 dives a day, but we did find time to go to the local market (only open Wednesdays). Don't skip it! The sights, sounds, and smells are a once in a life time experience.

It's also well worth giving up a day of diving to go snorkeling with the Whale Sharks in Oslob and if muck diving gets to be too much you take a day trip Apo Island for some amazing reef diving and turtle encounters.

All in all a great place to spend 10 plus days shooting macro marine life.