Diving in Boracay, Philippines

Boracay in the Philippines together with close by Indonesia's Bali are usually regularly voted by scuba diving mags and publications as among the top ten scuba diving destinations and hotels in the world.

There are usually quite a few diving operators supplying dive safaris too difficult to reach destinations in Boracay such as the Sibuyan Sea, Semirara, Tablas and Romblon. Closer to Boracay are additionally a few world class dive locations catering to divers of differing diving abilities. If you are not a scuba diver, you'll discover snorkelling in Boracay just as exhilarating because of its abundant marine life.

For example, Friday's Rock which lies near to the island's west coast you can find a selection of remarkable coloured soft and hard corals, wrasses, damsel fishes, butterfly fishes,blue tangs, snappers and stingrays, often along with big lion fishes and scorpion fishes camouflaging in rocks and crevices.

You will find two dive locations nearby called Punta2 and Punta1. Punta1 is a shallower dive which is a drop off to about 24m(80ft), whilst Punta 2 starts at 30m and goes straight down to 50m(170ft). Trigger fishes, Groupas, Angel fishes as well as barracuda, sweetlips, tuna and the periodic reef shark populate these 2 interesting dive venues.

Just southeast of Boracay lies the Crocodile Island (so named because of contour of the island and not after the scaly lizard) which is a very well known scuba diving site. It is wall diving here of about 25m(80ft) in depth at its bottom. This diving location is so high in marine life that several species of fish and corals make its home here. There are even a few poisonous banded sea snakes here and quite a few are as long as 2 meters (6.4ft) long. Do be very careful because all sea snakes are venomous and their bites can be deadly.

One more fantastic dive site nearby is Laurel Island. This dive area is for the more knowledgeable scuba divers as the undercurrent here can get pretty strong. Mainly because of this fact, drift diving can be a pleasure here. It is also these powerful currents that encourage corals to open up their exquisite yellow and orange polyps to feed on tiny planktons and marine animals, festooning the walls of an 8m(25ft) tunnel at the tip of this island. You can also find big sponges and handsome gorgonian sea fans at this point.

At northern Boracay is Yapak, which is a deep wall diving beginning at around 30m(95ft) and descending the depth of 60m(190 ft). Yet again, the undercurrent here can be somewhat tricky. This area is the area of larger pelagic fishes such as Barracudas and numerous species of sharks. Sometimes, a Hammerhead shark will go swimming by and enormous Manta Rays are also regularly seen.

Various other intriguing dive locations in the Boracay are Cathedral Cave, Buruanga, Carabao (buffalo), Dog Drift and Black Rock. So if you might be going to the Philippines for a scuba diving trip, why not try scuba diving in stunning Boracay.

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