Although this was a really busy semester, the long(ish) term break gave the chance for us to make a short (3 diving days) trip to Anilao. It's convenient to get there, a short 2 hour flight and a 2.5 hour car ride to the resort. We stayed in Altamare Dive and leisure resort. This place felt more like a relaxation resort for locals, and not so much for divers. We were the only two divers there during the stay. The room are ok, perhpas the least spacious or comfortable among the three that we have now experienced in Anilao. We had to switch rooms twice over 5 days: once because the room had no hot water, and again because they wanted to shift us to a better (sea-view) room. The setting is not bad - good view, large open area up front with open-air seaside dining porch. The beach in front is mainly a pebble beach, and gets totally submerged at high tide.
The Food
We were booked for a full board stay, and they originally gave us a "diver's menu" - which had rather limited choice. We chose instead to just order
from the a la carte menu. But in the end, it turned out that our agent had charged us (and paid) sufficient to cover all of this. There were other
such small things that makes us unlikely to return to this resort. The food is a mix of western and local dishes, and is ok, but nothing special
(oh, the grilled fish dishes were pretty good). The highlight for me was the fruit plate, which had the most wonderful mangoes, melons and watermelon.
Diving:
This was an unfortunate trip for Kitty, who got sick almost immediately after the first dive. So I was dving alone for the rest of the days.
This is ok in Anilao, since all resorts arrange single guide for each buddy pair. So I was going out with my guide, who was actually quite good.
The water, at around 24-26 degrees, was slightly cooler than I expected. Not much current in most dives. I didn't record the dive sites, except that
I did secret bay couple of times. Typically, in Anilao one just tells the guide what they want to see, and they take you where the critters are.
The mandate this time was "hairy" - and we saw fair number of hairy frogfish and a hairy rhinopias. As always, there are plenty of nudibrachs.
I did a total of 9 dives (two each morning, back for lunch, and one in the afternoon). It was a bit cold, so I didn't do dusk/night dives.
About the photos
Gear: This is the second trip with my new Sony A7 IV camera in Nauticam housing, and a subsea +10 wet macro. Still a lot to learn. I used a single Inon Z220 strobe. Kitty has decided to switch to a GoPro Hero 12, but this trip has no footage from that.
