Dauin was a breath of fresh air, literally! Our flight out of Manila to Dumaguete was a short 1h45m, and we arrived in the dark of night. Straight away we liked the island vibe, especially because there were no traffic lights or taxis and there were traffic conductors at many of the intersections waving their hands around. We arrived at Liquid Divers and were welcomed by an amazing team who took our heavy backpacks and gave us a welcome drink at the bar….we knew then we were going to like this place. Our accommodation was a quaint little cottage, very clean and rustic.
The food menu has been great with lots of options of filipino as well as western dishes. The staff has been very accommodating to our vegan diet as well.
Day 1 of Scuba Diving
We got started quite early at around 7am. We had to watch about 3 hours worth of video whilst taking notes, before taking 3 quizzes back to back. There was a 75% pass rate and we just barely scraped through as there was so much information to take in. I left the classroom feeling disheartened not sure if this was for me, but after Aaron made a list of all the things I was good at including being organized and a good cat-mum, and after a lizard nearly fell on Aaron’s head which made me laugh a lot, I felt better. In the afternoon we completed 2 confined water dives, which went really well, and in the evening made two new friends (1 from Canada, and 1 from the Netherlands), so went to bed full and happy.
Day 2 of Scuba Diving
We woke up bright and early at around 5.30am and went for a stroll down to the beach. We saw some cute small goats wandering around eating the resort grass. The sun was just coming up but it was blocked by clouds, it was still quite beautiful though. After breakfast we got ready for our first open water dive. We did a shore entry which is basically just walking into the water and diving from there. I spent most of the time right on top of the instructor as I was still figuring out my bouyancy and still a bit anxious. The second dive, however, was amazing and we were lucky enough to see some rare creatures such as flamboyant cuttlefish and a wunderpus octopus. We were on such a high, we decided to extend our training to complete the Open Water certification, which will allow us to dive up to 18m with a buddy on our own. It turned out to be a super long day as we had to watch a couple more videos, write a quiz, and do two more confined water dives back at the resort. We were in bed by 8pm.
Day 3 of Scuba Diving
Another bright and early start! Today was going to be our final exam for our PADI Open Water certification as well as diving at Apo Island. We had breakfast and then headed out to Apo Island at around 830am. There was a bit of a delay before we left , so during this time we took our final exam which was 50 questions. It was marked right then and we both passed! This set a good tone for the rest of the day.
Our first dive we saw some turtles, with one sleeping on the sea floor looking snugly in some seaweed. Aaron and I also saw a sea snake that the others somehow missed, this was just after learning they were poisonous!
Our second dive was the best, as we were engulfed in a school of Jack fish, saw triggerfish doing a mating dance, saw other triggerfish either kissing or fighting locked together at the mouth (maybe got caught in each others’ braces), and other little fishies.
Our third dive we didn’t see as much amazing fish but it was awesome as it was our first “wall” dive, as well as our very first dive as qualified Open Water divers. We saw a penis starfish at one point but we found out later that wasn’t the technical name for it after telling everyone about it. Laughing underwater is not easy!
Overal this has been such a special time for us, and learning something new being shown a whole new world is so amazing. I highly recommend Liquid Divers in Dauin, and if you can get Carlo as an instructor you will be winning. I am super proud we achieved this and this is one off the bucket list….onwards to Cebu!