Two years ago I made my first trip to Planet Dive for two-weeks. You can find that trip report here: http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=49200&hl=%2Bplanet+%2Bdive
In that report I wrote: Not everyone will enjoy many repeat dives on one site but I dove PD 21 times in two weeks and would be happy to go back for more 90-100 minute dives floating around and observing live as it happens.
So that is what I did. This time three weeks and 55 dives on the house reef (Twin Rocks) and 30 boat dives. I won't repeat what I wrote two years ago but note some of the new things regarding diving and the resort.
New sites visited
Verde island: a common destination for resorts in Puerta Galera but a group of Philippinos went there from PD so I tagged along. It is about 75 minutes by boat each way and it took a 5:30:am departure to get in a two-tank dive and be back before lunch. Compared to Anilao sites it offers more large-fish action (tuna, red snapper, jacks, blubberlip and other big sweetlips in our case) but there is also a shallower area with the most extensive hard corals I've seen in the region. Others had been there with high currents and had to hang onto the reef and "watch the show". We hit it without any current and could explore the entire reef at our leisure. The main attraction for me was that it was quite different than the anilao sites (Mainit point comes closest).
Bethlehem: After my last report Stewart suggested this site in preference of Dari Laut. I still like the latter but must agree that Bethlehem is very interesting. It felt like all of Anilao crammed into one site, with muck-like areas, garden eels, flamboyant cuttlefish, big corrals, and a nice shallow area. It will be certainly on my todo list if I get back to Anilao in the future.
Aniloa Pier: we did this as a night dive as did several others during my stay and it is definately worth the 30 minute boat ride. It presented the largest load of cephalopods, gurnards, gurnard scorpionfish, snake eels, stargazer, seamoth, frogfish and, unlike all other sites, many flounders/soles including one that I believe mimics a flatworm. This was one of several 90-minute long guided boat dives because our DM let us dive as long as our air lasted and we kept finding new stuff.
Among the sites I visited 3 years before one that stood out was Sombrero. I ended up going there 4 times and it had the best visibility, the nicest wall, and the most varied shallow plateau where the dives started and ended. If you want to see fish that you won't find on the house reef Sombrero, Coconut Muck, and Anilao Pier are your best bet.
The other outstanding reef is Twin Rocks itself. Even after 55 dives on it I was finding new fish on virtually every dive. Two years ago I wrote that you could probably find over 200 species of fish on it. Turns out that was a bit of an understatement. The tally at the end of my stay was 480 fish species for the trip. Now back at home with my ID books the tally has climbed over 500 and I expect around 400 of those were found on Twin Rocks. It really is a (small) fish lovers paradise.
Compared to two years ago the biggest change is that the large school of bigeye jacks don't call Twin Rocks home anymore. During my stay I saw a clutch of about 100 on an early morning dive once and they disappeared as soon as they heard a boat approaching. A smaller group of about 25 where hanging out near Balay resort on one occassion. Other big life: a brown marbled grouper, giant trevally, a longface emperor co-hunting with large bluefin trevally, and a pair of turtles (but not the "hunch-back" from two years ago). Another change, at least I can't remember it from before, is that fish behave like they expect feeding on the sandy plateau just before the two pinnacles after which Twin Rocks is named, I expect from other resort boats with snorklers. It is only in that one small spot so not a real issue.
For dive boats, the Western half of Twin Rocks, with the pinnacles, seems to be preferred but I found myself diving more and more in the Eastern half. The shallow, 2-7m deep, reef is incredibly rich and healthy here (there is a lot more damage/silting shore-wards from the pinnacles) and down-slope from the reef is an interesting sandy area with some larger rocks. Several of them were shrimp-operated cleaning stations with larger fish visiting (tomato grouper, chocolate grouper, titan trigger etc). Indicator species for these rocks are banded shrimp, a collection of cardinalfish, coral grouper, and stocky anthias. Another attraction of the Eastern side is that if you keep swimming you start approaching the Balanoy muck diving site with a whole new set of fish to explore. That is one reason to prefer Planet Dive over Balay on the West end or the new Buceo resort on the East end. From PD you can explore both ends.
PD itself has seen a few changes. The deck on the beach has been extended and gotten nice new lounge furniture. The deck is used for dinner in weekends when there are more guests. In the weekends they also opened a new beach bar and they had a very good life band that I really enjoyed. Apparently rooms have been improved but I didn't see any as I opted for their dormitory accommodation. The quality of the main meals is the same as I remember from two years ago but they had pancakes for breakfast and you could ask for eggs or omelets to be prepared on demand. Appreciated by those who are not accustomed to rice for breakfast.
In all, PD remains a friendly basic resort with good value for money, especially if you care more for diving than luxury. Value gets even better if you travel as a group because diving cost goes down with more divers on board. But even for a solo diver, like me, it can be very affordable but you may have to include a few all-shore-diving days when there are no other guest to share boat costs with.
Bart
PS: I'll post some pics soon
