© Gunther Deichmann - Nature at its best...pristine Jungle in Palawan
http://www.alliancediving.com/main.html

The main focus of the trip is the incredible area of northern Palawan; El Nido and Bacuit Bay. This is easily one of the most beautiful places I have ever been (and I worked in Palau, San Juan Islands and Vancouver Island in the Pacific Northwest, Belize…) so I have an idea what pretty is. We spent our time here snorkeling, kayaking, and camping.
While it is hard to say what activity is best in El Nido, for me snorkeling ranks up there at the top. There are over 400 species of coral in Bacuit Bay and in a recent survey lead by the world famous ichthyologist, Dr. Gerald Allen, they recorded over 800 species of fish, including several new species and records of fish. What make it so special are the gigantic islands in the bay that provide protection from potentially large ocean swells that may damage coral. Fields (and I mean fields) of staghorn coral, table corals that measure 3 meters in diameter, un-imaginable colors radiating from all types of hard and soft corals, beautiful and rare fish and all this in 1-2 meters of water! On our trip we spotted hundreds of juvenile fish with some of the guests favorites being the Humphead grouper, Zebra lionfish, Helmut Gurnard, and Javanese Damselfish. I am a coral guy, so to see such healthy and diverse coral gardens was the ultimate treat for me.
While most of the bay can be accessed boat, kayaking is the only way to see this place. Picture perfect shallow lagoons, intimate stands of mangroves, and paddling next to a 300m vertical cliff face that erupts from the water is a pretty amazing experience. We conduct our kayaking with complete boat support, so we transport the kayaks to our designated area. We had great weather; calm seas and cloudless skies. Our daily excursions were designed to go to places that not many other tour groups go and because we are camping out in the heart of the islands, we could easily time our visits between other operators.
We are also the only outfitter that provides luxury camping in Bacuit Bay. Our campsite provides large walk-in tents with mattresses, fans, lights; a dining tent with sit-down meal service; a chef (who did a fantastic job preparing 3 – 4 course breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals for us); a generator to charge batteries (and make fresh fruit shakes or margaritas); a comfort room tent and shower tent and we also had a certified masseuse there to help with folks whose muscles were in need of attention after a day of snorkeling and kayaking. Arriving at camp in time for the sunset was a great way to end the day. Of course, waking up to a beautiful morning amongst the islands was a great way to start the day as well. For those wishing to get the most they can from El Nido, our expeditions should not be missed!
Lee Goldman

Tags: NATURE, WILDERNESS, Snorkeling, Tauchen und Meer, TRAVEL NEWS, Tauch REISEN, Inselhuepfen,, PALAWAN, PHILIPPINES, Island hopping,

The FISH Mystery is solved...


© Photo Lee Goldman - Carpet Eel Blenny Dottyback!

Hi Gunther,
the mystery is solved! I have identified the fish I photographed at Donsol. A very reclusive, cryptic fish that is not seen very often. It looks like an ell, but it's not. It looks like a blenny, but it's not. What is it? Of course, it's the Carpet Eel Blenny Dottyback! Dottyback? Aren't they the small cryptic reef fish that often have amazingly brilliant colors? Yes, that's them and this guy is the 'blacksheep' of the family. Not only is he very cryptic in their morphology, but at up to 45cm long, they are easily the largest. Well, another new one for me and happy to say that after almost 20 years of exploring the world's oceans, I can still be so easily entertained :)! ...and YOU are so right Lee

Tags: Science, Fish species, Discovery, Oceans, Environment, Rare MARINE Life, DIVING, Snorkeling, PHILIPPINES

© Gunther Deichmann - composite image
Global Warming & Save Our Planet.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Earth Day 2008 at Asia Divers! check this link http://asiadivers.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much to those who jumped in to “splash for trash” this past weekend. There was good and bad news for this year’s event. The bad was that the trash bags came back a wee bit empty; the good news was the trash bags came back a wee bit empty!! We hope this means that people are considering the environment more and throwing less into the water.
You can make a difference throughout the year by doing 2 simple things:

1) Consider your actions every day to minimize your eco footprint on our ocean planet.

2) Always inspire other divers to be responsible eco tourists.

It is our world, our water, our choice – thanks for getting involved.

Tags: Environment, Dive Center, The DIVERS CHOICE, Puerto Galera, PHILIPPINES, Earth Day

Who can Identify this Fish? Please help...


Photo © Lee Goldman, image taken in the Philippines

Snorkeling the Islands of Palawan. Okay, so the title sounds like we spent the entire time in Palawan, but our first 2 days of the expedition were snorkeling with Whale sharks in Donsol. Come ‘on, how can I invite guests to the Philippines and not expose them to one of the best big animal encounters a snorkeler can have!
This entry will be a quick one because how can I describe the experience? Amazing, exhilarating, sometimes exhausting. Because visibility often does not exceed 12 m, when you see a whale shark, it is an up close and personal encounter! The guides put you right near them and as they swim by, you are sometimes only a few feet from them. My guests all commented on how amazing it was that they actually had to swim away from the sharks rather than having to chase them down. Needless to say, our experience with the whale sharks in Donsol was exactly as it has always been promoted; come and swim with lots of whale sharks. We swam with no less than eight. We also had a chance to snorkel in the area. Due to proximity of the rivers, visibility was not optimal, but we didn’t miss a beat. Many varieties of fish and coral exist there and for most of my guests, new species of fish were checked off in their fish identification books. For one guest, an avid admirer of nudibranchs, a new species of Phyllidia was her treat for the day. As a guide who spent many years in the Philippines and Palau, you may think I had seen it all. No way, that’s what I love about the Philippines; new species of fish I may know but not seen, or in my case in Donsol a new species of fish I had no idea existed.
Even some of the better ichthyologists could not help me with the identification. I intend to pursue this one and will keep everyone updated as I know more. Anyone out there with a suggestion?
Lee Goldman

Our Philippine-Micronesia Alliance partner in Palawan Philippines is Club Paradise & Dugong Dive Center for all your travel arrangements and for Lee Goldman's Wilderness travel contact our partner in Manila Blue Horizons.

Tags: MARINE, Science,, Snorkeling, Kayaking, Whale shark, WILDERNESS, NATURE, PALAWAN, PHILIPPINES

NATURE is a lot closer now....
BUSUANGA AIRPORT Palawan Philippines...

CLUB PARADISE, EL RIO Y MAR and the DUGONG DIVE CENTER

Busuanga Airport, landing point for CLUB PARADISE, EL RIO Y MAR and the DUGONG DIVE CENTER now has a 1500 meter concrete runway plus a 400 meter gravel extension.
 
This gives a new dimension to tourism in the islands of the Calamianes. Whereas before only 19 seater planes were able to land, Busuanga airport is now being served by the super fast 32-seater Do 28 (needs only 35 minutes to get there from Manila) and the 50 seater Dash-7.
 
Starting next week, May 17, 2008 the service of a 72 seater plane from Phil Airlines will begin daily flights. This will bring the total seat capacity per year to about 100.000 seats yearly. New hotels, lodging houses and resorts are under construction and on the planning board. Present room capacity of 400 rooms will be double within an year.                                                                   

© Gunther Deichmann - the spectacular marine life in Palawan

The Government has decided to pave the road from Coron to Busuanga Airport to modernize the road system and create more comfort for all travelers. Guests of the Philippine-Micronesia Alliance and CLUB PARADISE, EL RIO Y MAR and DUGONG DIVE CENTER will get to their destination a lot faster and more comfortably now.
This will increase their time to enjoy all the exciting dive sites to see the Turtles, Dugongs, WWII Wrecks, a whole fleet was sunk in this area and of course beautiful reefs in this area.

Another great NEWS is, several Whale-sharks have been in sighted in the Coron, Palawan area, a good reason for planning your next trip to PALAWAN...the Philippines best kept secret...NATURE at its best.
 

© Gunther Deichmann - the WWII Wrecks of Palawan


© Gunther Deichmann - the WWII Wrecks of Palawan

Tags: DUGONGS,, Dive Center, WWII WRECKS,, Conservation, Wreck Diving,, PALAWAN, PHILIPPINES, NATURE, Inselhuepfen,, Island hopping,

Tags: The DIVERS CHOICE, Tauch REISEN, TRAVEL NEWS, DIVING, PHILIPPINES, Dive MANTAS, Micronesia, PALAU, REISEN, URLAUB, Inselhuepfen,, Island hopping,

Tags: Dive Center, DIVING, NATURE, Discover PALAU, PHILIPPINES, Puerto Galera, Exploring, Micronesia, Boracay, TRAVEL NEWS, Digital, Underwater Photography, Tauch REISEN, CRITTERS, Tauchen und Meer, Tauchen, UNTERWASSER