Apo Island - from Chicago to the real thing!

There's a neat, little, scuba diving triangle formed by Dumaguete, Siquijor and Apo Island, as can be seen using Google Earth. On the leg of the triangle between Dumaguete and Apo Island is a grey dot - the town of Dauin where the Atlantis Resort is located.

In fact, this entire Visayas area is becoming more well known for it's diving potential. The finger-like island pointed at Dumaguete is Cebu, which has great dive spots from Sumilon Island (partially hidden under the clouds) in the south all the way to Malapasqua in the north, best known for its early morning, thresher-shark dives. To the east can be seen the Bohol islands, which would include dive sites such as Balicasag and Panglao.

Apo Island has been a marine sanctuary for as long as I can remember but somehow in my 28 years of diving, I seem to have missed out on visiting this site. A few years ago on a trip to Chicago, Tessa, the kids and I dropped by the John G. Shedd Aquarium and saw their extensive and impressive display on Apo Island, part of their permanent Wild Reef exhibit.

That visit rekindled my desire to visit Apo one day, and this Easter holiday presented the perfect opportunity for Tyrone and I to dive the sanctuary. Atlantis runs a dive boat to Apo every other day, interspersed with boat dives along the Dumaguete-Dauin shoreline and trips to Siquijor as well. Occasionally, they venture beyond the triangle and head all the way out to Sumilon Island off Cebu.

Apo itself is remarkably well preserved. The dive operators have a "no gloves" rule which they strictly enforce. Since divers can't touch anything, they learn to put air in their BCD's and float above the coral. As a result, all around Apo are fields of intact cabbage corals, without the broken edges that are typical in Anilao and other glove-accepting dive areas.

One of the coolest things about diving the Apo triangle was finding animals that I haven't seen in a long time. At a dive site called Katipanan, I found a small cave at around 60'. Inside the cave was this beautiful blue ribbon eel, the likes of which seem to have become really scarce in the Anilao area.

Attractive as it is, this little eel can be lightning fast and vicious. I once saw one of these dart out from its hole, grab a passing fish and slip back into the crevice - all in a blink that made me wonder if I had truly seen it or just dreamed it after seeing it on the National Geographic Channel.

Just outside the cave was another rare sight, this tiny yellow frogfish, which could fit in the palm of my hand. It's tempting to try and actually do that but with the no-gloves rule, divers also avoid getting stung or scraped by things they really shouldn't be touching in the first place.

Here's another good example of something divers shouldn't be touching - the banded sea snake, one of the most poisonous snakes in the world:

This little baby is one of many we saw over several Apo dives. In general, these snakes aren't harmful. I've even seen a picture of a diver holding five(!) snakes in each hand. His expression was sort of, "What do I do now?!?"

Seriously though, from what I've heard the only times the snakes get testy is when you pull their tails when they're on the way up to the surface for a breath of air (well, who wouldn't be?) and when they're mating (once again, who wouldn't be???).

This is the last of four posts I've made about Tyrone's and my Easter vacation in the Dumaguete- Siquijor- Apo triangle. Tessa flew back from her flamenco vacation in Spain last week, so at least the house wasn't as lonely as it was when just Ty and I were home alone.

I'll end this post with Ty's favorite picture from our trip - this yellow moray that he found during his first night dive. In the back of the photo are the commensal shrimp that hang around the moray, eat his scraps and clean his teeth and gills in the process. It's a great, you-scratch-my-back-and- I'll-scratch-your-back, harmonious relationship. A nice mutuality to attain in any relationship!