Pandan Island Resort

Pandan Island - the place to go for diving in the Philippines. Pandan Island is a private island with a small resort on the West coast of Occidental Mindoro, Central Philippines. This tropical island retreat has been voted time and again as one of the top resorts in the Philippines, not in terms of luxury but for it's quality of life and it's personalized atmosphere. Our fully equipped PADI dive shop offers dive courses of all level from Discover Scuba Diving to Divemaster as well as Safaris to Apo Reef and Busuanga.

Affiliation:

PADI

Training Level:

up to Dive Master

Boat Description:

Our two dive boats, M/B Pikoy or M/B Mahal are local outrigger boats, called 'bangkas' or 'bancas' and are custom built for dive safaris, they provide fast and safe transport to all the dive sites and a large shaded area to spend your surface intervals.

Modern navigation and communication equipment, Schifauer air compressors, Wenoll oxygen systems and flushing toilets are standard on both bancas.

Sites Visited:

House Reef, Depths between 2 - 20m. Ideal for beginners or a warm-up dive. A wide variety of coral fish such as parrot fish, butterfly fish, trigger fish and sergeant major can be seen. Nearby 'lion fish den' consists of a couple of rocks overgrown with soft and hard corals and teeming with lion fish.

Coral Garden East and West Depths between 5 - 25m. Another easy but beautiful dive. In a lively garden of hard and soft corals all kinds of marine life can be observed such as surgeon fish, trigger fish, coral trouts, stingrays, moray eels, sand eels, cuttle fish and - very often - turtles. In the deeper parts of the dive, large gorgonians and Neptune cups are abundant.

Napoleon Wall, Depths between 30 - 40m. On the edge of the wall at 30m big schools of snappers and mackerels can be watched, although the big attraction of this dive site are the big napoleon wrasses reaching up to 1,5 m in length, which often come for a visit. Tunas and trevallys are common visitors to this reef that is overgrown with gorgonians. In the right time of the month drift dives can bee made until Coral Garden east.

Neptune's Land Depths between 18 - 30 m. This dive is a flat plateau connecting Napoleon Wall and the Coral Garden east. As the name indicates Neptune cups to a considerable size can be found. Also turtles seem to favor this place.

Anchor & Christmas Tree Depths between 25 - 42 m. On a underwater hill at a depth of 32 m, completely overgrown by corals, a huge anchor has come to rest at least 50 years ago. Snappers, barracudas and pelagic fish can be seen. At the bottom of the hill is a tree-like sea nettle, all white.

North Wall A sheer drop from about 7- 35 m makes that place an interesting dive site. Although not as many fish as in other parts of the island can be seen, the overhanging corals create a very special atmosphere. Pelagic fish such as tuna and mackerel are frequent.

Barracuda Deep Depths from 30- 45 m. Probably the most advanced dive around the island. A wall at 30 m depth facing the South China Sea is the place to see big schools of trevallys, fusiliers, surgeon fish,spanish mackerels and unicorn fish. Eagle rays and napoleons are often seen as well as barracudas up to a size of 1,5 m. The whole wall is overgrown with hard and soft corals and the gorgonians reach a considerable size.

Shark Ridge Depth between 10 - 50 m. The whole North-east side of Apo reef consists of a sheer drop with many overhangs. Whitetip and gray reef sharks are common sight here as well as turtles, barracudas and schools of snappers.

Apo Island There are several dive sites around Apo island ranging between 10 and 50 m. These site are the best as far as corals are concerned. Huge table corals, stag horns, brain corals, fire corals and a huge variety of soft corals can be found all around the island. The northern, eastern an southern side consist of sheer drops with many pelagics and turtles, in recent years Hammerhead sharks and Manta rays are encountered more and more frequently. Currents can be unpredictable and make the northern dive site difficult for beginners. The western side is rather a slope than a drop-off which makes it more easy for less experienced divers. Apo reef has been declared a marine park and there is a turtle sanctuary and a ranger station on Apo island .

Apo 29 Apo 29 is an underwater mound reaching to about 25 meters below the surface of the South China Sea, a true blue water dive, only for experienced divers, as currents can be strong and unpredictable and the sharks more curious than in other spots around Apo reef. Hunter's rock The authors personal favorite, this dive spot located about 10 nautical miles west of Apo Island consists of a rock pinnacle that almost reaches the surface, sharks and big trevallys are very common as are strong current which makes this dive spot tricky for inexperienced divers without professional guide.

Facilities:

• Resort/Intro Dives
• Scuba hire
• Nitrox fills
• Own accommodation
• Showers

• Diving seven days
• Gear Service
• Own Boat(s)
• Own Liveaboard(s)