Situated 150km (95 miles) from Manila on a beautiful harbour, with many fine beaches, sheltered coves and a backdrop of lush green hills, Puerto Galera has been a a port where ships can safely shelter from typhoons.

Puerto Galera offers picturesque beauty and good beaches plus nightlife for those who want it. It is fast becoming an international diving destination. There is a great variety in both underwater terrain and marine life. There are shallow coral gardens, excellent for snorkellers and underwater photographers. Most of the dive sites are a short banca ride from the beaches.

Dive Site in Puerto Galera

THE CANYONS
A fast and furious drift dive over three ravines at around 27 metres. The current is generally strong and the screams at high tide! There are a lot of sweetlips, jacks and beautiful soft corals including large gorgonian fans. If you are not a confident diver, this is perhaps best to the more advanced divers.

CORAL GARDENS
Average depth is 10 meters with the bottom at 30 meters. Situated off Long Beach. This site features prolific hard & soft coral, reef fish, cowries and a nudibranch. Slight current is present most of the time. An ideal site for photographers.

LA LAGUNA POINT
Depth range from 3 meters to 5 meters. An “off the beach” divesites is used as training area and ideal site for night dives. Corals, anglerfish, morays, clams and nudibranch make for interesting underwater photography.

SABANG POINT
A small wall dropping down to 22 meters with stony corals, soft corals fish and invertebrates. The special feature at this site are the presence of two mushroom-shaped domes, which are considered convenient landmarks.

ESCARCEO POINT
Probably the most popular divesite in Puerto Galera for it features the famous “Shark Cave”. Taking the tunnel at 10 meters and following the ridge to the canyons at 27 meters you can reach the cave. This is actually a two-cave system. Divers can expect to find an average of 2 or 3 shark. Big Rock is another favorite close to Shark Cave. It is an atoll-shaped rock where octopus, lionfish, batfish, angelfish, pufferfish, and reef fish are part of the familiar sights.

MONKEY BEACH
Stingrays, surgeonfish, leather jackets, turtles and crinoids make this divesite one of the most popular for night dives.

MONKEY WRECK
A local island transport sunk by Asia Divers in early 1993, lies in 40 m of water and is a little dangerous, as it rolls around in the swell. It is already collecting its own resident fish, including a small shoal of batfish.

WASHING MACHINE
A high voltage dive consisting of small canyons with currents going in all directions. An advanced dive site and it can be very rough at times.

THE BOULDERS
An excellent site for night dive. It features big rocks, crevices and caves. A wide variety of nudibranchs offers the macro photographer an excellent subject matter.

DUNGON
An easy, multilevel dive with lots of good soft corals, colorful crinoids, most reef fish and the occasional tuna. All the dives described east of here get into rough surface water and strong currents.

HOLE IN THE WALL
Allowing the current, you drop into of a well-lit water, with fields of table corals as good as anywhere in the world. You descend in several stepped drop-offs, each about 3m and eventually reach the hole of the wall at 12 meters . The hole is covered with multicolored sponges and crinoids. Leading to the Canyons.

THE FISH BOWL
This is an advanced dive within a bowl-shaped depression where you sit on the edge and look down. The main reason for this dive is to see bigger fish and shoals. Whitetip Reef Sharks and Grey Reef Sharks are common, as are large tuna.

SABANG JUNK
Directly in front of Sabang Beach is a divespot called Sabang Junk. A very good spot for beginners, this shallow dive site includes a wreck and slopes down to 18m. Amongst a wealth of life, you can see scorpionfishes, batfishes, cuttlefishes and frogfishes. The highlight here is a pygmy seahorse - so small you almost need a magnifying glass to see it.

SHARKS' CAVE
A boatride of 15 minutes takes you to the Shark's Cave. At 24m there is a shallow cave, inside which there are many white tipped reefsharks. There are some more smaller caves nearby where you can also find interesting things. Often a big school of barrakudas can be spotted here.

VERDE ISLAND
A wonderful island for daytrips in the middle of the channel between Mindoro and Luzon. There are many excellent dive sites around the island which can be reached in approximately one hour by boat. There are beautiful walls with hard and soft corals, sponges and big schools of fishes.

TRAVEL BRIEF
Puerto Galera is a 2 ˝ -3 hours drive down south of Manila and a 1 hour ferry boatride.