Trips during the month of December especially flying is normally shunned even on official matters, I always decline politely and just delegate someone else if there is a need. My year-end dive escapades (if there’s one) were always near my base, my dive buddy perfectly understood my ground. This year (2025) however, was an exception. There was no plan but things just fell into its place, two trips to the metro – one is necessary and mandatory and one was purely out of whim (but never a caprice!). My dive buddy just lured me for year-end dive trip, which was a surprise after having none in the last five years! But still maintained my mantra of not hitting grounds, in my pace as it was a treat for myself. The choices were all wonderful dive destinations but Anilao had best advantage in terms of travel time and route, bit more costly I guess but I only dive there just once in the early days of this passion and that was sixteen years ago!
We drive very early to Batangas and in less than 30 minutes it was pouring rain, I started to worry if the waters would be good for the dives. But I refused to be bothered and was praying that all would go well in Anilao. After more than two hours, we arrived promptly for our arrangements at Halo Diveshop and so grateful that the rains have stopped. After the preliminaries, we went down to meet DM Penn and was glad that we are only three divers for the day under his tutelage – almost an exclusive one! The plan was to dive close to the shores to avoid possible surf that may occur any time later. It slipped from me and found out later from my write-up that DM Penn was the same dive guide we had sixteen years ago at Pier Uno, I totally forgot and Angel didn’t mention to me or he hadn’t recalled as well? 😊
Arthur’s Rock
In our wetsuits we piled up on the boat and head for Arthur’s Rock as our first descent, miraculously the water was flat with mild sun with no trace of heavy rains earlier. We did our back roll one after the other, I hold unto Angel as we descend slowly while equalizing for my ears. Our first sighting was a moray eel as we got on the sandy bottom. Incredibly, the viz was good despite the rains earlier and as we went around floating weightlessly a wave of relief came over me once more. I tried to follow our DM who always signal me to come up, as I tend to sink lower for the macros. Indeed, the environs was teeming with life – blue triggers, boxfish, anemone fishes, bannerfishes, angels, chromis to name a few. Then sighted a fat mantis shrimp which I pointed out to Angel barely noticing it. Such a joy to find one I wasn’t expecting it. The large population of blue triggers surprised me – I love watching its fins elongated end as it swayed with the current! In our ascent, Angel has to wait for me because my computer (Suunto D4i) was not done yet for my safety stop! We spent a good 49 minutes with my air still at 100 bars.
In our surface interval, our boat maneuvered a short distance to our next site. The weather was just so perfect – mild sun, mild current, soft breeze. Just a stone throw from us, a swarm of mackerels hovered over the surface creating wave rivets, glittering under the mild sun – a sight to behold!
Twin Rocks
The boat anchored a little farther from the point, you can never miss the two rocks not far from the shores. Noticing some heads bobbing up on the waters as they snorkeled in the shallows, I wondered that this spot is undoubtedly teeming with life. So, we back rolled once more for our last descent feeling the cold waters as I went down slowly with my buddy still at an arm’s length.
Indeed, down there was much to grasp with the diverse life appearing before us. I was again in another dimension amidst other worldly critters that calmed my senses. The blue triggers abound the spot too, so far the area has the largest population of this specie I’ve been to, in no time we found ourselves in the midst of a large swarm – their elongated fins swaying as if teasing us! Such an amazing sight and floating with them is again other worldly. There were blue stars, culcitas, feather stars and the perennial anemone fish. We sighted sea kraits twice, juvenile and adult wiggling away. There was a group of juvenile chevron barracuda playfully waggling before us, lingered for awhile their silvery bodies shone as one diver lighted up his torch to them! I got near to a wall filled with androids, whips and feather stars swaying with the mild current; in a corner there was a lump of juvenile cardinal fish so tiny wiggling over the reef. That one huge turtle surprised us, undaunted swimming coyly not minding us. I may have missed other critters but not the juvenile ribbon eel, mantis shrimp again, a giant grouper wiggling away, some trumpet fish, boxfish, chromis, anthias and another turtle before our ascent. For me, finding a sea turtle completes a dive – it’s a favorite specie even for my dive buddy and knowing its life cycle from my volunteer works, I would say every turtle existing underwater is a miracle! The current became less mild but we swam against it back to our boat to end the dive. I went deeper at 25.4 meters compared from the previous one at 21 meters, bit longer at 52 minutes with my air still at 100 bars. Oh, I didn’t notice nudis in both dives and I wonder if there was none at all or I just missed them.
The boat sped off to the docks, faces with smile feeling good with the wonderful sightings plus a good dose of magnesium chloride from the waters. At a distance, as we sailed on, we sighted the nearby Sombrero Island, maybe next time, one day. 😊 Well, famished we hasten the after-dive chores – thankfully the diveshop had good facilities. The food was great too, our satisfying lunch completed our Anilao day trip.
I still hold onto my theory that discovering one new place is a door to another world. Well, it wasn’t new but being back after sixteen long years, there has been lot of changes even with myself, and we did dive into new sites I haven’t been to! I almost slapped my forehead thinking why it took me that long to dive again in Batangas! Well, Anilao being dubbed as the most-dived site in the country is called for nothing and coming again in the near future is not impossible. Don’t you think?😊
Life in the Great Beyond 
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