Tag: Mantangale Alibuag Dive Resort

Balingoan: Underwater Paradise

Balingoan: Underwater Paradise

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By Angel C. Juarez
A Post written in Health & Home, August 2016 issue

In my continuous chase for offbeat dive sites in the country, I got a chance to explore the underwater treasures in Balingoan, Misamis Oriental. Heading to Barangay Mantangale with my perennial dive buddy Ate Claudia from Cagayan de Oro City one day I was enthralled with the unspoiled beauty under the waters of this laid back municipality.  Indeed, the place is one of the most underrated dive spots in the country.  While most tourists frequent Balingoan only as a jump-off point to Camiguin Island, for some like us, it is already a destination.  It is a small piece of underwater paradise that will definitely keep us coming back again and again.

Finding Balingoan

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Mantangale and Sipaka as seen from Balingoan Port

Balingoan is two hours north of Cagayan de Oro City, unknown to many, the waters around this small town that stretch toward Camiguin bustle with vivid underwater life.  Without a doubt, Balingoan is one of my favorite place in the Philippines for scuba diving for two reasons: its rich marine life and the absence of tourist traffic that  popular dive sites get.  This means Balingoan is generally unspoiled and unexploited!

Sipaka Point

A cluster of humbug over soft corals
A feather star closed during night
Juvenile porcupine fish with those pleading eyes

One of Balingoan’s known diving spots is Sipaka Point.  Its sloping white and sandy bed is an ideal site for students and divers of all levels.  It is a perfect site for macro photography as well.  Ten meters down Sipaka Point is beautiful reef adorned with colorful corals and crinoids, and home to small tropical fishes and marine creatures.  Fishes like anthias, wrasses, angelfish, pufferfish, anemonefish, lionfish, groupers, and eels abound in the reef.  So do lobsters, cuttlefish, glass and harlequin shrimps, and different species of nudibranches.

Talisayan Shoal

A crab during night dive
Ginger corals
A shrimp waiting for prey at night

Not far from Sipaka Point is Talisayan Shoal, a ten minute boat ride from the coast of Mantangale and a known spot for the colorful mandarin fish.  It was already sunset when we descended down into the vast coral area of Talisayan Shoal. Armed with underwater torches, we maneuvered around the area on search for the rare mandarin fish.  We saw the usual tropical reef fishes and other macro species such as shrimps and crabs, but not the rare mandarin fish.  When my torch ran out of battery, we ascend for our safety stop.  Darkness had already enveloped the surroundings as we sailed back to the shores.  When I look into the water, I saw glowing bioluminous organisms as they were washed away by the boat.  Indeed, the sea is a vast mystery and humans will never completely understand the life beneath.

Banaug Shoal

Two nudis!
Rich with soft and hard corals
Colorful bristle worms

Three years after our first dive affair with Balingoan. We returned to its depths to experience and explore more of its treasures.  It was Banaug Shoal this time.  It wasn’t my first time to dive here but I was excited as it were my first.  We left for Banaug Shoal by speed boat.  This shoal is the house reef of Mantangale Alibuag Dive Resort (MADRI), which for me is one of the best house reefs I have ever dived into.  The diversity of marine life in this dense space is unbelievable and the explosion of underwater colors never ceases to amaze me.  Snappers, butterflyfish, moorish idols, boxfish, trumpet fish, leaf fish, trigger fish and a lot more species graced our dives as well as sea slugs and other macro species.  They all made the small reef, carpeted with soft and hard corals, their home.

Lapinig Island

Budyong shell was one great find!
Wide table corals
Branching corals with wiggling juveniles

After our surface interval, we sailed from Mantangale to Lapinig Island, the islet in front of Balingoan Port.  It looks dull and boring on the surface, but what’s underwater is a different story.  It’s an action- packed world down there!  Not minding the mild current, we gradually descend on a sandy slope hoping to see manta rays.  There are reported sightings of manta rays in the site although not regular.  It wasn’t our lucky day though, as no manta ray showed up.  But the usual reef and macro species such as striped fish, trumpet fish, nudis, bristle worms, and others that I don’t know by name, made the dive an awesome one.  Soft and hard corals, sea fans, feather stars and sponges also added color to the scenery.  Sadly, some trashes scattered around the place due to its proximity to the port and residential area.  We ended up fishing out trashes, turning our dive into a clean-up drive!

Looking forward to coming Back

My Balingoan dives are truly memorable and I look forward to more underwater explorations and discoveries in the town.  The sea is a deep stash of treasures and surprises that I won’t get tired of exploring.  I can’t wait for another rendezvous with underwater creatures of Balingoan in the years to come.

Disclosures:
Angel C. Juarez of http://www.lakwatsero.com has been my dive buddy since few years back. I met him nine years ago during a Coron trip, four months later he became a certified diver. We have a lot of common favorite dive destinations and Mantangale is just one of them. Our last dive in the area was just this February 2017.

Home Again!

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Homecoming to favorite spots in Balingoan waters

I had the opportunity to be back again in MADRI, although I was clueless for the perennial year-end dive. I was overtaken with other concerns and priorities. My dive buddy just pop-up to come over, because he wanted to have his last dive of the year with his favorite dive buddy. It was like an ambush though I have no qualms about being in the depths.  It has always been my therapy for all the unrestlessness, especially with year-end hullabaloos.


The distance of the airport and inconvenient flight skeds to CdeO wasn’t of help for a timely arrival in Mantangale, coming almost 11am the most that we could do was only for two dives instead of the usual three dives.  Luckily, the weather was sunny like summer and I could only expect good viz for our descents.

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Clownfish playing hide & seek on anemones

Speeding our way under the noon sun, our first descent was at the house reef (aka Banaug Shoal), it has been a favorite spot and again it didn’t disappoint us.  My colds slowed my descent through the bouy line and thankful I made it.  The unequalled diversity of marine life is simply engaging, swarm of damsels and chromis abound as we reached the hill.  The snapper couple was also there, following us as if asking for food.  The black corals and a variety of hard and soft corals decorated the shoal.  The tangles of soft corals blocking my way felt like I was in the grasslands finding my way out.  There were nudis, the clownfish that played hide & seek on anemones, anthias, angels, moorish idol, box fish and more.  But I missed the resident moray eel, the stonefish and pygmy seahorse.  The leaf fish surprised us, I wasn’t expecting to meet her again, discreetly it was swaying with the current between the corals.  Our DM was too keen to notice this elusive specie, but we failed searching for macros in the soft corals.  The currents could have swept them off. We ascend after 44 minutes at 32.3 meters as my deepest.

Leaf fish at Banaug Shoal
Leaf fish at Banaug Shoal

Our surface interval was spent back at the resort dive shop, sitting and watching the horizons – blue waters, blue skies and Camiguin island afar!  Finishing up our left over food (fish & chips with rice pop), sitting comfortably with afternoon breeze and the rustling leaves blown by the wind – was purely relaxing. MADRI is always home to me, the familiar surroundings gave me such comfort.  There were no other guests, so it was like an exclusive dive for us!

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Both dives were in nitrox with no extra cost!

Our DM suggested for Lapinig Island for our last descent, speeding our way almost 3pm to this lowly uninhabited island, the waters went choppy already. There was mild current as we descend on the sandy slope. We went around searching for macros but we found more trash, so it was some kind of clean-up which we always do as our commitment.  There were sea fans, nudis, clownfish, anthias over corals, butterflies and more tropical fishes.  The spot is a ground of bristle worms, there were plenty of them embedded on the corals.  We stayed over an hour going around feeling the warm afternoon waters, my deepest at 28.9 meters.  Both dives were in enriched air with no extra cost!


It was over two months from my last dive during the International Clean-Up Day, the two descents undoubtedly freshen up my dried-up gills!  It was such bliss to be back in Mantangale, surely there will be next time to be home again.

Talisayan: More than the Usual

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colorful depths of Red Sands!

There wasn’t much enthusiasm towards this year’s after birthday weekend trip, originally the dates were reserved already for the much awaited Tawi-Tawi dives.  Much awaited because last year’s plan was cancelled, so it was rescheduled for July 2011 and was thrilled when we got our tickets on sale last November!  Well, it was called off again just with the Batanes sojourn. It brought home in the end for Mantangale dives but Angel’s mixed-up schedules daunted my MADRI homecoming…

Saturday Ramblings

We made it though, but arriving late at the resort, all the dive boats sailed off already to Mantigue Island and Medina.  After more than two hours of waiting and taking our complimentary lunch at the resto, Angel and I went down to the diveshop to prepare and gear up. I guess we’re just dying to be in the waters for our dried up gills!  🙂 Just in time when Sir Dong came back from Duka Bay, we had some catch-up talk until we sailed off for our first descent at Sipaka Point.

Can you find the cleaner shrimp?

Although Sipaka is just nearby from the resort, it belonged to the next coastal town of Talisayan. The spot wasn’t new but I was sure there is something more I will find since I last explored its depths. Back-rolling for our first water entry at the Red Sand, we separated from the boat with group of OW students having their exercise at the spot. We descend on a sandy slope with Danny as our dive guide – we are now confident to go down with no DM.  🙂  We sighted variety specie of soft and hard corals, sponges, colorful crinoids, cucumbers, anemones and even crown of sea thorns. We sighted also a banded sea snake slithering from us as we took turns for photos!  We moved around and searched for more critters – spotted colorful nudis, elusive cleaner shrimp and juvenile fishes. I was amused with the jerky many spotted sweetlips – we keep on following as it kept darting when we took photos. 😛  We found uniquely shaped corals – like mushrooms, like suntan flora, like thorny fruit and more. There was no encounter with pelagics but the colorful tropical fishes decorating the corals was all there in splendor creating a colorful underwater and active fish life. We ascend after 62 minutes still having 1000psi of air.

colorful nudi!

We were grateful the shop arranged for our second descent together with John (Australian), who wanted to search for mandarin fish.  Leisure talk with Sir Dong – right, for next dive trips! J Good food, idyllic environs with good weather while watching Camiguin Island in the horizons, was a perfect surface interval for me.  Though it was late, there was no rush as we waited sundown for our night dive.

We boarded the boat in twilight and cruised for about 15 minutes to Talisayan Shoal getting thrilled what to find, it was our first time at the shoal.  I always find night dives as challenging and exciting! The plan:  DM Cena will look for mandarin fish while the dive guide stay with John, we will follow them as we do our own exploration.  It was almost dark when we descend at 5:52pm on a sandy area.

like mushrooms sprouting!

The dark underwater seemed another world to me, armed with our torches we started our search – search for the unknown!  We spotted critters – crabs, shrimps, juvenile lion fish, clams, and more.  Angel pointed out a juvenile puffer fish with those green pleading eyes!  We went around getting familiar with the darkness, only to find out we were separated from the others.  It didn’t bother us as we continue to roam around.  Indeed, at night different species showed up.  We stayed close to the seabed as we continue our search, I felt something crawling on my bodice – a crinoid stuck with me! 😛  In a while, we noticed a flickering light beyond us, following it we caught up with our companions. We ascend after 68 minutes with my air still at 1000psi, at 7pm it was all dark surrounding us.  The cold night air gave me shivers as we sped off to the resort.

Gills Refreshed

Perhaps  a dive in far-off waters is just ordinary for some but the sights in our two descents were not usual ones – we had more of colorful macros and colorful active marine life. I couldn’t help again to be more passionate with marine life as I view my photos,  you know – that fire within.  How vast and mysterious underwater world is, and how fortunate I am given the privilege to experience this grandeur.

Even with battery of cancelled trips, my after birthday weekend dives with my favorite dive buddy was more than enough for my dried-up gills and itching fins.  Life can be more beautiful deep down!

NB.  I use Lumix TS2 with Ikelite casing.

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