Our daughter, her husband and son Emerson live right in front of one of the dive spots in Dauin between dive resorts. It’s just a few steps from the house to the water with a bustling underwater life.

The incredible scenery of Dauin and Dumaguete – with dramatic black volcanic sand beaches and Mount Talinis in the background – is remarkable in itself. But it’s what lies beneath the surface that attracts divers. Dumaguete’s fascinating inhabitants rival those of the “muck diving” meccas of Lembeh and Anilao, and nearby Apo Island offers stunning reefs, turtles and sea snakes. With so much on offer, it’s no wonder that this beautiful destination is a perfect, quiet coastal spot for divers.

The waters around Dauin and Dumaguete in the Southern Visayas, located on the coast of Negros Island, consistently offer wildlife lovers some of the best encounters in Southeast Asia. The gently sloping sand flats, dotted with patches of coral, are teeming with rare, bizarre and ugly animals. From yawning frogfish to camouflaged ghost pipefish, from mating flashy squid to hunting coconut octopus, Dumaguete is a dreamy place to cross things off your dive list. Other highlights include spiny and pygmy seahorses, exotic nudibranchs and flatworms, velvet ghost pipefish, Ambon dragonheads and mating mandarinfish.

Nearby Apo Island, surrounded by coral walls and busy reefs, is perfect for a day trip. Just 30 minutes away by traditional Filipino banca, divers visiting Apo Island can see large schools of stingrays, plenty of turtles, and the occasional roaming pelagic fish – a testament to the efforts to protect these reefs for so long. Look for the volcanic gases rising through the sand – it’s not every day you can say you’ve dived a geothermal vent.

Dumaguete sits at the base of Mount Talinis – also known as the Cuernos de Negros (Horns of Negros) – and visitors can take a dramatic drive along the national highway that winds beneath the mountain. Once you leave Dumaguete City behind, you’re soon immersed in the more traditional Philippines, with villages and food stalls lining the streets, until you finally reach the coast and resorts hidden among coconut palms – an ideal place to get away from it all.

If you are planning a longer stay in the Philippines, Dauin is an ideal place to take the ferry across to the fabulous island of Bohol in two hours or back to Cebu for the whale sharks of Oslob or the fantastic dive destinations of Malapascua and Moalboal.

They personally trust their good friend and dive instructor PADI / SD-TDI / RAID GIBSON SOJOR Jr., Tel.: 0917 501 8350 who also organized this dive trip with the dive boat ETHAN | APO SCUBA.

We had only 2 kilometers to drive from the house to the public beach in Dauin where the dive boats were moored. The following pictures show some of the preparations for this diving trip. Some things were taken from home, like diving suits, fins and other things. The dive tanks were provided on site. We still had a big ice box with food with us, but there Ella should bring some more. Because later I could film her as sin grilled chicken parts in the galley.