Dumaguete, Negros Oriental

I keep forgetting to tell you how courteous the Filipinos are. They consistently greet you and introduce themselves (even the tricycle/cab drivers). The cutest phrase I remember is “ma’am-sir” said all together as one word. Yes ma’amsir. Thank you ma’amsir. :)

We don’t normally talk about our accommodations on these trips (other than the extreme low-end like in Nepal), but our last resort of the trip, south of Dumaguete at Dauin, was just amazing. The diving was as spectacular as the views from the pool -

The dive boats left from the rocky beach, where you see the large outrigger in the photo above. We did 2 morning dives each of the 10 days of our stay, and even though we totaled over 50 dives for the entire trip, we still saw new critters or fish on every dive! I had shown you a frogfish on a previous post, but it was amazing how abundant they were here…

… and in an amazing array of sizes…

a Giant Frogfish (hopefully you can see beyond his camouflage to note its outline)

.. and colors -

Those last two were both juvenile Painted Frogfish and were in the range of 1-2”, while the giant one was dinner plate size. We also were treated to many cuttlefish…

The one above is a baby Broadclub Cuttlefish, measuring only about 1 inch. Next is a video (the usual reminder here to open this post in your browser by clicking the link at the bottom of the email) of a slightly bigger one showing how they move, as well as communicate with changing colors on their skin -

Did you see the dark bands passing repeatedly down its “forehead”? (Those were not shadows from the water surface above.) My absolute favorite of this family were the Flamboyant Cuttlefish…

… and they look even better in action -

It was so nice to be at a land-based dive operation, with numerous dive site only a few minutes boat ride away. This let me show you the beautiful island of Negros -

Ok, that was the brief intermission from the wonderful and wacky underwater life that kept me mesmerized. We saw several types of octopuses, including this darling Coconut Octopus “hiding” in a scallop shell -

Our trophies in this category were seeing the wonderful Wunderpus…

… which was even more wonderous as it moved along (be sure and check out the freaky shifting colors on the eyes) -

… and the equally magnificent Mimic Octopus…

… which was way cooler on video -

Those sharp-eyed among you may have noticed it had lost part of an arm.

Back to cuttlefish briefly - our guide showed us several coconut shells with Flamboyant Cuttlefish eggs (these were just about to hatch)…

… along with a newly hatched one (the pointer stick has a diameter of ~ 1/4”) -

A very cute juvenile fish is the Yellow Boxfish. We always referred to them as “bumblebees” given their coloration, size, and mode of locomotion. This one is about an inch -

Another new species for us was the Hinge-beak Shrimp…

… which gave me the creeps and had me thinking of cockroaches when there were a bunch of them -

I’d be remiss if I didn’t share some of the most colorful denizens we encountered, including this Ribbon Eel…

… and the Peacock Mantis Shrimp (which is the size of a small lobster) -

Here’s an interesting video that gives you a sense of scale. Squat Anemone Shrimp, shown first, are commonly referred to as “sexy shrimp”, and they often share an anemone with Anemonefish (here Saddleback) -

This Orbicular Burrfish has the coolest eyes…

… while these Christmas Tree Worms came across as quite elegant -

Steve took this still out of a video he shot, and I thought it was quite fitting to close out this Philippines trip for us. “Here’s looking at you, kid” -

a Featherduster Worm