Camiguin, Dumaguete and Coron may now be the trendy choices for divers heading to the Philippines, but an old favourite, Mindoro island’s Puerto Galera, with its clear water and wide biodiversity, still has great appeal. Mindoro was first mentioned in Chinese annals as Mai in 982AD. Traders from China, India, Sumatra and Java exchanged goods at the port in Muelle Bay, which was naturally sheltered and an ideal spot in which to repair ships.
Natural abundance – from Puerto Galera’s mangrove forests to its reefs – led to the area’s inscription as the Philippines’ first Unesco biosphere reserve, in 1977. A two-hour minibus ride from the Philippine capital is Batangas, from where I take a 30-minute water taxi to Puerto Galera. The faint tang of petrol taints the sea air along the waterfront and the soundtrack is the unmistakable clank of scuba tanks being loaded onto boats.
The first day is a whirlwind tour of the dive sites close to Sabang: Monkey Beach, Wreck Point, La Laguna. Each time, I tumble into a menagerie of strange and beautiful creatures: gawping moray eels, distended pufferfish, a blue-spotted stingray part-buried in sand. Yellow-striped Moorish idol fish file along highways of coral; skyscraper barrel sponges loom overhead.
At first, Secret Beach appears to be a featureless expanse. But on the seabed, a host of tiny, macro photography-friendly critters come into focus. Out of the fronds of anemones crawl anemone shrimp: translucent and spindle-legged, li.
