Malapascua diving offers: the only daily thresher shark sightings in the world, whitetip sharks, mantas, hammerheads (seasonal), wrecks, mandarin fish, countless nudibranchs, pygmy seahorses, cuttlefish, beautiful unspoiled coral gardens and a huge diversity of marine life.
Package Includes:
Accommodation:
05 Nights accommodation at Cocobana Resort or Tepenee Resort or Slam’s Garden Resort
Cocobana Beach Resort – right in the middle of the main beach & 1 mins walk from dive shop. Its facilities include a restaurant & the circle bar. SuperDeluxe room – 02 double beds, AC with hot water, salellite TV & refrigerator, Electric; min from 5pm to 9am (subject to change)
Tepenee Resort – 2 min walk from dive shop. AC with hot water, bungalows or rooms on a rocky outcrop overlooking the sea, Electric: minimum from 4am to 8pm (subject to change)
Slam's Garden Resort is a brand new resort built about 50m from the sea, just behind Thresher Shark Divers. The spacious rooms are in two blocks. Rooms come with hot and cold water. Electricity is from 6pm to 8am. There is a safe in each room. Rooms are double as standard. Triple or Quad are also available. Twin beds on request.
Flight & Transfer:
Return International Flight Dubai to Cebu City
Total travel time approx 3 hours depending on traffic to Maya Jetty
Total travel time approx 3 hours depending on traffic to Maya Jetty
Meal:
Daily Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner
Diving:
5days fun dive with at least 02 boat dive with professional divemasters
02 night boat dives with professional divemasters
Boat, Tank, weight and weight belt
Daily Marine Park fees
Excludes:
Dive equipment (rental available – Full set (BC, reg, fins, mask & wetsuit): USD6 per dive)
Own expenses and visa fee (if applicable)
Famous Dive Sites:
Monad Shoal/Shark Point 26m+ / 80ft+
Monad Shoal is an underwater island on the edge of a 200m drop off, and is famous as the only place in the world where thresher sharks can be seen everyday. Manta rays have become a common sight over the last year. The shoal also attracts other pelagics such as devil rays and eagle rays. Manta rays and hammerheads are seasonal. Monad Shoal is perfect for Nitrox. Please note that this is a slightly more advanced dive site.
Lighthouse 10m / 35ft
There are few places in the world where you can see mandarinfish. And even better, in Malapascua, Thresher Diver's famous "Randy Mandy" dive experiences mating mandarinfish in their full glory! In the late afternoon we dive Lighthouse, where the rare and psychedelic mandarin fish are virtually guaranteed. Dusk is a time most people rarely dive. However, it is one of the best times to observe marine life because of the increased feeding and mating activity. Come and see the exotic mating dance of the male and his adoring females. At full moon we also see coral spawning as well as other marine life mating. We regularly see seahorses, scribbled and banded pipefish, juvenile sweetlips, banded sea snakes, hermit crabs, and many varieties of shrimp. As day turns into night you should start to catch some interesting nudibranchs and a variety of cephalopods - reef squid, bobtail squid, starry night octopus, the occasional blue-ringed octopus and cuttlefish. Also near this sight is a World War II wreck.
Gato Island 24m / 80ft
Gato Island is one of our most famous dive sites. Gato is a marine reserve and sea snake sanctuary. It has at least five dive sites with a huge diversity of marine life. We are constantly seeing new creatures. At all sites you can see such things as banded sea snakes, cuttlefish (often while mating), seahorses, nudibranchs, frogfish, moray eels, scorpion fish, squid and big-mouthed mackerel. There are many whitetip sharks in residence at Gato, as well as bamboo and cat sharks. The coral is in good condition and the rocky island has many interesting underwater rock formations, overhangs, and swim-throughs.
Gato: The Guardhouse 24m / 80ft
Drop down to 24m to find the extremely rare pygmy seahorse, both pink and yellow. Then work your way back along a wall where you can find lionfish and many nudibranchs, including the beautiful spanish dancers, up to 30cm long. A painted frogfish is currently in residence.
Lapus Lapus 18m / 60ft
Lapus Lapus Island has some of the most spectacular coral growth we have ever seen. There is a huge variety of soft and hard coral, in pristine condition. Other marine life includes frogfish, various sweetlips, cuttlefish and lionfish. There are many nudis, several varieties of commensal shrimp and also porcelain crabs. A great macro site. If you are lucky, you will see the giant octopus that lives here!
Kimud Shoal 40m+ / 130ft+
Sunken Island is a fairly small shoal. Almost circular, it is possible to swim all the way around the edge in one dive. The top of the island lies at 12-16m, and the steep sides drop off to 200m+. It is near to Monad Shoal so we often see thresher sharks, mantas and devil rays. Turtles are occasional visitors. The top of the island has a lot of hard coral, and many excellent hiding spots for moray eels. The sides are covered in soft coral growth. Many species of shrimp can be found among the corals and several species of unusual nudibranchs. The east side is especially interesting for its rock formations and overhangs. Because of the drop off, at any point on the island there is the chance of seeing pelagics such as sharks, rays and tuna. Recently spotted here - a school of 50 hammerheads
Calanggaman Island 40m+ / 130ft+
Drop down the walls which are covered in hard corals and gorgonian fans and inhabited by many varieties of fish. Look for pelagics out in the blue, or unusual fish like clown triggers on the wall. You can also see many critters including nudibranchs, crabs and shrimp. As you come back along the top of the wall, look for fields of nudibranchs and garden eels. Dolphins are often seen on the way back
Lighthouse Wreck 5m / 15ft
The wreck at Lighthouse was a Japanese World War II landing craft. It was bombed just before landing with a large shipment of cement destined for a gun emplacement. The wreck is in very shallow water - 3m average - and is broken up with the hull in two pieces. The rocks that you will see are actually bags of cement! Things that you can see around the wreck include yellow-tailed barracuda, hermit crabs, octopus, pipefish, juvenile harlequin sweetlips, and banded sea snakes. Nearby is Lighthouse West - easily reached from the wreck to see abundant mandarinfish and seahorses.
Dona Marilyn Wreck 18m-32m / 60ft-110ft
At almost 100m long, the Dona Marilyn was a Cebu-Manila passenger ferry that sank in a typhoon 20 years ago. It was a huge disaster and many people lost their lives. It is now lying on its starboard side, amazingly still all in one piece. Marble rays, blue-spotted rays and whitetip sharks live under the bow and eagle rays and devil rays sometimes pass through. The wreck is covered in a healthy growth of soft coral, and the fish that live there grow to a large size. Several varieties of sweetlips grow bigger here than at any of our other dive sites and the juveniles are often seen. Large cuttlefish and scorpionfish are common as well as nudibranchs and flatworms. A giant moray eel is living in the wreck. You can also see many of the beautiful purple fire sea urchins around, accompanied by their resident zebra crabs and Coleman's shrimp. Penetration is possible for qualified divers. There is a lot to see inside as it has remained unsalvaged. The photo above shows a similar ferry today.
