Lakwatserang Bulakenya: APO Reef Adventure

APO Reef is the Philippines largest reef system and second largest next to Australia's Great Barrier Reef. It is a 34 square meter coral reef system located at Occidental Mindoro.

Light House

view from the light house stairs

view on top of the light house

It's our first time to try joining public group tours via S&B Adventure so I didn't really know what to expect. We paid a downpayment of PHP1300 (of PHP4300 in total) for the tour. Here is the list of inclusions and exclusions.

This is the sample itinerary for the trip. One way travel time is around 10-12hours excluding waiting time between change of transport medium.

Upon arrival, you need to choose the perfect spot to put up your tent. There are black ants everywhere so choose the spot with less of them. There's barely any wind at night even by the beach front so it gets very hot and hard to sleep at night in the tent. You might want to bring a fan or something.

The comfort room is decent and clean although there's no fresh water in the island so you'll be using salt water for washing and bathing. Yes, you'll still feel sticky even after shampoo and soap. :(

Despite the travel time, bathing and sleeping arrangements, I found it all worth it for what lies beneath the surface. The island is covered in rich coral reefs full of colorful sea creatures. It was my first adventure after learning how to swim via swim central ( check out my blog here ) so I really really enjoyed it. I didn't have to wear any life vests because I was confident I could already thread and float in water and I was able to chase a turtle (almost he's a fast swimmer) and swim freely in deep waters. (^_^)

Anyway, the tour's highlight is snorkeling ( guided and free ). In guided snorkeling you can hold on to a rope while the boat moves slowly around the island while you snorkel. In free snorkeling, you stop at an area and snorkel freely around. We were able to see really big fishes and colorful ones. There were even small sharks which caused me to panic and board the boat XD. There were also turtles which are quite elusive. (I'll post the video here once I'm finished editing)

There were small sharks present during our snorkeling session but the guides told us to relax and not to worry (photo credits to S&B Adventure)

While I'm at it, I want to raise awareness through this blog about coral bleaching. It's a serious problem which causes corals to lose it's color and eventually die. The main factor which causes this phenomenon is the rising sea temperatures but we also contribute to it. Oxybenzone a chemical contained in the sun blocks we use contribute to it. So let's all be reponsible beings and use reef safe sun blocks free of harmful chemicals not just for us but for the environment.

heaps of dead corals at the rock formation site

On the group tour, in general everything went pretty smoothly. Everyone was accounted for during transfers, meals were served on time and the tours were as described. You get what you pay for and you get to enjoy the trip without hassle.

Hoomans who joined the group tour

(photo credits to S&B Adventure)

The only thing I didn't like was when some people decided for themselves that the 10PM lights out rule was too early for them. We had 6AM call time for breakfast and by that time we should have already finished packing our tents and be ready to go by 7AM. But some people (within our group who was well aware of the 10PM lights out) kept the whole group awake until f/*$^n 2AM!!! It's okay to have socials and all but really? some people just wants to relax and fall asleep so it would have been nice if other people respected that. I half expected the organizers to handle the situation to no avail. Moving on..