Link to PHOTOS and VIDEOS Album -
This was my first time in the Philippines. I went with a group organized by Kona Honu Divers in Hawaii. This was the shop that organized my trip to the Maldives in January. They are a good shop and have great customers. The first part of the trip was at the Atlantis Resort in Puerto Galera, and the second part was on the Atlantis Azores LiveAboard. A liveaboard is basically a small cruise just for divers. The boat holds a maximum of 16 guests. We went to the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park in the Sulu Sea. A days sail from any Cell Service, or any connection with the outside world. It was wonderful. Both parts of the trip were fantastic. Very different kinds of diving. No real hassles, although there were some issues with Covid. One of the other liveaboards had 12 passengers and one crew member test positive and a few got very sick.
I got rather used to being called Sir Robert. Even better than being King Bob on other trips. From now on, I identify as Sir Robert and should be addressed accordingly.
I stopped in Los Angeles on the way out to make the trip more bearable. A 5 hour flight to LA and a 15 hour flight to Manila would be pretty bad without a break in the middle.
Fast food. - A pig, in a fast moving charcoal grill, holding a pork sausage.
Baby pigs flying away with balloons.
And one happy pig sticking a fork in his own pork shoulder.
And a politician named Babydoll.
This is the Philippines.....
Nudibranch our crazy creatures, running anywhere from a couple of millimeters long, to the size of a large dinner plate. This is good, because I only have a GoPro, which does not do well close up. So small things are pretty much out of the question. But there were a few that were big, including the one the size of dinner plate.
Here's some photos of some, including the big brown black one which is the size of a large dinner plate. I took one photo showing a diver in the picture, so you can see the size of the super large ones. The super small ones, were very hard to see much less photograph. But I did find a few on my own, which made me proud.
Here's a funny video describing them in 13-year-old humor scientific terms. https://youtu.be/F7V8DRfZBQI
These were BIG. I left the diver's camera in the first one so you can see how big.
The size of a dinner plate. Not sure where they hide during the day.
Blurry and blue - hard to photograph with my camera.
Also blurry and blue
Just a couple of pics from my first place. The Atlantis Resort at Puerto Galena, Philippines.
There's just something about these guys that I like. Dogface Puffer. - video:
Sometimes you just have to scratch. - video:
These guys always remind me of edelweiss..... killer edelweiss. They eat other living things. - video:
Sea Horse - I have seen a lot of seahorse in the water. This is the first time I found one all on my own. It helped that he was just floating in the current on a fairly barren section of the ocean floor, but still, I'm taking credit for it. There are some seahorse, such as the pygmy seahorse, that I can barely find when the dive guide practically pokes it with his pointer. - video:
Wonderpus - Octopus. Small and rare. We saw 2 on this dive - I drifted over the first one, scaring it into a hole. I felt bad, but redeemed myself by finding this one and pointing it out to everyone. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wunderpus_photogenicus
Wonderpus - 
Wonderpus - video:
Banded Sea Kratit, highly venomous sea snake. Saw two in one day, out hunting. Saw more on other days, but these were the first two that I was able to video. - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-lipped_sea_krait
Banded Sea Kratit - video 1:
Banded Sea Kratit - video 2:
Who doesn't love turtles.
Here's a turtle swimming by and one huge one just sitting there.
BIG Turtle - video:
Turtle - video:
A juvenile sweetlips, doing the juvenile sweetlips dance - video:
The stargazer is a pretty wild fish. You see it at night looking up at the stars. Or at least that's what it seems like. If you disturb it, it will bury itself deeper in the mud. All you are seeing here is the head. If you disturb it enough it'll move across the dark ocean floor and bury itself someplace else. If you're really quiet You can sometimes see them open their mouth, looking like they're yawning. Or like some creature from a horror movie. They've got really big mouths with really sharp looking teeth. I did see one "yawn", but missed getting a video of it.
Stargazer video:
This guy was decorated with soft coral. I think the crab does this himself, planting the coral on the shell.
Hermit Crab video: