Very good and varied diving, walls, muck, reef, stream diving, big, small
Large selection of diving sites, own house reef combined with artificial reef
Southern Leyte, far away from mass tourism, adventure
Rich marine life, octopuses, crustaceans, corals, shoals of fish, muck, turtles, whale sharks, etc.
The easiest way to reach Southern Leyte in the Philippines is by flight from Manila or Cebu. It is also possible to go by ferry from Bohol, Mindanao or Cebu. The flight is clearly the easiest, but it depends on where you are or are going of course. Southern Leyte is a separate province on the island of Leyte and includes the island of Limasawa. The island is just south of the western peninsula where the first Roman Catholic Mass on Philippine soil is believed to have taken place. Limasawa is considered the birthplace of Roman Catholicism in the Philippines. The provincial capital of Southern Leyte is small and is called Maasin and Southern Leyte is also one of the most sparsely populated provinces in the entire region.
Limasawa is a beautiful green-clad island that offers very nice reef and wall diving. One of the most famous dive sites today in the area is the marine reserve Napantao. Where you will find one of the world's perhaps most beautiful wall dives with corals, sponges, whip and black corals and gorgonians in every imaginable color and size. Lots of fish make the whole wall pulsate with marine life. Imagine seeing manta rays or whale sharks pass by in the middle of this and the dive is complete. There is also muck diving here, which is top class and with lots of strange mainly invertebrate animals but also strange species of fish.
For those who are looking for an adventure beyond the tourist routes and can imagine a little simpler accommodation but want access to extremely good and mixed diving experiences, this is a fantastic part of the Philippines to discover and experience. Southern Leyte is also a great destination to combine other places in the Philippines with.
Southern Leyte is a star on the diving map of the Philippines. With all right, diving has now come here to establish itself. Here is one of the few places where you regularly see whale sharks without feeding them. They have their natural routes here through a strait and often move past here at certain times of the year. There is also a research station here that follows these creatures of the sea. There are several other large and medium-sized animals and in some places absolutely amazing corals, sponges, gorgonians, black coral and forms the reefs into pure magic. Fantastic macro diving is also available here, for example in little Lembeh or at the pier in Padre Burgos where magical night dives can also be done.
Here you will experience lots of funny and strange octopuses, an enormous number of different nudibranchs, frogfish, different kinds of ghost pipefish, crustaceans. The diving is mixed with everything from rock walls to flat sandy bottoms or more normal slopes and reefs. Sometimes turtles appear and add to the diving experience. Southern Leyte is a perfect place to combine with, for example, more famous ones Malapascua but everything can be arranged. Maybe outright a live table attracts!
Term: Normally around 5-40 meters depending on choice of dive site.
Weather: Southern Leyte is relatively far south but can be really windy and rainy mainly July - November but the region actually has two different climates where the eastern and least developed part has the most rain November - January. Normally the weather is good in the western part of the island although the region has over 150 rainy days a year normally. Further north on the island it can be worse which is why transport to and from here can be seriously disrupted during that time of year. Southern Leyte has varying water temperatures of between 24-30 °C depending on the time of year and ocean currents but most of the year it is the upper part of the temperature scale, although it normally creeps lower in January-February and can be down to 23-24 °C. The marine life is good all year round and varies depending on the time of year.
