Amun Ini, Anda, Bohol, Philippines (May 2025)

After a pre-trip blackwater blow-out with Steve and Greg at Anilao, and successful thresher shark sessions in Malapascua with Lynn’s co-op group, we were on to the final stage (for us) of this 3-segment journey in the Philippines, an isolated dive resort in the Anda region of eastern Bohol, Amun Ini.  In terms of accommodation and culinary delights, this was a major case of saving the best for last.

Friday, May 9, 2025

This was quite a lo-o-o-ong day of non-stop travel.  Suitcases were out on the patio by 7 am.  After taking our group photo with Dor and Martin and saying good-bye to the Ocean Vida staff, we boarded a 7:30 am ferry taking us back across the channel to Cebu.  We had a long van ride in store for us (half the length of the elongated island) to the ferry terminal at Cebu City.  Our crazy driver delivered us there, shaken but intact,  by noon, well ahead of the scheduled 1 pm departure.  We successfully met up with Terri amid the crowd.  The terminal was hot and chaotic and the delayed departure of our ferry was endured by imbibing freshly blended mango smoothies and undergoing chair massages, administered for 100 pesos by blind masseuses. Godzilla playing on the monitor in the upper-floor business class section helped to entertain us on the 2-hour OceanJet ride.  I finished reading an excellent short story collection, Amor Towles’ Table for Two, which includes the continuing adventures of Eve Ross, now in LA, a pivotal character in Towles’ Rules of Civility.

Bigs, the dive operation manager at Amun Ini, met us at the ferry terminal.  By this time, Terri realized she must have misplaced her phone at the ferry terminal.  It was expeditiously located and arrangements were swiftly made to reunite her with it the following day.

The 2-hour drive was pretty, with more rural and coastal scenery than our traverse of Cebu. Our bags were sent ahead in another vehicle and were already deposited in our rooms when we arrived in the dark. To great effect, the outer gate sprang open to a chorus of “Welcome home!”  The name Amun Ini means  “this is ours” in the Ilonggo Dialect.  The resort was in every way a delightful step up in luxury and the food was commensurate in quality.  After such a long journey on a hot day, this was a most agreeable landing spot.

An option to shortcut this day-long journey is via a low-flying helicopter.  With 8 people, it would cost about $450/person, a luxury item for sure, but maybe a consideration for a future trip?

Saturday, May 10, 2025

Today is Lynn’s birthday, the original impetus for scheduling this trip at this time.  It is also my 89-year-old mother’s birthday, as well as our friend James.

For the first of a series of delicious breakfasts, I selected the homemade chorizo hash.

Steve, Greg and I were matched with Lito as our dive guide.  Greg’s brother Mike knew Lito from prior stays.

Our two morning dives (Turtle Point and Ipo Slope) with Lito were frustrating for me.  I had unexpected difficulty focusing.  I discovered later my camera was still set on continuous low from the threshers.

Two turtles awaited us at appropriately named Turtle Point. On our second dive at Ipo Slope, another turtle sported a remora on its head.  We started the dive with pregnant bagibanti pygmy seahorses.  There was a healthy mix of hard and soft coral.

I enjoyed my lunch of mungbean falafel sandwich.  Afterwards, I finally, finally, finally managed to unlock the drone.

I wasn’t ready in time to do the 3rd dive on the house reef, which Steve said was very productive.  Kim evidently didn’t agree, even writing on her arm slate “not my kind of dive!”  She reportedly took the staff to task afterwards, enough that Sandy felt the need to apologize to Bigs and her husband René afterwards and even made a heart sign underwater to the guide, a reference to their motto “smile when you dive and love your dive guide”.

Greg, Mike , Dan and I did the mandarin fish dive at dusk.  It was a short run to Ido Point, around the corner from the resort.  It was the smallest rubble patch/mandarinfish dive site I’d ever encountered, with threatening longspined black sea urchins in prime positions.  The guide moved some urchins but seemed to only succeed in concentrating them in a shallow ravine with room for only one person.  The tiny fish crept around. It grew more exciting when two larger males got into it, grappling repeatedly.

I saw one transient mating event but was mostly blocked by sea urchins.  Not far away was a nice ghost pipefish pair but I had a lot of trouble focusing using only a red light.

Sunday, May 11, 2025

This was another photographically frustrating day. At Poblacion,  I was having difficulty focusing, even on easy-to-see sizable subjects, including seahorses, cuttlefish, emperor shrimp on sea cucumbers.

Our second dive (Mimic Point) started with an indolent true sea snake, coiled in a rounded depression in the sand.

I changed some settings after lunch and had more success at Turtle Point, with flatworms and nudibranchs.

Mike had an eventful solo mandarinfish dive, running out of space on his card just when a series of great subjects appeared at the end of dive, including a blue-ringed octopus and a bobtail squid.

I finally managed to order an appropriate amount of food, splitting the watermelon chevre salad with Steve and sharing the mixto paella with Steve and Greg, as well as a bread pudding (and a little of Terri and Sandy’s chocolate lava cake).  Bigs had warned us that we might take home a few extra pounds as unwelcome souvenirs of Amun Ini.

Monday, May 12, 2025

Today was election day in the  Philippines.  On all of our transfers, the streets had been plastered with posters bearing the faces of the candidates.  Accordingly, the day started later to give staff a chance to vote, with a 9:30 am departure instead of the usual 8:30 am.

When I walked down to the dive center, Bigs flagged me down.  Owner Fred was there.  In low voices, they said a German-speaking guest complained about a drone parked outside his room.  Apparently, this guest was a source of non-stop complaints about virtually everything since arriving for a 30-day stay.

On this charge, I was innocent, as I had launched my drone from the dive center and flown it straight out over the ocean, as witnessed by Bigs.  Greg had launched his drone from his balcony but also had flown straight out to sea. Later, he wondered if it was his drone the guest complained about as he paused the drone between two palm trees to frame a view looking out to the ocean.  We later confirmed these trees were right on the shore, away from the rooms.

My focus issue seemed to be fixed by the series of changes made the prior day.  We again dove the seahorse sea grass bed (Anda Town).

A series of subjects ensued, including a dragonet and a minuscule pygmy squid.

Shaun the sheep was too tiny for me, even with the CMC.  It looked to my eye like a speck of sand.

Mike and Greg forgot their pumps and it was quite amusing on the surface interval watching them sucking madly on their housings to achieve vacumns inside.

Sandy had requested mangos at breakfast to bring along and sliced them for sharing while we waited to go back in the water for our second morning dive.  Amun Ini’s boat is the first we encountered on this trip that is not unpleasantly loud.

At Ipo Wall, Lito found an anal-dwelling sea cucumber crab. It was hard to tell which end was front or back.

A curious eel peered out from a crevice on the wall.

At our late lunch (a delicious eggplant romano sandwich), I barely downed dessert before having to run back down to leave for the third dive (Dapdap).  Steve sat it out.  I thought I would make it through the 3rd dive with the battery reading 1/3 left, but ran out early, just before Lito found a soft coral crab, after shooting an anemonefish with eggs and a sea slug.

A large crab greeted us on the beach on our return.

I overdid it at dinner, sharing a jackfruit appetizer, flatbread pizza with shrimp, fish and shrimp kabobs with rice and a green mango salad.

Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Even before leaving for the morning dives, we had not one but two cases of mistaken identity.

Steve’s wetsuit went missing.  It was eventually located on another guest (BJ, I later learned) with an identical one, other than Steve’s personalized orange zipper pull, which clinched the case. Thankfully, this discovery was made before the other group departed, while they were still sitting in the briefing area.

I managed to don one of Sandy’s Fourth Element booties without noticing I was wearing mismatched booties (both Fourth Element, but different styles).  Then I found a third (my other) Fourth Element bootie in my cubby, fortunately before Sandy missed hers.

Our two morning dives were beautiful wide-angle sites (Mangloom and Snapper’s Cave).  The current was running enough that they were effectively drift dives.

There were a panoply of turtles on the first dive, at least 7, on the sand, cruising the drop-off edge, sporting remoras, even a double remora chapeau.

We found two pairs of nudibranchs with eggs, a large pale blue frogfish in a matching sponge protruding from the wall, a corallomorph shrimp, a soft coral crab, even a couple of electric clams.

On our second dive, Lito encouraged a tiny goby up a whip coral to join its partner.

There were many nudibranchs and a bevy of sexy shrimp.

The dive ended with the 3 of us chasing a banded sea krait as it hunted on a shallow reef.

For lunch, Steve and I split our new favorites, the eggplant romano sandwich and the watermelon and chevre salad.

I had a chance to see the house reef as the afternoon dive.  Even though it is just offshore, we still went via the trusty Eagle 2. This was formerly a stunning site, until a storm battered portions of the reef.

It still yielded a plethora of interesting subjects, including ornate ghost pipefish (a single and a pair) and a tridacna clam farm.

A pair of large frogfish huddled next to each other inside a metal reef armature.

I enjoyed an early evening massage afterwards. Kim advised asking for mosquito coils , as she had been thoroughly munched on a prior day. The open-air pavilion is set up for couples massages. I offered the open spot to Terri since Steve was disinclined.  Over a ginger tea afterwards, I learned about my masseuse’s travails working as a domestic in Saudi Arabia, which sounded harrowing.

For dinner, we shared the chicken liver appetizer and the apple walnut salad, while I indulged in a half portion of the gambas and a “baby” chocolate lava cake.

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

I continued my exploration of the breakfast menu with Callie’s crepe, with olives, corn, bacon, tomato and cheese, accompanied (of course) by a fresh mango.

There was brisk current, making it tough to shoot on our first dive (Lumayag).  Lito pointed out a tiny Noumea nudibranch, as well as large pipefish down in the sand.

Juvenile catfish were scrabbling and rolling over the sand.

Frogfish and leaf scorpionfish were the themes of the second dive at Bluestar.

A pair of nudibranchs laying eggs on a broken stalk of coral defied Greg’s efforts to position them at a better angle (the stalk kept falling over).

In addition to a beautiful flatworm, there was a large scorpionfish nearby on the opposite coral clump.

Greg and I had a chance to do an introductory tutorial with Rene on the OceanReef full-face mask.  By now, I had cheeks dotted with red welts from stinging Invisibles in the water column.  I also was having a lot of issues with my mask leaking, hampering the ability to see if my auto-focus was engaged or not.

Under the shade of one of the seating areas outside the dive center, Greg, Steve, Dan, Laura, Mike and I listened as René explained the functions of different parts of the full face mask and how to don it correctly (insert chin firmly, tighten the middle straps (alternating sides), then the bottom straps and finally the top.  Then, the deckhands brought a couple of scuba rigs into the ocean from the boat (so much quieter than at Aiyanar and Ovean Vida) and Greg and I did an in-water try-out.  We had to demonstrate the bailout maneuver before being allowed to use the masks on a dive.  This consisted of doffing the mask by grasping the under-chin strap, thereby loosening both sets of lower straps, and then removing the mask in one fluid motion.  As it was hooked up to a regulator, we could let it float next to us. While exhaling, we replaced our air source with an octopus.  Finally, we had to apply and clear our conventional face masks.  It had been many years since we had to do these maneuvers to obtain our initial SCUBA certification but it went smoothly enough.

Because of the class, I didn’t have a chance to change the camera’s battery.  I thought since it showed 2/3rd remaining that I would make it through the dive, but no…it died, just before Lito came up with a pair of soft coral crabs!

Steve sat out the third dive.  I went with Lito and Greg to a wall (Mamsa Point) with a slower current, more clearly seen with Josie’s full face mask, which has a wider field of view and doesn’t leak or fog.  It was noisy, probably because my hood was interfering with the seal of the mask, causing my hood to bubble up when I initially entered the water.  With my 7 mm hood pulled back, I was able to mostly tame the noise and had no problem on the dive itself.

Our Little Ray of Sunshine declared loudly on arrival at the intended dive site her preference to be taken to a site we hadn’t been to before.  I said (to no one in particular) that every dive is a new dive, which Sandy told me later she thought was the perfect response. For her part, as we were rinsing our gear after the dive, Sandy said, again to no one in particular,  “Veruca Salt”.  As we spun around, puzzled at the reference, she reminded us that Veruca Salt is the spoiled, petulant girl in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory who always insists on having her way.

Thursday, May 15, 2025

My first dive (at Birhen East) with the full face mask was a rough one.  Today I tried it without wearing a hood.   The nose pieces (used to manually equalize if necessary) were occluding my nose enough I couldn’t easily breath through it.  The roar of the air exiting the top of the mask was terrible, as if I was adjacent to a jet engine.  The only quiet was when I inhaled. Even hard-of-hearing Steve could hear it underwater! This caused me to go through my air much faster than usual.

The second dive with the mask, at Chris Lion Rock, was better.  This time I wore my 3 mm hood and the nose pieces were adjusted so that I could breath through my nose instead of my mouth, a major advantage of this system.

Everyone but Kim decided against doing an afternoon dive, preferring to give our gear the maximum chance of drying out before packing. Kim was motivated to dive, by it being a milestone dive-her 400th.  That evening, Bigs presented her with a commemorative micro-fiber cloth, printed with pictures they had captured earlier in the week.  Kim’s comment:  “It would have been nice if they put Amun Ini on it.”  Departing the evening meal, she must have dropped it, as it reappeared in the dining room with a staff member, while we were still lingering over dessert.  Earlier in the week,  Sandy also achieved a milestone of 200 dives, which Bigs was chagrined to learn of on our final morning.

Steve and I enjoyed 60-minute Swedish massages in the open-air pavilion after the morning dives and before a late lunch.

Late in the afternoon, with thunder rumbling in the clouds, I flew the drone briefly, out over the reef, taking images of the resort and the island.

After I packed up the drone for the trip home, as I was exiting the dive center, a paunchy middle-aged man in a black Speedo rushed up to me from the beach.

In an accusatory voice, he said: “You flew outside our balcony the other day and were filming us!”

Me:  “No, I flew out over the ocean.”

Him:  “If I see this (gesturing to the drone), I kill it!” (This with a dramatic thrust of his arm as if he could strike the drone from the sky).

I gave him a pitying look and turned to go. (Thinking “Really, dude, I have nothing better to do than peep into your room.  Have you looked in a mirror lately?”)

Him: “That’s right, you go!  You’re a bad woman!”  (That was a first, I guess it is something to make it to 65 before being accused of being a bad woman!)

Me:  “You’re ridiculous.”

In the evening, we saw Swiss guy sidling up to the other table of Californians.  I learned later that he and his wife had been on the same boat with their group for several days and had gradually progressed from monosyllabic responses to conversations. From across the dining room, Steve interpreted this interaction as he must be currying favor with the other group regarding the drone “incident”.  Steve flipped him off while Mike yelled “Schesskopf” in his general direction.  It was far enough away, on the opposite side of the dining room,  that I don’t think Swiss guy noticed he was being disrespected.

For our final meal, a family-style FIlipino feast was served, including lumpia and chicken adobo.  I was seated next to Kim, for whom the kitchen had prepared separate versions of virtually every dish. I gather she did not eat gluten or chicken. Nor did she eat the lumpia specially prepared for her using a white, alternative non-gluten wrapper.

Friday, May 16, 2025

Our departure day was more leisurely and more fun than usual.  For starters, we didn’t have to leave until 10:30 am, so there was plenty of time to pack and settle up our accounts. We had pre-paid for 18 dives, of which Steve did 15 and I did 17.  More incentives to return- Amun Ini gave us credit for the unused dives, 3 for Steve and one for me, with 3 years to use them up.

After a final breakfast (granola for Steve and Indonesian style fried rice with tofu for me, as well as a final side of sliced mango, of course) and a group photo in front of the pool, we were packed up in two vans and made our way to the Panglao airport, with time allotted for two stops and lunch en route (prepared and packaged by the kitchen). The first stop was Bohol’s famous Chocolate Hills. They are an expanse of conical-shaped hills up to 1200 feet tall built on the site of an ancient coral reef 2-5 million years ago.  This limestone platform emerged from the sea a million years ago and along fracture lines, was further sculpted by flowing water into the Hills of today.

The second was a short forest walk in the Philippine Tarsier and Wildlife Sanctuary in Corella, home to the Philippine tarsier, a tiny primate that could easily fit in the palm of one’s hand.

There are three types of tarsiers, eastern, western and Philippine. They are all members of the Family Tarsiidae, but the Philippine tarsius is in its own genus, Carlito, named for conservationist Carlito Pizarras.   Not once,  but twice, we spent 4 harrowing hours racing 2 hours each way on curvy, narrow mountain roads in northern Sulawesi to see the eastern tarsier, so I was thrilled when Lynn suggested we incorporate a visit to see the Philippine tarsier (Carlito syrichta) on our way to the airport.

Sadly, all are endangered.  Loss of habitat to palm oil and coconut plantations is a major culprit, but at least one very rare variety (Siau Island tarsier) is threatened by being eaten as a snack!

Photographically, the tarsier shoot was technically difficult, due both to the small size of the tarsiers and the extreme darkness of their forest habitat.

I had to max out every parameter at my disposal (ISO 12800, wide open aperture f5.6), but elected to keep my shutter speed at 1/200, given the weight and focal length of the lens I hauled along, just for this shoot (100-400 mm).

I chatted with BJ from the other group from California on the 1.5 hour flight to Manila.  Bigs arranged a transfer for all of us to the international terminal.

I mostly slept on the flight home, but did wake up enough to see the gripping first episode of The Americans. That propulsive music in the first chase scene was to be a near-constant earworm companion for me over the following week.

While I was in the bathroom, just about to brush my teeth, I heard the dreaded call-is there a doctor on board?  Knowing hard-of-hearing Steve wouldn’t hear this, even without his AirPods in, I stepped out of the bathroom, clutching my toothpaste-laden toothbrush, to let the cabin attendant know we were available. I was surprised to see Greg leaning over Steve.  He had heard the announcement and also knowing Steve wouldn’t hear it, had already alerted him.  Steve was bustling around in our hand luggage for the pulse ox and blood pressure cuff, but I knew from the cabin attendant that they already had the patient’s vitals. Another doctor was already attending the patient, so we were off the hook.  It seems no trans-Pacific flight is complete for us without a call for medical attention.

As the plane decelerated, Steve’s AirPods, unsecured on the little drink platform between us, fell on the carpet and slid forward under Kim’s seat in front of us.  We found one easily but thought we might have to call in a mechanic to locate the other, as Kim had to do inbound to recover a small zippered case of chargers that disappeared inside her lie-almost-flat seat.  It didn’t come to that, as we ultimately located it under Steve’s seat where the slippery device had skated back in the opposite direction when the plane came to a halt.

Thus ended an idyllic Philippine 3-part dive adventure, complete with blackwater, a species of shark new to us, resorts ranging from basic to brilliant, plus an enchanting miniature primate encounter.  I enjoyed it thoroughly, despite missing more dives and shots for more different reasons than ever before. The upside is, thanks to GI issues, uncooperative ears and camera setting confusion, I took so many fewer images than usual, that I completed at least the first two posts in record time!

Given that Lynn, who organized this trip around her birthday and didn’t get to celebrate it with us, and that we have credit for dives at both Ocean Vida in Malapascua and Amun Ini, I’m hoping Lynn will be able and willing to organize a do-over before our 3-year credits expire!

-Marie