Apo is famous for it’s ecological approach to fishing and sustainability. The coral here looks like something from a Disneyland theme ride. We swam (snorkeled) with huge sea turtles (Very Cool!), hiked a small mountain, took some great photos, watched UFC in the living room of a local family man, and learned how to survive in the small village outside of our resort.

 

Apo was a unique challenge and experience. It’s a small island that has limited electricity and and fresh water has to be imported. It’s hot in the Philippines and Liberty’s, the place where we stayed, positioned their raised huts so barely any wind would enter them from the ocean. We had a stand-fan in the room but it only spun for 10 hours a day because the electric generator only ran in three hour spurts. Around 10pm (usually earlier) it would stop and we would sweat under a mosquito net that wasn’t up to the challenge of keeping us protected.

 

We bathed in a brackish saline water that left us feeling sticky, and at times you just wanted to stand in the ocean to equalize your body temperature.

 

We had a negative experience trying to get our “Open-Water Diving Certificate” from a PADI dive shop,  Click here to Read my Letter to PADI and because of that, had to stay on the island longer than we wanted to.

 

 

 

 

 

What We Learned

 

- Bring some mosquito spray and sunblock.

 

- Get your drinking water from 5 gallon bottles in town. You’ll save a lot of money.

 

- Charge your batteries when given the chance.

 

- Check your dive equipment to make sure it’s in good condition before commiting to anything.

 

- Buy anything you can from the local village instead of your resort.

 

- Be cautious of sea conditions before traveling to and from the island; It gets really choppy.

 

- Bring enough money; The credit card machine didn’t work at Liberty’s and left us with no cash to spare.

 

- The snorkeling in the marine sanctuary is fantastic.

 

- Be prepared to sweat.