Romblon Island: Underwater Paradise

posted on Sunday, May 29, 2016

It was 6 long months filled with anticipation. Seeing underwater pictures of the transparent nudibranch known as the 'Phantom' or Melibe Colemani, the tiger butterfly sea slug or Cyerce Nigra, and the rare Pontohi and Denise pygmy seahorses, prompted me to finally plan our dive in Romblon Island last November 2015. Some of these underwater species are apparently only found in Romblon.

Three P Holiday and Dive Resort is the only dive resort in Romblon Island. It is owned by a German family with Filipino descent. The mother of the resort's three P's (Peter, Philipp and Patrick) is a Romblon local. Before booking flights, I initially inquired on the resort’s availability. It has been known that local and foreign divers started flocking to Romblon to see these rare underwater subjects. Out of 5 available booking dates, we booked our stay during the third week of May 2016.

We opted to go to Romblon via Philippine Airlines flight to Tugdan Airport in Tablas Island. A one-way flight to Tablas costs approximately P4,000. Currently, however, only Cebu Pacific offers flights to and from Tablas. From the airport, it takes around almost 2 hours of land travel and boat ride to go to the resort. Another option is to take the 2GO Travel from Batangas Pier. Travel time takes 8 hours and usually departs Batangas Pier at 10 pm. The ship arrives at Romblon Island at around 6 am the next day. Ticket price per pax ranges from P1,027 to P1,530, depends if you’re booking for economy, tourist or cabin.

One thing that made Ling and me anxious about our trip, however, was the delay in the arrival of my Canon S120 camera’s new Ikelite housing. Our back-up plan was to use my old Canon S95 camera. Last time I used it was 2 years ago. But instead of using its initial setup with an Intova ISS 2000 strobe, I used my Sea and Sea YS01 strobe.

We did a total of 7 dives during our 4-day stay. And believe me, it weren’t enough! Our dive guides, Peter and Patrick, made it a point to check everything off our Romblon dive bucket list. And yes, we saw everything we wanted! Diving in Romblon was way more than what I’ve imagined. The feeling of seeing something for the first time every dive was just beyond exhilarating. Good thing my ever-reliable Canon S95 didn’t disappoint. Happy viewing!