The Dubai American Academy has spent the past week here with kids doing diving courses or learning sailing. Along with that they also got to experience many other wonderful aspects of the Philippines. Five kids and one teacher completed their PADI Open Water course, six kids and one teacher did their PADI Advanced course and 23 learned to sail.  A big thank you to all the teachers; Hardy Fichardt, Teresa Cantu, Ryan Erickson, Jibola Ajayi, and Ruby Bergonia who made things run so smooth for us. We look forward to our tenth anniversary with you next year!

Here are the proud DAA Sailors showing off their certificates. The kids learned to sail through the Puerto Galera Yacht Club thanks to Bob Johnson, Daryl Calbert along with their whole team.  They also enjoyed a day of sightseeing around the area by jeepney.

DAA visited a school at Verde Island as part of their community service activity. They had a great day with the kids! We had Frank Devriese our paraplegic diver joining us with a lot of interaction with the kids (Frank is a reading teacher back in Belgium) and with a lot of help from the boatman and the kids, we managed to get him up the stairs and over walls to get him around the island. It was also interesting with a little help from the Perth Subiaco Rotary Club, we managed to donate a generator for the school. The old generator they had was on its last legs, it was in fact broken for months, they did get it going but it struggled to keep running, so when we arrived with a generator they were very excited. Not only that, we managed to simply plug the new generator in and turn the key and away it went. The DAA donated a lot of school supplies and clothing, all well received by the school. The kids then broke into groups of six and went off to different grade rooms and played games with the different classes. It was very good to see the way the kids interacted with one another. Finally it was time to leave, so all kids came out of the classrooms and started playing games outside, then it was a big farewell with a group photo and off we went, Frank and all, to the shelters on the beach where we had a wonderful BBQ, games on the beach, lots of fun before leaving to head back to El Galleon.

This month’s cover photo by Malcom Hammer who was one of the winners of the HUGYCUP 2014/2015. The HUGYCUP photo competition was held from Feb to April 2015. You can really see Puerto Galera’s amazing marine biodiversity looking through these winning photos.  See more of Malcoms’ photos on the HUGYCUP website: http://2014.hugycup.com/ If you don’t already receive our weekly newsletter and would like to be put on the mailing list please use this link: http://www.asiadivers.com/asiadivers/subscribe.php

Another option for coming to Puerto Galera is by sea plane. See http://www.airjuan.com/book-now.php

One person with 20 kg = P4,500 plus 10kg @ 100 = P5,500
One person with 30 kg = P4,500 plus 20 kg @ 100 = P6,500
One person with 40 kg = P4,500 plus 30 kg @ 100 = P7,500

One person to fly with 40 kg is about the same price as taking the private transfer. The only difference is that it’s a scheduled plane and it only takes 25 to 30 min to get here.

If I am two people without excess its P9,000 (20 kg each it’s P11,000) so I could take private transfer and be cheaper, so it does not work with two or more people with the exception its faster, more fun.

Charter one way is $1,350 or with 9 pax its $150 a head or P7,050. It does not work that well for groups.

The Dubai American Academy has arrived and are well into a fun week of diving, sailing and adventures. There are 6 doing their Open Water course, seven on the Advanced course and 26 kids are learning to sail with the Puerto Galera Yacht Club. We’re thrilled to have the school back with us for the ninth year in a row! We’ll have more photos in next week’s newsletter.