It was great to have Simon and Finn Josey back with us recently. They have been coming here for many, many years and we’re happy that Simon did his 200^th dive with us on this vacation! In-fact most of those 200 dives have been with us.

Another of our long time friends are here this week and it’s time to get the next generation diving. Wonderful to see Bonny, CY and the kids and to see that Tim is on his way to becoming an Open Water diver.

The Verde Island Passage Marine Corridor (VIP) is famously known as “the center of the center of marine biodiversity”. It is the proverbial heart of the Coral Triangle, the apex of aquatic life on Earth. The Passage’s 900,000 square-kilometer area is home to 60% of the world’s known shorefish species, and even as much has yet to be explored in its waters.

Asia Divers/El Galleon is lucky to have this amazing diving right on our doorstep!

Good morning Verdi Island!! What a stunning early morning photo by Beth Watson. She shot this one with her drone in the wee early hours of the morning.

Speaking of Verde Island…look what Alli and her group bumped into this morning on the pinnacle.  Yes, a lovely whale  shark spend a good few minutes with us just resting in the current while we were all racing around and getting out of breath. Check out the video: https://web.facebook.com/andy.xie.5836/videos/958153520993355/

A very happy group of divers today! Remily Middaugh, Shiyuan, Qin Zhen, Alli, David Potter and Joe Ashworth-Martin giving the “W” for WHALE SHARK signal.

Private IDC about to start

The PADI Instructor Exams are finished and we are off to starting our next (private) IDC today. What better way to begin an Instructor Development Program than having an awesome diving day… So we went to Chicken Feather Island for a Physics field day – cooking soup underwater in one of the many volcanic vents (to study heat transmission), explore a new dive site at Bonito Island and enjoy a fun time of a slow cruise back coupled with that stunning sunset shortly after. Now, we are ready for some skills…

You can also view a short video clip of the soup discovery here:

https://youtu.be/TVEGJ6ZxtWc

It’s been a full-on heavy metal time with several photographers here over the past couple weeks. Here are a few images taken by a couple folks which we though you would appreciate.

On Sunday Alli logged dive number 11,000 with awesome conditions and an awesome group of people including Ariana, Hanno, Ross, Brad, Steve and Beth. Most of those dives have been done in Puerto Galera.