I spent a week diving with Atlantis Dive Center in April 2012 with my friends Carole and Leon, who arrived from Mumbai where Leon is currently working.
After a night at the Intercontinental Hotel in Makati, Manila I was picked up bang on time by Marco the driver then on to the airport to pick up Carole and Leon who were arriving on SIA from Singapore. After a two hour drive to Batangas we quickly transferred to a waiting banca and off we set for Puerto Galera.
After an hour we arrived at Sabang where Carole and Leon were greeting like long lost relatives. It soon became very clear why they chose this resort over others having been diving here for over 15 years.
We were quickly checked in with welcome drink plus welcome neck and shoulder massage, then shown to our rooms, which are pretty damn good.
Once unpacked we were given a quick tour, shown where we would stow our dive gear, how the Nitrox analysis worked, and of course the camera room, by Rusty who was assigned to us for our dives, and who was also well known to Carole and Leon.
THE DIVE BOATS - basic but adequate for the local conditions
Gas Analysis area with 50 BAR for apres diving refreshments, plus more than adequate rinse tanks that can accommodate several housed SLRs, the best I have ever come across. Asia Divers have only a small bucket that more suited to a point and shoot housed camera as I recall my housed SLR could not fit.
CAMERA ROOM with compressed air, decent paper towel, two computers with internet connection as well as various sockets with both 110 and 220 voltage for charging.
Very comfortable rooms
Basically there was only Carole, Leon, Rusty and myself diving on one small boat. The boatman was excellent.
Rusty was an excellent spotter, better than anyone who dived with me at Asia Divers, my eyes are getting old but he know where to find stuff and 90% of what I wanted to photograph was done on the first day over three dives.
Certainly planning to return later this year, and no doubt that Atlantis Dive Center have an edge over Asia Divers because of the whole set up, however there are a couple of things that could refine everything like the hot towels post dive that Asia Divers do, and a bit more flexibility on the food side.
Post dive refreshments at 50 BAR with Ton Ton the barman are also a lot of fun, how he and all of the other staff remember your name from Day 1 is amazing, hats off to them, fantastic hospitality.
