Snuggled against the reef, a "knit-striped" snake. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
Snuggled against the reef, a "knit-striped" snake. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, January 2008)

The small underwater fauna of Leyte in pictures

#Philippines

  Philippines: Visayas - February 2008

Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation of an article originally written in French. I apologise for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have resulted. If you read French, click on the French flag below to access the original, correct text: 


For lack of whale shark, in Sogod Bay (Leyte), I fell back on the little people of the reef... And there's plenty to do and observe!

I haven't written much since Leyte, where I started my trip to the Philippines (February 2008), because of the lack of a decent internet connection. But here I am now in Siquijor, where I write from Larena, the port and main city of the island. There is a relatively "high speed" internet center which will allow me to send more pictures. Here are some pictures I brought back from the reefs of Sogod Bay.

The reign of the "little one

So I was on the island of Leyte, in Lungsodaan near the town of Padre Burgos, to dive in the Sogod bay. On the spot, I opted for the nice little Sogod Bay Scuba Resort (SBSR)This is the first of a series of diving courses, created by two divers, an Englishman and an Australian, living in the Philippines: Ron Sparkes and Phil McGuire.

Update. Ron passed away in 2014, at the age of 66 or 67, as I found out years later, by visiting the page "Our team" of the SBSR.

My hope in Sogod Bay was to meet whale sharksI was probably there a little too early, because they were not there yet. I was probably there a little too early, because they were not there yet...

Fortunately, there were plenty of other bugs to console me.

A small family of clownfish. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
A small family of clownfish. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
Snuggled against the reef, a "knit-striped" snake. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
Snuggled up against the reef, a "tricot-striped" snake. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
This scorpion fish is watching me bubble, impassive. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
This scorpion fish is watching me bubble, impassive. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
An antenna or "toadfish" white, well on its fins in the middle of the coral. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
A white antennae or "toadfish", standing on its fins among the coral (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
A crinoid, clinging to a branch of coral. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
A crinoid, clinging to a branch of coral. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
It's not easy to photograph a pygmy seahorse... It's no bigger than the nail on my little finger. (Sogod Bay, Leyte, January-February 2008)
Not easy to photograph a seahorse-pygmy... It is not bigger than the nail of my little finger (Sogod Bay, Leyte, January-February 2008)

On the "small" side, I also enjoyed nudibranchsThese little sea slugs have amazing colors (they wear their gills naked on their back, hence their name).

Here, nudibranchs are numerous, and their variety is spectacular... I photographed them endlessly!

A beautiful flashy pink nudibranch! (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
A beautiful flashy pink nudibranch! (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
Horns forward! (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
Horns forward! (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
Another one! (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
Another one! (Sogod Bay, Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)

The sites of Leyte are splendid, the coral is remarkably preserved. At the moment, the visibility is not so good, which forces us to concentrate on the "small" more than on the "big". According to Ron, you have to come in summer, in July for example, to hope to have a 20-30 meters visibility. But at this period, no whale sharks to pass...

All the usual tropical fauna is there, in abundance. Max Climates, the house-reef (the part of the reef just in front of the dive center) is beautiful. The site of Napantao, on the other side of the bay, just in front of the center, with two drop-offs full of life, is my favorite, I think (sometimes the current is a bit treacherous, we are advised to be very careful, but the day I was there, nothing at all).

Dive sites in Sogod Bay. (Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
Dive sites in Sogod Bay. (Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)

Leyte, land side

I stayed only four days in Leyte, and I think now that maybe I should have extended my stay a little bit. To do a few more dives and discover more of the surroundings.

I only found the time to push to Padre Burgos on a tricycle. I didn't see anything at all of Malitbogcity located at about fifteen kilometers from where I was, where there is, if I believe my Lonely Planetone of the oldest churches in the area, built with dead coral.

The wind blows on the dead coral beach of Sogod Bay Scuba Resort. (Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
The wind blows on the dead coral beach of Sogod Bay Scuba Resort. (Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
The road to Padre Burgos is very quiet. (Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)
The road to Padre Burgos is very quiet. (Leyte, Philippines, February 2008)

At the end of the beach that the Sogod Bay Scuba Resort share with the Peter's Dive Center (the first diving center to have opened in this place, I think, at least the best known), there is a handful of shanties, half wood, half metal, and a few houses along the road, which make up the village of Lungsodaan.

The kids come back from school, school bags on their backs, uniforms with long plaid skirts for the girls, some of them already playing ball in the dust of the road. Everywhere, there are baskets and basketball courts, obviously more practiced than soccer, here. The American influence? The children (especially the girls, not intimidated at all!) are numerous to approach me, with the same eternal sentence, that they all had to learn in class: "Hello! What's your name?"

I try to answer by articulating well. Nothing works. "Corinne" systematically becomes "Cowine" or "Coquine". It works better when I pretend to be called "Corrina", like in the song...

In short, a charming welcome everywhere, in this small town not much frequented by tourists.

  Philippines: Visayas - February 2008

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  1. YES!!!Super!!!!!Still new!!!I'm glad to read you on this Sunday dedicated to laundry, and to the suitcase I'm unpacking to pack again.We're leaving tomorrow.I imagine that on your side a good Camembert bread wouldn't be so unpleasant for you.....From mine, I'd prefer some good Asian noodles!!!
    Your pictures are beautiful! I would not have liked to be in front of the snake, even less....Greg!!!!
    I'm kissing you strongly!

  2. Your pictures are extraordinary, and that's an understatement! Do you really see them underwater, with these colors? (I'm sorry, but this is a question for the candid...) In any case, I'm not even afraid of the snake, it's so beautiful! As for the nudibranchs, just writing the word is a pleasure, so when there are also the pictures that go with it...
    I do not know why, this article reminds me of Jules Verne!

    Well, let's come back to earth, it's time for the material and unavoidable contingencies of the weekend, let's not insist anymore.

    Didn't find the seahorse, but looked for a long time.

    Mil needs, mam.

  3. Hello Philippine!

    I just read the news of the bay deserted by whale sharks, the island of tourists, the quiet island... I feel like I've opened a book. I can't wait for the rest. (Without the accents, it's even more exotic!)

    Pascale

  4. Well, come on, one more comment before I leave for Gap; just for the pleasure of imagining that you will read it thousands of kilometers away...Ah....The magic of the internet!!!!
    My bag is not ready.....NOT WELL!!!!!Great laziness to prepare it! I decide to put the alarm clock a little earlier and to do it tomorrow.... Anyway, my laundry is not dry yet...pppfffffttttt!!
    Not much to tell you except that Greg turned 37 last Friday!
    Big kisses! I look forward to coming back Thursday to read you or see new pictures!

  5. Well, for the seahorse, I think that with the new image I posted, you all should finally see it... 😉

    A Mam: Yes, I really see them like that, these "inhabitants of the sea bed" as you call them nicely, but not exactly with the same colors. In fact, the water absorbs the light and the colors, the red disappears first, then, as we go deeper, the whole spectrum of colors goes through, so that at the end, everything looks blue... In reality, during a dive, it is with the light of the flash or the flashlights that we discover the "true" colors of the bugs and the corals, especially in the red-purple-orange... When we cut ourselves underwater, it is strange, because we see a strange black-green liquid beading at the end of our finger... which is nothing else than bright red blood!

    To Helene: with a little delay, happy birthday to Greg !!!

    🙂

  6. Great pictures. Thank you
    I just discovered your blog (following your comment on A World Elsewhere).
    It really takes a trained eye to find all this underwater.
    If you don't mind me asking, what kind of gear do you use to get such good results (even if the gear isn't everything 😉 ).

    Thank you again for your stories and pictures.
    François

  7. Hello Francois,

    I'm flattered by the comment... 😉

    But for the "informed eye" we have to pay tribute to the guides, who accompany the divers underwater, and spot for the divers all these charming little creatures not necessarily easy to see. They have an eagle eye! Without them, I would certainly not have found half of them, even if my eye is a bit more trained than when I started...

    As for the equipment, mine is modest: I use a simple APN, the Canon Powershot A95, and its WP-DC50 housing. For the moment, I don't have any additional lighting, only the built-in flash (which restricts me to underwater macro photography). It allows me to travel light, but I find myself a bit limited for ambient shots. This being said, I am very satisfied with what I can do with so few means.

    I will soon put all my underwater pictures from the Philippines on my other website, Diving in South East Asia. And following your comment, I will probably add a "hardware" page to this blog, because you are not the first to ask me this question.

  8. Bravo for photos Corinne, they seem to me more worked than the previous ones, no? ...

    I love nudibranchs, this "girl thing", I can't get enough of them and the Philippines seems to me (like Indonesia) to be THE destination to collect them...

  9. Yes, Marie-Ange... I've been paying much more attention to framing, thanks to your advice. And I can see the difference! 🙂

    To tell you the truth, you've been occupying my thoughts all the time, underwater... 😉
    Yes Yes!!! In front of each beast, I repeated to you constantly your indications: "The nudibranch dress, the nudibranch dress, fit at the height of the nudibranch dress ..." Same leitmotiv with the rest: "The eye of the fish, the eye of the fish... at the eye of the fish..."

    Now I just have to work on my computer the colors and the light for the ones I will put in my website Diving in South East AsiaI didn't have any editing software available in the internet cafes I sent these pictures from. But I like the idea of delivering my pictures as they are, raw, in the blog.

    I saw a lot of nudibranchs in Indonesia, but I almost feel that the quantity and variety is even greater in the Philippines... I am probably still in a state of wonder. A "girl thing", nudis? Not only... I saw quite a few gentlemen smoldering with the same emotional look as me.
    😉

  10. Sorry to have disturbed your photo dives! :-)))

    But I think the result is worth it, I find them more dense like that.

    Nudis = "girl stuff", it's an expression of my dear and sweet... It doesn't stop me from loving it!

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