Notes from Tañon Strait, Days 5-6: Overnight on Mantalip Reef, Sailing with Dolphins in Bais

Sailing with the dolphins in Bais • Image for Oceana Philippines

Two days is way too short to appreciate the beauty (and creature comforts) of Hale Manna in Moalboal, Cebu.  The huge rooms and wide open garden that opens up to the sea will have to give way to two days of bunking on the liveaboard of Harold Dive Center.  Sort of two days since I get to stay overnight on a reef station, but that's getting ahead of the story.  

We make an excursion southwest across Tañon strait to Bindoy in Negros Oriental (located less than 2 hours drive from Dumaguete City) to meet, talk and share lunch with Mayor Valente Yap.  The shallow water near the mangrove areas meant we have to ride a rubber raft from the liveaboard heading to what Yas aptly calls the Mangrove Pavilion.  It was a hot day and the locals certainly didn't want to waste another minute in the sweltering heat, not when the clear, cool waters under the mangroves were too inviting for a swim.