The boat to San Jose wasn't the most comfortable, it didn't even have seats. It was a big Banka which is probably the most common boat you see in the Philippines. They are basically thin wooden boats, varying in size, with arms on both sides with long bamboo floats attached to stop them tipping over. This one just had a big flat wooden deck upstairs where everyone sat. It was an uncomfortable 7 hours and Pete was not impressed by the plate of rice and a grilled boney fish for lunch. Once we arrived we took a tricycle to the bus stop and got a bus to Sablayan, we stopped here for the night at a horror movie hotel. We ventured out with our new friend Oisin (pronounce Ush - Irish) to get some dinner, we couldnt find much so bought a whole roasted chicken and some burgers. There really was nothing in this town, only two or three hotels that are run down and disgusting!

The following morning we wanted to make our way to Pandan Island. There is a resort here that organises diving trips to the world famous Apo Reef. We hired a tricycle to run us around to get breakfast, go to the market and ATM and then drop us off where we caught a tiny banka over to Pandan.

The island was visible for most of the boat journey and looked stunning, it is prety much a desert island. When we arrived we were greeted by the owner of the island who has built a few huts which house a bar, restaurant, dive shop and lots of accommodation.

Once we had organised our extremly expensive diving (being only 1 of three places you can dive Apo Reef from they can pretty much charge what they like, and they made this point) we grabbed a snorkel and some fins (which they kindly lent us for free after our shocked faces of the diving prices) and went for a dip. We swam round for a while stunned by the amount and size of the fish then we spotted a turtle feeding on the bottom. We watched him for a while, it was amazing how graceful he was as he stopped and swam to the surface for air. After a while we noticed a big trigger fish getting close, Kate quickly moved out of the way and it decided to go in for the attack and chase Pete a good forty metres to the beach. It was hilarious. Oisin was laughing his head off but suddenly went quiet when the fish came back and went for him. The fish was huge and has very sharp teeth. We have been told that triggers can be aggressive before but when we've seen them in Thailand they have never gotten angry. Unfortunately it was nesting season though and they guard there nests very well, they have a territory that is cone shaped getting bigger towards the surface so if your on the surface your in the biggest part of it, exactly where Pete was. By the time he reached the beach he was well and truly out of breath. It's amazing how fast and how close the trigger will get to you as your kicking it away with your fins. We decided we weren't being chased out of the water by a fish and headed back in trying to avoid it's territory. We managed to get quite a way out when we spotted another turtle, only seconds later the trigger was back and again Kate moved out of the way quickly an it chased Pete even further to the shore, he even lost one of his fins on the way but couldn't stop for it. We called it a day after that and headed for the bar.

We met a couple of guys that had just returned from Apo reef and showed us their videos. It looked amazing and we couldn't wait to go. We told them about the trigger and one guy showed us his scar where a trigger bit him a few months before.

Every evening they do a great buffet here which we loved, it was difficult to put a three course meal away but Pete managed it and it was compulsory as there was no other option for dinner.

After breakfast we headed out snorkelling again but in a totally different area and then we had to do a test dive locally to prove we were competent for the Apo trip. This was a great dive. We grabbed our kit and got on a small floating platform with an outboard engine, 5 minutes later we were jumping in and watching turtles, eels and lots of other fish. We then headed back for the buffet.

Luckily we were all competent enough to go to Apo Reef so the following morning we were up at 6.30 and headed out on the boat. It took two hours to get there and we couldn't wait to get in to the water. From just jumping in you could see hundreds of fish, the water was so blue and visibility of at least 40 meters, we couldn't wait to start our descent. As soon as we had descended we saw some white tip reef sharks. There were huge shoals of different types of fish with a few sharks swimming in and out. We got to the coral wall and drifted along watching all the different life, it was amazing. The current was so strong, you just let it carry you along the wall so not that much swimming is was involved. When we surfaced we were all breathless and couldn't wait to go back down. We jumped back on the boat and headed to the next site, after an hour wait we were back in and it was just as good. We saw turtles, huge Napolean fish, gigantic Jack fish as well as sharks. All of a sudden our guide started flapping his hands, we thought there was a problem but we soon realised he was pointing out a huge Manta Ray out in the blue away from the reef. Everyone got very excited, Pete swam out over it to try and get a photo but it must have been 30 metres deeper than us. The visibility here was amazing though and that was a great way to finish our second dive.

We stopped and had lunch on the boat and then headed to Apo Reef island where our National Park fee was paid. This was an even smaller island miles from anywhere but we would later notice there were lots of sand flies nibbling away at us.

We headed back to the boat and got kitted up for a last dive which was just as good as the previous two. We headed back to Pandan, Kate having a sleep on the top deck, and Pete enjoying the free beer. That night we had some dinner and a few games of pool. Whilst there Pete and Oisin played a lot of pool trying to beat the two guys who worked there. They had played daily for the last twenty years but Pete managed to beat them in the end.

We really loved Pandan, it was a beautiful desert island and we were sad to wave it goodbye from the boat at 6 the next morning.