Mantalip Reef: Your Group's Next Summer Destination
Mantalip Reef: Your Group's Next Summer Destination
Okay, the title is a bit misleading since you can totally go there any time of the year, as long as the weather permits.
Mantalip Reef is a coral reef formation off the coast of Bindoy, Negros Oriental. It has two buildings built on the reef, one is the Bantay-Dagat headquarters and the other one is the rental building. The rental building has two rooms with two beds and one CR each. Total bed capacity is approximately 10 adults (tight).
I’m not sure how big the actual reef is but it covers quite a large area. The reef is more or less circular, at the edge of which is a super steep underwater cliff. We weren’t able to cover the whole area snorkeling, though this is mostly because we were afraid to venture too far from the buildings. It’s daunting to think of swimming all the way around the reef. I also don’t think it’s safe unless you’re a really good swimmer because the current is quite strong.
Anyway, as long as there is no typhoon or low pressure area, the place is a really great summer, and non-summer, outing destination. My friends and I went there on October 2015. There were 12 of us and we contributed P600 each, all-in.
What to Prepare:
First off, you have to make a reservation for the place (Bindoy Tourism – 09178453015). A reservation gives you complete ‘reign’ over the entire place for the entire period, except for the Bantay-Dagat headquarters. There will be no guests other than your group, so if you don’t really like your companions and expect to spend time with random strangers you might meet, this is not the place for you.
Make sure that you ask for an extra contact number in case you arrive there and find that the number you’ve been contacting suddenly becomes out of reach. Also, call them before you arrive to inform them of your estimated time of arrival. We had a little setback because the reservation officer forgot to inform the guide/boatman of our reservation. We had to wait for around an hour for the necessary preparations (calling the boatman, buying fuel, etc.). One upside of this is that we managed to get a discount to compensate for the delay. =)
Next, and for me the most important, is to prepare your food. You will be at the area (in the middle of the sea) during the whole time and there will be no vendors there. I managed to convince (dictator-style) our birthday girls to provide lechon so we were basically set food-wise. But of course we had back-up: fish for sugba dinner and bread for breakfast the following day. I don’t like going hungry, obviously.
Bring your drinks of choice but don’t forget drinking water, and lots of ice. Good to note: you don’t need ice for tequila. Just saying. =)
Also remember that your cooking paraphernalia, sugba materials and utensils are on you. You only get a cooking area, no stove, no pots, no charcoal.
Finally, bring your swimming & snorkeling gear. If you’re into snorkeling, you’ll be delighted. If you aren’t, you really should start changing your mind. Our friend Jen was so scared to try it at first but eventually enjoyed it. You just have to get over your fear.
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| Jen finally getting over her fear of everything underwater. =) |
How to Get There:
From Dumaguete City, you travel North by private vehicle or by bus to Bindoy which is approximately 1.5 hours away. A little after Bindoy proper is the Dumolog Market where the take-off point to Mantalip is located (just a little after the INC church). There’s a big signboard that’s hard to miss. There is a parking area there for your private vehicles. From there, you will ride a nice pumpboat to Mantalip Reef, around 10 minutes away. The pumpboat fare is included in the rental fee for the place.
What to Do There:
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| Photo Courtesy: Ivory Locsin |
If you’re like us, who’ve just been bitten by the snorkeling bug, your time will be mostly spent floating around looking at all the different kinds of corals and colorful fish. The more notable fish we saw were the squids, the schools of sleeping fish, and the cornetfish. This last one I had to google; we called it ‘dahon-dahon’ at the time, then ‘branch’ when we got closer and found just how big they were.
Comparatively, I think the Dauin Marine reserve has the more impressive fish population, especially in terms of the size of the fish. Plus Dauin has pawikans so there’s that. But the corals at Mantalip are more ‘alive’ looking, and the fish are far from disappointing.
The more confident swimmers took selfies with the sea slugs and got pictures of them overlooking the underwater cliff. This is not for everyone. You can just imagine what predator lurks in the darkness behind those schools of little fish.
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| Still Ivory. She's one of the confident swimmers I mentioned. |
Anyway, aside from swimming, the building has a lot of space for recreational games and activities for groups. The activity area can probably hold as much as 50 people.
We rented a karaoke machine (can be arranged along with the initial reservation) that my friends enjoyed well past midnight. There are no neighbors to worry about so you can have an all-night marathon if you want.
Card games are another great option. Noel and Ivory, new additions to our travel group, introduced this game called Cards Against Humanity. In retrospect, it really wasn’t a great game considering that the target audience is not the mostly-bisdak-crowd. But then there was lots of alcohol so everything seemed fun.
You also have to try jumping into the sea from the railings. Of course you have make sure that the water is deep enough. You can check online when the highest tide will be and keep it in mind during your trip. Or you can just MM it (mata-mata. hehe). If the water is too shallow and you start jumping into the water, the Bantay-Dagat people will most likely reprimand you. For the not-so-good swimmers, your boatman can lend you life vests if you ask.
And, glad I remembered, you also have to go night swimming. Or at least night sea-watching. There are a few bio-luminescent organisms in the water that makes it sparkle so it’s nice. Not as much as that of Sipalay, but still nice (I will make another blog about Sipalay soon, hopefully).
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| Told you the boat was nice. Models: Sir Judy, Gwen, Ly |
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| Karl, Ly, Ivory, Sir Judy, Mae, Edz, Jen, John. |
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| Judie & Noel bonding. Photo Courtesy: Nicole Franchezca Flores |
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| Let's ruin the mood theme. =) Photo Courtesy: Nicole Franchezca Flores |
Extra Comments:
The structural integrity of the building is on the questionable side. It’s evident that there was very little, if any, professional supervision during the construction: there were a lot of honeycombs in the concrete, the rebars were exposed (no spacers used) and a lot of the excess construction materials and scaffolds were left behind. These were not just mild cases; there’s one slab where almost all the rebars were exposed and corroding. It’s really sad considering that the design of the building is quite nice and the location is great.
Also, I’m slightly concerned about the future of the corals. Tourists swimming in the shallow waters are bound to damage the corals a tiny bit at a time. The more tourists coming, the more damage to the corals. I’m not sure how they can prevent this though; maybe, restrict swimming to high tide times only? I’m not sure. But there should be some kind of preventive actions before the damage becomes irreversible.
Now that I’ve finished re-reading my article, I realize that it sounds so monotonous and “textbooky”. Maybe I’ll revise it, maybe not. We’ll see. For now, let’s just make do with this. =)
1 comments
Chada!
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