‘Sunken Cemetery’

We are in the middle of our surface interval and the boat is going around Mount Vulcan. It gives us a beautiful view of the other side of the volcano. Her eruption in 1871 caused the whole capitol of Camiguin to sink under the sea, along with its cemetery. The result; The Sunken Cemetery, which is now one of the most popular tourist attraction of the island and a unique dive site. The tombstones are not visible anymore and the only remain is this giant white cross that is standing in the middle of the sea.

This cemetery is completely taken over by nature and has changed in a beautiful garden of hard corals. Fisherman are not allowed to come here since it is a sanctuary and that results in the amount of fish that you see. Oh my god! So much fish! One group after the other is passing by and it just doesn’t stop! Snappers, damsel fishes, wrasses, banner fishes, butterfly fishes, they are all showing their beautiful colors. The current is mild, and we make a beautiful drift dive. In the beginning I started looking for the small critters, but then I decided just to go with the flow and enjoy all the beauty this dive site has to offer. No need to look for the small stuff, the view itself is stunning! The hard corals are so amazingly intact and the size of it is HUGE! Massive table corals are offering shelter to the small, but colorful fishes. Brain corals, barrel sponges, brush corals, they are all well presented. This dive site feels like it is never-ending and for the full 50 dive minutes we are just drifting and enjoying the view for every single second. Parrot fishes, trigger fishes, groupers, batfishes, oh my god! So many batfishes! They are all there in a large amount and it is just in one word; INCREDIBLE!

I almost forgot about the time and after 49 minutes I still didn’t want to shoot up my surface marker buoy. Reluctantly I start my safety stop. We reach out for the surface and while coming up I see the Giant White cross just in front of us with the beautiful landscape at her background. WOW!