Iligan City is a 1st class highly urbanized city in Northern Mindanao. It takes around 13 hours to travel from Cebu City to Iligan City via ferry. You have the option to travel via airplane but the nearest airport is at Cagayan de Oro City, which is around 2 hours away from the city. So for someone like me who brings some stuff during my travels, I always opt to ride the ferry going home.
A little Backstory...
I spent my childhood in Iligan City together with my classmates and friends. Usually, the spots I visited before are mini-malls or some parks to meet up with clanmates (YES, uso pa ang clan-clan atong panahuna HAHAHA). Even after I became an adult, I still visit these kinds of spots since ironically, I am less adventurous if I'm in Iligan City because my aunt and uncle may scold me if I go to risky places LOL. In my 28 years of existence, I only visited a few spots in Iligan City such as Tinago Falls, Mimbalot Falls, and other developed tourist spots.
Last August 2022, I enrolled myself in Introduction to Freediving Class at Cebu. And then after a few months, diving from spot to spot and posting different pictures on Social Media, my elementary classmate, Marben, reacted to one of my posts. Little did I know, he is also a freediver who loves to do spearfishing. So we had a conversation and I was surprised that he usually dives at Iligan City only. I was surprised because I didn't know our hometown has its own diving spot. Even though Iligan City is a city near the sea, the sea here usually has bigger waves, and the beach does not have white sand which no one expects to have a diving spot. Even my uncle and aunt don't know about it.
Few months passed and just in time for my vacation in Iligan City, I contacted Marben and arranged a fun dive. Good thing that he has a friend who is also a free diving coach of Upok Iligan.
Freediving at Dalipuga, Iligan City Experience
The day arrived and I went to Dalipuga. It is a barangay near the northern boundary of the City to the next municipality. The weather was not good at all. In fact, in the past few days, the weather was really not good. I was still hoping for sunshine so we can have a safe and fun diving experience. I arrived at almost 8 in the morning at Batoctoy Eatery which is the jump-off of the diving spot. This eatery is just beside the road, and there were dikes beside so who would have thought that it is a diving spot. LOL!
After a few hours and a few rain showers, we decided to push through the diving. Coach Steve brought a life buoy and a rope for line diving because there are also new freedivers who are also practicing.
We commenced our free dive. They have set up their life buoy and went to the spot where it's 20 meters deep. OMG they are so hardcore haha! I even cannot reach that deep. Since the weather was not good, the waves and currents are not welcoming. Good thing I took a Bonamin tablet because if I didn't do it, I might have been vomiting.
I only hitched their free dive practice session and Coach Steve let me try to line dive. As I was going down, my right ear was not cooperating. It was not able to equalize! My ear and head started to get hurt. Free Diving SOP, if you cannot equalize even if you try, just don't force it as it may cause a nosebleed. So yeah, I went up to the surface and just relaxed because it was really painful. However, Upok Iligan did what they do best, free diving up to 20 meters. Some of them were able to reach it, and some of them are still practicing. I didn't force myself even after multiple attempts. However, I think I reached around 12-14 meters deep during that dive.
Dive Spot Impressions
As someone who has been to multiple spots such as Moalboal and Siquijor, I would say the dive spot in Dalipuga is not as pleasant as the others. The water is very murky and it's very difficult to see the ocean floor even 10 meters deep. However, when you reach past 10 meters, the water becomes clear and you can see different kinds of corals and a few fishes. According to Marben, it is really rare to see clear water on the dive spot. So you really do not set high expectations to see such an apple to your eyes when you dive there.
I think this dive spot is best for practicing free diving as it offers different depths and a bit of challenge due to the waves and currents.
At the end of the day, it was still a fun dive. I was able to reunite with one of my elementary classmates whom we last saw each other during elementary haha! I was able to meet new free-diving friends.
If you are interested in free diving in Iligan City, you may contact Upok Iligan at this link.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hi, I am CJ Estrada! I'm a content creator who loves to go to travel and escape the stressful life!
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