Sogod Bay Southern Leyte, Philippines

Sogod Bay, as the evening sets, is so beautiful. When you look across the bay, the water is so blue that it blends into the sky. Can you picture watching the sunset across the bay? What majestic beauty! The perfect end, to a delightful day.

Watching the natural beauty of the bay is a fantastic experience, but it does not end there. As beautiful as the bay is, there is more! Sogod Bay is an underwater paradise teaming with soft and hard corals. These waters are home to an endless variety  of beautiful marine life – all waiting to be explored.  With extraordinary reefs, divers delight in beds of coral with amazing and steep drop-offs. For the more experience diver, there are shelves and walls to delight you. On the floor of the bay there is   black sand teeming with  life. This is the other side of Sogod Bay! 

What might you see on the underwater side of the bay? First you will notice an awesome cover of soft coral with beds of hard coral. As you move through the coral beds you may see the shrimp fish, the pipe fish, the frog fish, and the bat fish.  There are so many amazing creatures for us to see. You might see Sea turtles and lion fish. There is a Charismatic Signal gobie fish that lives on the sandy seabeds. They mimic the eye spots and claws of a crab. This is their built in way to fight off predators. It is amazing what you can see and this is just the beginning. If you have a trained eye, you may spot the frog fish and the scorpion fish waiting to ambush an unsuspecting predator. The blue-spotted Ribbon Tail Rays are extraordinary.  Large families of snapper run through the reefs and are awesome to watch. If you watch you may see the odd looking Dogtooth Tuna or a Great Barracuda. 

Not only is Sogod Bay a divers paradise, but it is a snorkelers dream. Because of the massive numbers of plankton in these waters, the Whale Shark also calls this their home between November and April as they drift through the bay on their migratory route. There are many snorkeling trips that seek out opportunities for snorkelers to swim with the  Whale Shark. These huge sharks move with a smooth continuous motion, making very little noise. Those who have had the privaledge to swim with these magnificant creatures of the sea, know that it will take all your best swimming skills to keep up.

Not only is Sogod awesome for the tourist looking for peaceful sunsets and an awesome beach, it is a delight to the photographer. Underwater photographers often return multiple times to the same spot or shelf to get as many of the different shots available. Sogod is an underwater photographers dream, with an unlimited number of wide angle shots.

What are you waiting for? Make this the year you discover Sogod Bay Southern Leyte, Philippines. Grab your passport and pack your bags. 

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