The Dive House - Antique

Having made the early two and a half hour bus trip up from Iloilo City, I was ready for breakfast and to then set my equipment up for a couple of afternoon dives. I loved the hand built facilities, speaking to the resort manager who lives there with his family, I learned that he designed and built the whole resort himself.

The owner lives in Iloilo City and heads up to the resort for the weekends, this place is very much his personal weekend retreat. As I stayed at this resort during the week, I never met the owner in person but I am told by the resort manager this place is growing every year and expanding.

The kitchen is a provincial outside facility, you eat your meals under the cover of the awning and is especially brilliant in the afternoon as the sun sets over the water. As my stay was mid-week, I had the place to myself, this is pretty much standard in the Philippines in smaller dive resorts.

The locals come down to Antique to dive during the weekends and the facilities are very quiet during the week. I plan my Philippine dive holidays this way so I can avoid the crowds, The whole week, I dived only with the dive guide with an exception of one morning dive - not bad at all.

A bank security analyst had driven up from Iloilo City and had an afternoon appointment with the bank manager, he decided to have a dive before the meeting and I was pretty happy with that, I had someone else to chat to that morning apart from the divemaster. Who can complain about now diving in a group of two for the morning? At any rate, he would be gone in the afternoon and we would be back to our usual routine.

Some days the resort manager's daughter would come for a ride out on the banca, she was super cute and very lively. I embarrassed myself by completely underestimating her age, I thought she was about six, I found out she was closer to eleven and I guess I didn't make a friend there.

The meals were fantastic, the resort manager would come and he would ask me every day to agree on a menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The volume of food he and his wife cooked for me was embarrassing, there was no way I could eat this much food, it was not just the amount, the quality of these home cooked meals was exceptionally good - I loved eating here.

The construction of the resort was all his own work, he designed and hand built every building over the period of a decade. He was very proud of his work and I can see why, every opportunity he would show me something he had built and the way he constructed each building.

This was great as I was pretty interested how he went about building in the provinces with somewhat limited equipment and materials. What I do know is I will be returning to dive at The Dive House once again in the future.