Manta Bowl, located in the open sea 8km off Ticao island, took us 2 hours from Donsol to reach with GPS. A large plateau of depth 17m, it slop gradually downwards at its edge. This site is always associated with strong currents and rather cold water. Besides Manta Rays sighting, hammerheads are sometimes spotted. The day was calm and on our first dive, surface current are strong but water temperature is pretty okay with 3mm. At seabed, the current is surprisingly manageable from .5 knots to none. However, no current may mean no mantas. We kept northeast and after 20mins of navigation, our first white belly Manta glide gracefully passed us lasting around 20s before it disappeared into the blue. Visibility was around 15m and hence with a huge moderate moving giant, stealth by one of them sometimes is inevitable. Our next two dives met with relatively no current and similarly, we got 1 and 2 sightings of the Manta respectively. 3 sightings out of 3 dives is pretty awesome. Overall, if strong currents and cold water is in your menu, Manta Bowl is the only site worth trying. The other site San Miguel is personally boring if you have tried the likes of Lembeh.
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