Cabilao · Philippines · Wall · Night · Reef
Cambaquiz
An east-coast wall with a cave, and Cabilao's best night dive
Area photo: yuichiro anazawa · CC BY 3.0
Cambaquiz is the wall on Cabilao's eastern side, off the barangay of the same name: a reef slope that steepens into a face running down to about 30 m, with a small cave in it and overhangs along its length. It is one of the island's standard night dives — the sandy shallows and seagrass above the wall fill after dark with stargazers, octopus, crabs and shrimps.
Also known as Cambakis.
Where it is and how deep
9.8865° N, 123.7935° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
By day it is a wall dive with a gentler reef slope above it. The face drops to about 30 m, undercut in places and holed by a small cave, with colourful hard and soft coral over the structure and turtles and reef fish working along it. Ornate ghost pipefish, crinoids and nudibranchs fill in the detail, so it rewards a slow pass along the overhangs rather than a lap at depth.
After dark it becomes a different site and, for a lot of people, the better one. The shallow ground above the wall is seagrass, sand and coral blocks, and it fills at night with the animals that stay buried through the day: stargazers with only their eyes showing, octopus out hunting across the open sand, crabs and shrimps in the coral, and the hunting fish that follow them.
Because it is on the eastern side, it is the lee when the wind is in the west, which is the other reason it stays in the rotation. The resorts on the west coast run round to it as a short boat hop, and the dive works equally well as an afternoon tank or the scheduled night dive.
Marine life and season
- Nudibranchs
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Sea turtles
- Macro critters
- Reef fish swarms
- Pristine corals
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime |
Season follows Cabilao: Dived year-round; Nov–Jun is the main season and the low season runs roughly May–Oct, when the south-west monsoon works the exposed sides.
Dive videos
Cambaquiz, Cabilao Island · Dwayne Isle Mar on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is Cambaquiz?+
The wall runs down to about 30 m, with a gentler reef slope and shallow seagrass above it. Most of the night diving happens in the shallow ground, well inside recreational limits.
Is Cambaquiz a good night dive?+
It is the one Cabilao's resorts most often use. The seagrass and sand above the wall fill after dark with stargazers, octopus, crabs and shrimps that are nowhere to be seen during the day.
Sources
- Dive sites of Panglao, Alona beach, Balicasag, Pamilacan, Cabilao — Tropical Divers Alona
- Cabilao Dive Sites — Sea Explorers Philippines
- Your Guide to Diving in Bohol — Dive The World
- Cabilao Island — Wikipedia
More dive sites in Cabilao
Wall
A hundred metres of coral wall from 5 m to 60
Wall
Stacked table corals over a wall dropping to 50 m
Drift
A current-washed plateau at 25–30 m, pelagics one day, pygmies the next
Reef
A gentle drift over coral and sand to 18 m
Wall
Giant gorgonian fans on a wall from 5 m to 60
Wall
The corner where Cabilao's sharks are seen, wall to plateau to wall
Wall
Shallow muck over a coral wall that falls to 60 m
Frogfish, ghost pipefish and turtles on a 5-30 m coral wall
Similar dives elsewhere
Reef top at 3-5 m over a wall that bottoms out at 20-25 m
Step off the jetty onto a wall with resident sharks
A drifted wall from 5 m to 25 m, minutes from Alona
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Cracks full of lobsters and tunnels behind the reef face