On social media we kept seeing this dive boat that was a custom aluminum version with twin large American made outboard engines. Very fast dive boats are not common, so our curiosity was piqued.
Santander is small, very spread out town at the very south western tip of the large Cebu island. It is not known at all as a dive region, but this is strictly because dive resorts there are a rarity.
This speedy aluminum dive boat we kept spying was determined to be attached to a brand new dive resort called Emoha. I am always cautious about good resort photos on the Internet, only because in person often tells a different story. But Emoha was new, and any place that has such a killer dive boat and clearly pays attention to design and details in designing and building a new dive resort, well, I suspected it was going to be as nice in person as it is on photos, so off I went.
The easiest way to get to Santander and Emoha Dive resort is either via a private car, or spend 250 or so pesos and take the Ceres aircon bus from the Cebu City South bus terminal, and either get dropped off at the Santander ferry port and Emoha will pick you up, or you can take a taxi or trike from there to the resort 15 minutes away, or if the bus says they will be going up north up the western side of Cebu, they can drop you off right across the road from Emoha. Being down a hillside, look for the fanciest entrance gates, illuminated Emoha name and nicest driveway in Santander, as the bus drivers are not yet familiar with such a new resort.
Walking down their longish nicely paved and flower lined driveway, right away you can tell someone really paid attention to detail, all of which bodes well for the rest of the resort. And wow, what a nice, clean resort, and right on the beach.
At the waters edge, Emoha resort is a medium sized new resort with a placid, Cumulus cloud topped views panoramic views of adjacent Negros island . They have about 10 new aircon rooms right in the front, elevated a meter or so or on the second floor for even better views. Ground based rooms have their own private patio verandas, a clothes drying rack and a nice large couch to relax on, read, nap, hang out with friends or just soak in the spectacular ocean and sunset views.
Now I confess it drives me nuts when I see chipped tile, peeling paint, a bad smelling bathroom, a stained ceiling, barren walls, cheap bed linens, no rooms safe, corrosion on loose faucets, well, don’t get me started, lol. So I am looking for any evidence of such, and I came up quite empty handed. Everything is in tip-top operating condition and cleanliness, and it’s the first resort I have seen into in the Philippines that had a fancy double window pane premium aluminum framed room entrance door. Even the door lock was a premium quality all metal sturdy design. Yes, I notice these things! I had to have a conversation with the owners, wherein I remarked that the quality of the construction and hardware and fixture selection really caught my attention. They said everything they sourced was chosen based upon being easy to to maintains not just it function but appearance too. That means quality tiles, fixtures, hardware, restaurant food prep hardware, stainless steel restaurant countertops, refrigerators, etc. So I just had to ask about all that, wherein the owners said every product that went into the design and construction and outfitting was the result of sourcing the best products and shipping them in on large containers, and she humorously added; “Besides, we love to shop!” I got a kick out of that, as I can totally relate to product quality control.
Emoha has a nice, good sized rectangular pool right in the front of the rooms, surrounded by reclining lounge chairs with nice cloth padding, ample clean new beach towels, plenty of round sun shades and a nice perimeter deck, all the perfect way to relax and cool off in the afternoon and eves.
It takes 1 minute to get from any of the rooms to the pool or dining area and the food was really good. Their menu selection was not large, but after having some of their pasta, beef or chicken dishes, I wouldn’t have nor wanted anything else anyway. And I have to add, their drinks were always ice cold because of their premium quality refrigerators. Cool sodas that melt ice and dilute the drinks drive me nuts, so I was able to maintain my sanity. Fresh ice was always present for drinks, and they always had these interesting, stylish clear large cold filtered water bottles available for the asking, no costs, and no single use plastic water bottles or plastic straws at Emoha.
So the next day, it was off I went right out to their house reef. The visibility was incredible, and the house reef was jam packed full of vibrant hard and soft corals everywhere, all teeming with the macro critters underwater photographers seek. Be sure to check the bunches of sargassum seaweed that are easy to find, as at Emoha’s house reef, they often hold the elsewhere extremely elusive sargassum frogfish.
With their killer aluminum custom speedboat, its REALLY fast to get around the south east side from Santander, and they take diver guests to a secret location where juvenile white tip and black tip reef sharks are aplenty, with Sumilon island diving and the whale sharks of Oslob also being on their dive itinerary as their speedboat is so fast.
I must confess, there is one thing I ended up being very disappointed about Emoha’s house reef and Satander diving in general…..and that is, I didn’t bring my underwater 4k cine video rig! 🙁 Their house reef and the entire area right in front of their dive resort was so spectacularly bio-dense, bio-diverse, healthy and clean, now I am FORCED to return and film it all underwater and share it! Wait till then, and once uploaded to here and social media, expect Santander to be the next emerging new killer dive destination in the Philippines.
