Many thanks for your visit 'Anthony Fung Group' (Hongkong). We had great fun with you, hopefully we see you soon again.
The 2 celebrants on stage
Getting “dangerous” now”
Hidden talents
All kids are half Filippino half European or Swiss
“Independence Day” of JR. On August 12 JR Heim could celebrate his 21th birthday which means in the Philippines that he is now considered as an adult. On the same day our friend Friedel celebrated his 54th birthday together with his friends in Pura Vida. Happy birthday and all the best and good health to the celebrants!
On August 11 all the branch managers and the Sea Explorers management met in Pura Vida to prepare for the new high season. First part of the agenda was the viewing of the new safari boat “DAKO” and as well the new facility of the maintenance-, quality-, service and human resource-department under the supervision of Hervé Jain.
July 2010
Shakira, Sheyla and Louie did their first breathes under water together with B-Bhing end of July.
Richard Lac from France with Asian origin, who visited us already end of June beginning of July, came back together with his wife Caroll and children Melanie and Alex end of July. It was our pleasure to have you two times with us in a short time, thanks a lot for your loyalty and visits!
Middle of July Chris traveled short to Hongkong to participate at the Diving Resort Travel Fair. He was supported once again from our longtime friend Becky, thanks a lot for your help! As usual an event like that is always good to meet some old time friends like Danny Dwyer of PADI Asia Pacific.
World championship fever even under water!
June 2010
Therwil (village near Basel, Switzerland) – Meeting in Pura Vida: Fizze, Huerzi (his first visit in the Philippines), Martin and Chris were clinking the glasses on their common Swiss grounds. Fizze and the two Sea Explorers were growing up in Therwil and Huerzi’s Relax-Bar www.relax-bar.ch is for years a well known meeting point in the center of Therwil.
JJ Brandt Corstius (Managing Director) and Herman Kahmann of Scott Haldane Foundation in the Netherlands were conducting another seminar in diving medicine in Pura Vida Beach & Dive Resort. The participating doctors didn’t have just to sit in the class room to listen the theory during their stay they did also some dive education. Some of them even started with their diving career and saw already some interesting creatures. Thank you very much for your visit it was a great pleasure to have you with us!
May 2010
The newest pictures of Fredy Brauchli (still taken with his analog Nikon RS) of his stay with us last April/May:
Thank you very much Marco Pisano Group. We had great fun with you, hope to see you again.
April-May 2010
Big group from the Netherlands! Jan Velthuis and his wife visited us end of April beginning of May with a clutch of illustrious guests in Pura Vida Beach & Dive Resort. Thank you very much for your visit, we had lots of fun with you guys!
Fabienne and Sven on wrong ways?! After a very intensive high season our dive center managers from Malapascua spent some well-deserved, relaxing days together with their son Janis and Fabienne’s mother in Pura Vida. Of course also here was diving on the schedule, Chris showed them the highlights of the dark sand around Dauin.
Of course always a well received and famous guest is Fredy Brauchli, resigning editor in chief of the Swiss diving magazine “Taucher Revue”. This year he was accompanied by his wife Silvia and his friend Melanie Serschoen and Conny Baumgartner. A longtime wish of Fredy became true this time and he was able to take some pictures of several bluering octopuses, maybe thanks to Volker Rohe who was with him as the mascot! We were very pleased to have you with us again!
A very popular and familiar face at Sea Explorers is Volker Rohe. With his outstanding underwater pictures he impresses us again and again. And somehow he seems to attract certain creatures, during his stay in Dauin much more bluering octopus sightings were encountered than usual. Even Fredy Brauchli, who was always unlucky in this matter before, got several times the chance to have those amazing animals in front of his camera. See below a few samples of Volker’s shots of this year.
Tauchsport Käser of Bern, Switzerland honored us with two safari groups this year. The big group with leader Daniel Schmid (Managing director of Tauchsport Käser) started beginning of April in Dauin, spent a few days in Siquijor and ended in Cabilao. Because of the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull most of the group members got an involuntary almost two weeks extension of their holidays in the Philippines. Hopefully all of you arrived finally well back home.
Erika and Mark Vermill from the United States enjoyed one week diving holidays with their friends called “EM Dive group” in Pura Vida Beach & Dive Resort in April. Thanks a lot for your visit guys, hope to have you back soon!
April 2010
Great Diving and lots of fun with Günter Sachs Group (picture in the waterfall of Pura Vida). Thank you for your visit. You are very welcome at Sea Explorers again.
Thank you very much Family Bellworthy! We had great fun with you over and under water. Hope to see you soon again with us.
Their route was from Moalboal to Dumaguete (photo) and continued then to Cabilao. We were having lots of fun with you, thank you Ewald Safari, let's dive with a smile!
For sure we can count on our most loyal guests Rosi & Georg Heinze - for more than 10 years they visit us every year. Between mid-March and beginning of April they spent their holidays in our destinations Malapascua, Dauin and Cabilao. It was like always a pleasure to have you with us, hope to see you back as well next year!
March 2010
After Malapascua and Alona Beach the Aline Lemoine Group also visited the Pura Vida Beach Resort (picture)! Thank you for your visit - we hope you come back again as we had great fun with you, merci beaucoup!
The Maenner Haslauer (2nd group) visited us beginning of March 2010. We enjoyed the time with you had lots of fun! We would be happy to welcome you again.
February-March 2010
Visitors from UK. Neil Stead the group leader, who spent already several months as a volunteer of a reef protection project in the Philippines years ago, brought a group of divers of “glug” (the gay and lesbian underwater group) to the Visayas. They started in Dauin, went to Siquijor and ended their trip at Alona Beach. It was a pleasure to have you with us, hope to see you back soon!
Also in February another group from Austria. Elfriede & Johann Hinterdorfer visited with their friends our branches in Alona Beach, Siquijor and Dauin. Thank you very much for your visit and we hope to see you back with us soon!
Also with the second group from Austria we have great fun! Thank you very much for staying with us. Hope to see many of you again soon.
New massage and Spa facilities in Pura Vida. In addition to our previous services in Vida Spa there are now also new air conditioned massage room, a steam bath and a sauna available to relax after diving.
Pat Law and his group from Hongkong spent Chinese New Year in Pura Vida Beach & Dive Resort and started the “Year of the Tiger” with diving around Dauin area. Thanks a lot for your visit, hope to see you soon back in the Philippines!
Visit from many familiar faces from Austria. Alois Maenner and Hermann Haslauer visited with a big group our branches in Cabilao, Alona Beach and Dauin. There was always fun especially also after diving. Was good to have you guys with us again, hope to see you back soon!
Tauchsport Kaeser in Berne, Switzerland, opens a new watersports center
Our friends of Tauchsport Kaeser in Berne start with a new challenge and open a new facility on a new location. A few pictures of the big opening celebration with lots of illustrious guests you will find under:
By the way, all three members of the general management of Tauchsport Kaeser are or will be visiting the Philippines in the coming weeks. To the new managing director Daniel Schmid we wish success and good business in the future!
Good news and nice underwater pictures from our friends and regular costumers from the French part of Switzerland and members of the diving club of Estavayer-le-Lac. Nice pictures taken in our area from the two Daniels, Daniel Strub who won even a medal and Daniel Wernli. Please check out following web pages: www.underwaterphotography.com and http://www.staviasub.ch
A big group of Dive Odyssea Rochford England www.diveodyssea.net, the friendliest dive center in Rochford, Essex, visited us in January in Dauin-Dumaguete for almost two weeks. Thank you very much for your visit, we hope to see you soon again!
Good friends from Basel area. The Borja family from Therwil, the municipality where also Chris and Martin grew up, visited us after New Year for a few days in Pura Vida and did also a day trip to Apo Island. The brothers Dave and Robert did a part of their diving education with Sea Explorers a few years ago. Thank you very much for your visit, it’s always a pleasure to have you with us!
First official Pura Vida dog with collar and badge sponsored by some pet-friendly guests.
December 2009 - January 2010
A promise became true! Regula and Urs Frei from Solothurn area in Switzerland and long time friends of Rolf, visited him for the first time in the Philippines together with their diving buddies Nadia & Stephan, Sonja & René and Pimluck & Michel. It was fun with you, thanks a lot for your visit and hopefully see you soon!
Picture of the month of January
A tiny hermit crab on dangerous ground, on a stone fish’s head. The picture was taken by Urs Frei on January 2 in Apo Island at Rock Point.
Please see one of the most amazing sea slugs, the “Melibe ”, on this short video. It was taken by Rolf Muehlemann last December in San Miguel, Dauin.
To our most loyal and longest time repeaters belong for sure Ulrike & Uwe Rzeha from Germany. Last December they visited us in Cabilao and Dauin-Dumaguete, it’s always nice to have you with us, hope to see you soon again!
Rare species again in Dauin in December Halimeda-Ghostpipefish (Solenostomus halimeda) and Bluering Octopus. The pictures were taken by Matthias Rueger who did the Divemaster and Instructor education with us.
A special service was done in December by our new Sea Explorers speed boat and its captain Gary Anfone. The bride Marichille Abello was “delivered” to Pura Vida Beach & Dive Resort by boat to attend her wedding ceremony.
November-December 2009
First pictures of the new family room and suite in Pura Vida Beach & Dive Resort
Familiar faces! Walti Guggenbuehl and his friends Peter Brand und Niklaus Mueller are visiting us again in the Philippines. This time they were choosing Cabilao and Dauin as their destinations. With them on the trip were Niklaus’ partner Anne and Roger Manser, a good friend of our Pura Vida chef Markus.
It’s always a pleasure to have you with us and have a beer or two with you!
Our new speed boat, named after the rare octopus specie “Mototi” (first time discovered at Bonet’s corner last year), with space for 8 divers and 2 dive guides, brings our guests in Dauin to the closer dive spots in the area.
It is done! After two weeks of hard training our IDC candidates Natalie Böhmerle, Nadja Dubacher, David Joyce, Sebastian Matter, Marla Reyes, Arlene Walang, Matthias Rueger and Patrick Spitz passed the Instructor Examination with PADI Examiner George Wegmann. The Course Director Chris Heim was assisted by the Staff Instructors Matthias Grieder, Mr. Lee and for the first time by the NEW Staff Instructor Hervé Jain, our Quality Service Department Manager. Congratulations and good luck for your future as PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor!
Marius Cwieluch and his friends from Poland were diving with us for 2 weeks around Malapascua, Dauin and Alona Beach. Thanks a lot for your visit and we hope to see you again soon!
After a few months practical course in Indonesia Luc Tranchet and Karine Plée from Geneva area, Switzerland successfully completed their divemaster education in Dauin. Congratulations and have fun diving back in the cold Lake Geneva!
