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Yapak Dive

Yapak at Apo Reef, for us, is one of those dives that feels like a full-body reset. The boat ride out, even on a choppy day, is worth it for what you find below. We’ve drifted along that wall, watching the sunlight shaft down into the deeper blue, feeling the cool thermoclines shift around us. The reef here starts around 5 meters and just keeps going. The drop-off is pretty dramatic. We’ve seen enormous fluted clams nestled in the coral, their mantles pulsing. Keep an eye out for the Ivory Cowry; they’re surprisingly tricky to spot against the darker rock. Our favourite is probably the bicolor nudibranch, a flash of colour against the reef. We always make sure to look into every crevice for Gilbert’s Synaphobranchid Eels, they’re masters of disguise. You’ll encounter steady currents here, so it’s a drift dive, best suited for those comfortable with that. Visibility is usually superb, letting you appreciate the scale of the wall and the schools of fusiliers that swirl past, sometimes thick enough to block out the sun for a moment. If you can time it for mid-morning, the light is just incredible as it pierces the deeper water.