Kalanggaman Island

Palompon · Eastern Visayas · Philippines

Kalanggaman Island is the kind of place that looks too perfect to be real from above and turns out to be even better below the surface. This uninhabited island off the western coast of Leyte in the Eastern Visayas features twin white sandbar tails extending from either end of a forested central ridge, creating one of the most photographed beach landscapes in the Philippines. What most visitors do not realize is that the coral reef surrounding this postcard island is among the healthiest and most diverse in the Visayas. I entered from a boat anchored off the northern face and descended onto a wall that dropped cleanly from 5 metres to a sandy floor at 30 metres. The wall was covered in gorgonian fans, their purple and red branches fanning out into the mild current, and barrel sponges large enough to sit inside punctuated the vertical face at regular intervals. Hard coral coverage on the upper wall was excellent, with table corals, Acropora thickets, and encrusting corals competing for every available surface. The fish life was immediately impressive. A large school of bigeye jacks circled in a tight tornado formation at the wall's edge, their silver flanks catching the light in rhythmic flashes. Beneath them, a group of chevron barracuda held station in the current, watching me with characteristic intensity. I followed the wall eastward and found two green turtles resting in a sandy alcove, their shells dappled with sunlight filtering through the clear water above. The shallower reef between the sandbars and the main island is a different world entirely. Here, the bottom is a mosaic of coral rubble, sea grass patches, and small bommies that support a thriving macro ecosystem. Nudibranchs of spectacular variety crawled across coral surfaces, a banded sea snake hunted through a crevice, and a mantis shrimp retreated into its burrow as I approached. Kalanggaman Island proves that the Philippines' best diving is not limited to the famous names. Sometimes the most extraordinary reefs hide beneath the most beautiful beaches.