Twin Rocks

Anilao · Calabarzon · Philippines

Twin Rocks is the dive site that put Anilao on the global macro photography map. Located a short boat ride from the cluster of dive resorts along Batangas' southern coast, this pair of coral-encrusted rock formations rises from a sandy slope at around 25 metres to within 8 metres of the surface, connected by a rubble saddle that serves as a critter superhighway. If you dive anywhere in Anilao, you dive Twin Rocks. I descended to the sandy base of the western rock and began the slow, methodical circuit that macro diving demands. Within two metres of the mooring line, my guide pointed out a painted frogfish the size of a tennis ball, its warty skin perfectly matching the orange sponge it had adopted as its backdrop. Three metres further, a hairy frogfish clung to a rope sponge, its filamentous appendages swaying gently with each passing surge. Anilao's frogfish density is legendary, and Twin Rocks is where that legend is born. The saddle between the two rocks was nudibranch paradise. I lost count of the species after a dozen different varieties within the first ten minutes. Chromodoris in electric blue and orange, tiny Favorinus feeding on eggs, and the spectacular Spanish dancer were all present. A blue-ringed octopus hunted through the rubble, its warning rings pulsing luminescent blue. On a small overhang, a pair of harlequin shrimp methodically dismembered a sea star, their painted purple and white bodies vivid against the dark substrate. The crown jewel of any Twin Rocks dive is the flamboyant cuttlefish, a creature so bizarre and beautiful it seems designed by an artist rather than evolution. I found one walking across the sand on its lower tentacles, its skin rippling with waves of purple, yellow, and white in the hypnotic display that gives this species its name. Ghost pipefish hung vertically among crinoid arms, ribbon eels peered from their burrows, and seahorses wrapped their tails around hydroids. Twin Rocks is not a dive site for speed. It is a dive site for wonder.