Located just on the other side of the small rocky island from Shark Cave, Ligpo has perhaps the best wall dive in the entire region. The close proximity of these sites makes them ideal to do together in a single outing; which makes for an incredible day of decidedly non‑traditional Anilao diving. Whether this is after diving Shark Cave, or you have been admiring the view on the surface for an hour after diving Shark Cave, when you hit the water at Ligpo be ready for something wonderful.
Your first view of the bottom will be of a lush shallow reef teeming with life and colors, but save this feast for the eyes until the end of your dive. After a brief swim the true star of the show emerges from the blue in front of you: the wall! A massive wall plunges into the depths and continues far beyond the limits of sight. The wall itself is almost vertical and in many cases continues into the deep darkness below, while in other spots the bottom is visible far below at over 30 meters deep. Swimming along the wall you are treated to an incredible profusion of *Alcyonacea*, sea fans, that are the trademark of the dive sites around Ligpo Island. If you brought a torch, switch it on and play the light over these giant fans. This will reveal a range of colors that run the gamut from yellow to deep purples.
While admiring the giant fans you will likely notice big shadows moving about at the edges of your vision. Hold still and watch closely and these will reveal themselves as huge silver giant trevallies. These are not your usual jacks; these are massive fish that are almost as big as the average diver. Giant trevallies grow to well over 1.5 meters long and the ones that live at Ligpo are every bit that big.
Watching these huge fish race about in pursuit of their next meal is a dazzling sight, especially when you are doing it while hovering over the abyss with only a wall and sea fans to keep you company. Continuing along the wall in the company of the giant trevallies you will suddenly see something emerge from the gloom in the water away from the wall.
Swimming out into the open water this dark mass will quickly transform into a pinnacle that appears to have broken off from the main wall. This undersea mound is very angular and is the size of a small office building! What is most impressive about it is the incredibly dense growth of sea fans and soft corals that grow on the top. It may sound like a cliché talking about amazing growth in the Ligpo Island dive sites, but this area atop the pinnacle is *the* densest in the entire region and an incredible sight. The entire area is like a colorful tropical garden that teems with bright reef fish and a number of incredibly large trumpetfish. If you are lucky, the reef has been undisturbed for several years, and you may also see blacktip reef sharks patrolling the rocky crevice between the pinnacle and the wall.
From this point it is best to turn around and start working your way up into the shallows. Don’t be disappointed though, remember that amazing shallow reef you saw at the beginning of the dive? Well now is your time to explore it! The shallow reef area is made up of rocks and boulders that run from the top of the wall all the way to the surface on the small rocky island. These rocks are covered with dense hard and soft corals and the whole area has an almost pinkish glow to it.
Swimming amongst these rocks and corals it is likely that you will bump into hawksbill or green sea turtles who come to the shallows to feed on the sponges that grow in profusion. If you approach slowly and let the turtle determine the encounter you are likely to end up with a friendly dive buddy! It is not unheard of for one of these turtles to get curious about divers and swim with them, even going so far as to do a safety stop and ultimately surface! Even if you don’t get lucky and find a friendly turtle there are still plenty of small eels, fish in all colors and even weird macro critters to keep you busy while you do your safety stop and breathe the air you have left. Remember to surface before you get too low on air though, as it is very easy to get distracted by everything around you!