If the Garden of Eden were underwater, it's a fair chance it would look a lot like Tubbataha Reef, a marine formation 98 nautical miles southeast of Puerto Princesa City on the island of Palawan. To get there, you can hire dive operators in Puerto Princesa or other areas to bring you to Tubbataha. Puerto Princesa itself is serviced by flights from Manila through local carriers Philippine Airlines, Air Philippines, SEAIR, and Cebu Pacific.
Seasoned sports divers keep coming back for Tubbataha's coral walls, home to teeming schools of great jacks, manta rays, lionfish, Moorish idols, hawksbill tortoises, clown fish, and moray eels. Above the waterline, Tubbataha serves as a stopover and sanctuary for migratory terns, boobies, and frigate birds.
All in all, over a thousand species - many of them on the endangered list - call Tubbataha reef home. The area has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
