Camia II

The Camia II is Boracay's famous shipwreck and our most-dived deep site. She was sunk in 2001 as an artificial reef and sits upright and intact on a sandy bottom, ten minutes from the dive centre. The deck sits at around 25 m and the hull bottoms out near 31 m, so the whole wreck is divable on a single no-decompression dive if you plan it properly.

Two decades under water have turned the steel into a reef. The railings, masts and cargo holds are crusted in growth, and the wreck concentrates life the way only structure can: batfish, snapper and trevally school around the superstructure, while scorpionfish, trumpetfish, nudibranchs, lobsters, crabs and damselfish work the surfaces. Sea snakes turn up inside and around the hull.

Because she is upright, intact and open, the Camia is an outstanding place to learn wreck diving — you can trace the deck lines, look into the captain's cabin and the holds, and progress to guided penetration on the Wreck Diver course. The depth also makes her a natural Advanced Open Water and Deep Diver dive, and Nitrox is worth it here: at 30 m the extra bottom time is exactly what a wreck this size demands.