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Excursions
Turtles in Apo Island - a must on your bucket list
Apo Island across from Atmosphere is renowned for its over- and underwater beauty, pristine reefs and schools of fish. But more than anything else, it’s the leatherback and green turtles that keep people coming back to snorkel, swim or dive here.
When photographer Tommy Schultz came to Atmosphere in July, he took some amazing photos of the turtles that we hope will excite you and make you get on that plane to Atmosphere. Here are a few! For more photos by Tommy, check out his website www.tommyschultz.com
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F&B
A Day with the Chef
Anyone who has been to Atmosphere Resorts knows that our food is delicious, so it can come as no surprise that when our superb head chef Denver recently hosted a culinary workshop, it went down a storm.
So much so, that we now have two new experiences to offer our guests: “A Day with the Chef” and “Culinary presentation”.
The local cuisine has so much to offer in The Philippines – who can resist a Kinilaw, a Bicol Express or a Mango float? Pictured: Chef Denver Wickenhäuser himself
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The Sanctuary Spa
A New Detox Menu sees the light
Having seen the increasing interest in spa, yoga and wellness services – not to forget our Healthy Living menu that keeps getting rave reviews by our guests – Atmosphere launched a new Detox menu in October. It will be a great complement to our other spa and wellness activities and you can also look forward to future full Detox Programs.
At the moment, we offer: Castor Oil Topical Cleansing Pack, Bentonite Lymph Mask, Bentonite facial Mask and a Digestive Cleanse.
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Marinelife
Harlequin shrimp babies on the house reef – in 2 meters depth!
Atmosphere has one of the best house reefs we know of – both for diving and snorkeling. Recently, we have had the fortune to find a couple of Harlequin Shrimps making it their home at only 2 meters depth – something we are very excited about as these are very beautiful and extremely rare critters who only live in areas where they can find their favourite food – seastars.
Now, last month we noticed something very small and peculiar – and after a closer look we realized that they have babies! They are so tiny that they can only be spotted when they sit on their seastar lunch looking like a speck of sand. However, our marine biologist Daniel managed to picture one!
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Staff
Welcome to the team: Hannah, Tracy and Lauren
As Atmosphere grows, so does the team. Last month we presented Marco, our new Swiss Dive Instructor. This time it’s the ladies turn.
We have had the chance to welcome three new team members the last couple of months: Hannah Whittingham, who is representing us on the Asia Pacific market, Tracy Chan who will be helping us in Hong Kong/China and teaches scuba diving in Chinese and Lauren Feather – who is our Kids’ Cove coordinator and also teaches scuba diving in French and Japanese. You will find a picture of Lauren further down. Welcome!
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Underwater Photography
Go for Gold on Atmosphere’s House Reef
In October, Dumaguete hosted an underwater photo competition during the city's yearly Buglasan festival. Underwater photographers came from all over the Philippines to try and win the trophies and we were honored that so many of them chose the Atmosphere house reef to photograph on – and it paid off! Among the winners were Cebu-based Bo Mancao and Atmosphere's Lauren Feather with Lauren winning “Over-all champion for all classes”, as well as prizes for “Animal Behavior”, “Wide-angle” and “Nudibranch”.
Congratulations to all and in particular to our own Lauren! Also pictured: Don, Sam, Clyde and Richard. To the right, Lauren's photo winning the “animal behavior” category.
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Social Media
Milestone: Facebook 10 000 likes!
When Atmosphere reached 1,000 likes on facebook a few years ago, we celebrated it as a great success. Now, with Social Media becoming a more powerful and important tool for businesses, the success-scale has changed a bit. We celebrated 10,000 likes in October – thank you all for liking us and for reviewing, posting and checking into Atmosphere.
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PADI Courses
Learning to dive – at school!
Each year, we welcome an international school group from Hong Kong to Atmosphere Resort, for a week of PADI dive courses, fun diving, swimming with whale sharks and helping us at our Soup Kitchen. It is a long awaited visit with lots of fun and this year they were also blessed with stunning weather. Congratulations to the 16 certifications! We look forward to next year already.
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Awards
Asia Spa award nomination: Family Friendly Resort of the Year!
A couple of years ago, Atmosphere was shortlisted for an Asia Spa award and attended the star-studded event in Hong Kong. We did not win the award then but we are hoping that we will this time!
This year, we have been shortlisted in the category Family-Friendly Hotel/Resort of the Year 2015. We are very excited and with our Kids’ yoga, Kids’ spa services, daily scheduled activities for children as well as scuba diving and snorkeling, we feel we have a fair chance of winning our category!
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PADI Courses
Five new PADI dive instructors
Our fifth PADI this year with Instructor Development Philippines took place in September with five candidates, who did an amazing job throughout their two week program and graduated with excellent scores!
Congratulations to John Opsima, Alesia Koh, Benny Colvin, Likha Mercado and Edmond Li, who were helped by PADI IDC Staff Instructors Andre “Snoopy” Montenegro and Berlinda Coolen, as well as of course PADI Course Directors Gabrielle Holder and Tim Latimer.
Next IDC starts on November 26 with 3 prep days, then EFR and then IDC, culminating in the long awaited (and sometimes feared!) IE on December 11 and 12 here in Dumaguete.
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Live-aboard trips
Raja Ampat with Atmosphere 2016
We treasure the diving near Atmosphere in Dauin with its amazing array of critters, as well as the walls, corals and turtles of Apo Island. We do however love to offer our guests the chance of going with us to another destination and we have chosen the Siren Fleet to take us there. In 2014 we went to Palau in Micronesia and in 2015 we headed to Komodo in Indonesia.
Next year in May we’ll go to Raja Ampat – again in Indonesia - with its mix of big life, lush corals and muck diving. Contact us if you’d like to join.
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PADI Certifications September 2015 
Discover Scuba Diving
Nicole a Lim, Michelle E Torres, Chen Qiang, Duane L Paulsen, Althea Alexandra L Ascalon, Angel R Ledesma, Paul Garbay, Mathilde Bories, Dick Whittingham
PADI Open Water Diver
Colin Whittington
PADI Advanced Open Water Diver
Trenton W Rushton, Yeny Oh
PADI Enriched Air Nitrox
Amy Kirkham
PADI Specialty Night Diver
Kacey Carleton
PADI Open Water Instructor
John Opsima, Alesia Koh, Benny Colvin, Likha Mercado, Edmond Li
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