Mindoro is a contraction of the Spanish ‘Mina de Oro' or goldmine, not that there's ever been a big discovery here but panners do find gold in small quantities.
This photo hints at the difficult terrain of the inland areas and why most of the island remains undeveloped. Most people live around the coast and get around by boat.
Best I can tell from Google Earth, Puerto Galera lies on the far side of the hill in the foreground. This appears to be a view west from Markoe cove in Varadero bay. The Encenada Beach Resort where I was staying was on the far side of this hill also, but closer than Puerto Galera. All of which means, from the direction of the sun, that I most likely took this on the way out to the start of a drift dive because from here the flood tide would take us westewards, back along the reef and wall towards Hundora beach, though the boat would pick us up before we got there.
Puerto Galera was pretty undisturbed till 1934 when the University of the Philippines set up a marine biological station here. Things really started to go downhill though when the United Nations declared Puerto Galera a ‘nature center' around 1974. Nothing spurs unbridled over-development like a UN ‘nature center' designation. They're almost designed to attract humans and drive nature away.
Development was unregulated. With the tourists came disco's and all-night bars. I don't know what it's like now but the Encenada beach Resort was a quiet retreat back in 1990, away from the noise of Puerto Galera and Sabang. I took a trip to Sabang one night but is wasn't for me.
Looking at the area on Google Maps today though it looks as though the area hasn't been massively over-developed in the intervening years. Most of the development appears to have been at Sabang beach but there are no ugly high-rises dominating the skyline so I'm guessing it's well worth a few days if your in that part of the world. The diving was great!
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