PANAY EXPLORERS

PANAY EXPLORERS, INC.

www.panayexplorers.com

Culasi, Antique, Philippines

Panay Island

Region VI

Western Visayas

MAY - JUNE BLOG

Once again, we are writing about another great trip home. For those of you reading about us for the first time, I need to give you some background information. Our team is building a SCUBA DIVING RESORT HOTEL in the

Barangay of Caridad, Municipality of Culasi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culasi),

Province of Antique (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antique_%28province%29),

Island of Panay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panay_island),

Philippines.

The resort property is located 1 hour due south of Boracay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boracay). We currently own 1 hectare (+) located on the beach. Our property and equipment is solely owned by Panay Explorers, Inc. (Philippine SEC Company REG #CS200731213). Our team of divers and industry experts are planning to build a 30 (+) room SCUBA diving hotel resort facility to accommodate a wide range of customers. We will have the ability to handle the single traveling backpacker to the large family units that have special needs for them or their children.

The facility will be the first of its kind in the area. Our municipality is developing at an incredibly fast pace and the infrastructure is lacking in some areas. Our property is in a typical barangay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barangay). Everything we are doing is in the “first time” category for our municipality. We are working very hard to establish tourism within our municipality.

It is important to note that we have 44 barangays within our municipality. Of the 44 barangays, we have 3 island, 11 upland, 16 coastal and 14 interior/lowland barangays. Our island barangays are of the Caribbean Class. The mainland is typically comprised of rich, black, fertile soil that produces everything from coffee to coconuts to rice. Our local economy is agrarian based with a large portion of meat products being fish. It is estimated that the per capita income for a Culasiños (resident of Culasi) is about $5 per day on average. The area has a tremendous amount of natural resources. The area is ripe for tourism. The reasonable cost workforce, natural beauty, low construction costs, and ever increasing infrastructure put our place right in the middle of some of the best tourism growth in the world. Our transportation hubs are expanding to support international air travelers as of this writing. Our port facilities have increased their capacity to handle the Roll-On, Roll-Off (RORO) shipping traffic from Manila and other large ports.

As we work through the administrative minutia of resort building, we have discovered a lot about the inner-workings of our Local Government Units (LGU’s). Some things that are important to note are the efforts of many to improve the “condition” of our public utilities. Over the last four years, the brown-outs have decreased on the order of 80%. That is a wonderful development for all inhabitants. Internet and TV cable services have broadened the horizons of the Culasiños as well. Our sanitation service and electrical service are lacking in some regards but continuing to show improvements.

The Panay Explorers team is working very hard to get the pieces together to create its facility. Our plans have been adjusted to reflect the “processing time” of applications and permits. The rusty wheels of bureaucracy are ever present and must be dealt with to accomplish the task at hand. We will get through the challenges. It is time consuming.

We are proud to announce the first DIVEMASTER graduates of Panay Explorers, Inc. Our efforts to be the first dive training facility in Antique have paid off tremendously. This was an excellent trial run for large scale training efforts. We learned a lot about supporting, training and taking care of guests during the last 4 weeks.

Jeff Ryals – DIVEMASTER STUDENT (graduated 03 June 2008)

Joe Holt – DIVEMASTER STUDENT (graduated 03 June 2008)

Our students were able to work through their training and get in some awesome night dives during their 14 day trip with Panay Explorers. The students were prepared for their in-water work upon arrival. They had completed all of their book-work and written testing prior to their arrival in the Philippines. Great job to our new DIVEMASTERS!!! Okay, so when are they going to IDC to become instructors? Well, looks like they are going in the spring of 09….GOOD LUCK GUYS!

We were able to make minor boat repairs, conduct new dive site reconnaissance, dig a freshwater well, buy new dive gear, work on the properties and much more during our visit home. We hope you visit our web site and keep up with the latest news and our progress. We thank you for your encouraging email and support. We are really looking forward to having you as our guest in the future.

Jean-David (JD) De Gay

PADI OWSI, EFRI, SPECIALTY INSTRUCTOR # 481247

CEO, Panay Explorers, Inc.

www.panayexplorers.com