Malapascua on My Mind

It was a very long arduous 3-hour trip from Cebu City to the village of Maya in the town of Daan Bantayan.  We were on a rustic bus that can barely hold itself together and barely protected us from the elements.  The trip was excruciatingly uneventful punctuated only by a bulldozer hitting a tree.  That should've been really funny except that it was an accident that could cost the bulldozer driver his job, but that didn't prevent us to chuckle (a little).

Finally, we arrived in Maya all in one piece.  Although shaken and stirred, we still manage to be upbeat, after all, this was our team outing.  We boarded a motorized banca which was more rickety that our bus.  Unlike our bus ride, the boat ride was filled with anticipation.  We can see numerous islets and the silhouette of the islands of Leyte and Masbate.  In the distance beckoned our destination, Malapascua Island.  

Malapascua has been featured on television many times before.  It was on Explorer, Travel Time, and the Probe Team to name a few.  The island is known for it's "inhabitants".  The thresher shark, know for its long tail, the white tip shark that are found on the shallow waters nearby, and the sea snake that are abundant on the rocky islets near the island.

We docked on the shore at around mid-afternoon.  Malapascua was all people say it was and more.  It was rustic.  In spite its proximity to Cebu, the island is relatively unspoilt.  The beach is as fine as powder and the sea, blue as can be.  The lack of electricity after midnight adds to the romance of Malapascua.  We only had the moon as our light.  We had a bonfire, it was quite small but enough to warm our hearts and allow us to have a good time while we share stories about our urban life, worlds away from the tranquility of the borrowed island life we were having.  Only the sound of the wind blowing, the splash of the sea as it breaks surf and our laughter fill the air.

We had a hearty breakfast.  After that we boarded a banca and explored the waters off the island's shoreline.  We had a full view of how beautiful the island was.  How I wish we had enough time to explore the island and see the remote beaches upclose.  We only had two stops, the first was to check the parola or lighthouse which was powered by solar pannels, and second was to dip in the water in full view of the island's cemetery.  After we had our fill, we prepared to leave the island.

The trip back to Cebu City was still long and arduous but the memory of Malapascua was still so fresh that we just can't complain.

note:  This is a repost from an old blog.  This trip took place in 2004.