In an archipelagic country like the Philippines, citizens will never run out of choices as to where to go, what to visit in order to experience that Best-Escape-Anyone-Can-Have feeling, the BEACH. Perhaps, BEACH is one of my country’s gems which brings joy, adventure, and income to Filipinos and even foreigners. Before there were 7,107 islands identified to be existing in the Philippines however, this data changed according to the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA) which discovered 7, 641 existing islands in the Philippines. With a number of islands, there’s no doubt Filipinos and foreign visitors really have that enormous options as to where to go and what to visit. So where shall I bring you on this blog?

Welcome to Malapascua Island of Daanbantayan, Cebu, Philippines!

I spent this jaunt to Malapascua with my friends and guess what we only spent 650 pesos each inclusive of boat fares, delicious lunch, water, snacks and habal-habal fares. And the whole experience was fantastic.

To go to Malapascua Island, we went to Maya New Port. We registered our names at the tourism area provided at the port then paid 100 pesos each for the boat fare going to Malapascua Island.

The Maya New Port – your gateway TO MALAPASCUA ISLAND

Boats at Maya New Port

Photo by Sir Homer. Meet my friends Sir Homer (the one taking groufie pic), Yours truly behind sir Homer, Ms. Resil (the pretty lady next to me), Sir Cabs (the last man sitting…LOL)

Photo by Sir Cabs. Here’s another groufie pic with sir Cabs on the lead.

The sparkling ocean on our way to the island.

It took us around 30 minutes to reach the gem of Daanbantayan – Malapascua Island.

Photo by Sir Cabs. A documentation of our arrival… hahahaha

When I first set my feet on the island, I knew something is special on the island. From the sand itself, I made a good impression right away. The sand is very fine and there are a lot of good beach resorts fronting the docking area and drop-off spots of the passengers.

Malapascua Island is an island suitable for extraordinary swimming, sunbathing, and its famous water activity which is diving. It is also the best starting point for your island hopping. There’s a lot of resorts offering island hopping packages. Trippers can visit islands such as Kalanggaman, Carnaza, Kinatarcan and even the Bantayan island and few islets.

To be honest, I was totally mesmerized by the beauty of Malapascua Island. Iyong isla na masarap balik-balikan.

The powder-like sand of Malapascua Island

Upon arrival, we went straight to the boarding house of Sir Cab’s sister so we can drop off our things and change our swimming attire. By the time we were ready, we went to the beach opposite the Amihan restaurant. It’s walking distance so we dropped by at the local store to buy water and snacks.

Photo by Sir Cabs. At the beach

Photo by Sir Cabs. It’s a wonderful weather in paradise.

By the way, Malapascua means bad Christmas in English and it was named by Spaniards who came to Malapascua when the Philippines was colonized by Spain. They went to the island on a bad weather on an Easter day thus, they called it Malapascua, Malas nga Pasko.

After we had our swimming at the beach we went straight to Sea Slug Diver’s Restaurant for our lunch. It was a great lunch. We ordered fish soup with vegetables, Hawaiian pizza, rice, sizzling squid, and buttered shrimp. We paid around 600 hundred pesos for our delish lunch. I recommend the restaurant if you wish to save much while you enjoy a great food.

Our trip to Malapascua continued as we go to another side of the island. The beach near Cocobana Beach Resort for snorkeling.

 

Photos by Sir Cabs. Excited for snorkeling.

After we had our snorkeling we went straight to the northern part of the island. Sir Cabs told us that we can enjoy a very fine sand in that area which is comparable to Boracay Island. Yes, it’s very fine. It’s quite similar to the first beach we went to. To go there, we rode in a habal-habal and we paid 60 pesos for the forth and back trip. We finished there around 3:30 P.M. and we went straight to the boarding house to take a shower and change clean clothes.

After that, we went to the church of Malapascua Island. Their church is beautiful and I felt great that I was able to visit the island’s church. Their patron is Virgen de los de Samparados.

 

Overall, we had an amazing jaunt to Malapascua Island. There’s still so much that we can do there but we only had few hours there. Not bad though cos we were able to explore so much with the time we had.

Sino ang naiiba? Lol

Goodbye for now, Malapascua, we’ll be back for sure! Hopefully, will enjoy more such as diving and fire dancing at night and perhaps, island hopping too.

 

Thanks for the wonderful experience Malapascua!