Malapasqua Island

Last weekend started bright and early... well, not really bright considering the sun hadn't even come up when we left the house, but it was definitely early! Riley, Matt, Crystal and I spent the weekend on Malapasqua Island which is a tiny, tiny island of the northern tip of Cebu Island. So, Crystal picked Riley, Matt and I up at the house at 5am and we hit the road. As a result of Crystal's excellent filipino-esque driving and lack of traffic at 5am on a Saturday, we made it to Maya, little town at north tip of Cebu, by 8am. From here, we took a small 30 minute boat ride to Malapasqua. Now, I was told that Malapasqua is a small island, but I didn't really understand exactly how small it was until we walked from one shore line to the other in about 5 - 7 minutes. Its a long and thin island (like Cebu) and apparently one can walk around the entire island in less than three hours. After finding our rooms for the night and meeting up with a dive master Jo-jo for our Sunday dives, we hit the beach. The white sand beaches are absolutely beautiful and the island isn't very touristy at all - which is quite nice. We walked along the beach, laid in hammocks by the water, took naps on the sand, etc. It was so relaxing.

Around 4 o'clock, we realized that the dark clouds that had been off in the distance had come in... very quickly... and had gotten even darker. As we saw all the boats come in and all the Filipino's take cover, we thought it might be a good idea to start the 20 minute walk back to our rooms. About 5 minutes into our walk back, the clouds opened up and POURED on us... We tried to make a run for it, but eventually took shelter on a covered porch in front of a dive shop. But as Matt and Crystal were running ahead, Matt kicked a rock or something and cut his big toe. We didn't really say anything and all of a sudden, the woman in the dive shop came out with a mini-doctor's-office-on-a-tray. She brought clean water, alcohol, towels, and bandaides and proceeded to help Matt clean his toe and bandage him up. Such warmth, kindness, and hospitality. Did I mention I love the Filipino people? Once the rain got a little lighter, we ran back to our rooms. Apparently, there are only three things to do on Malapasqua island... lie on the beach, dive, and eat. Given the now rainy situation, the first two were out which left eating! For the next several hours we "availed of" (i.e. took advantage of) the many happy hours and the buy-one-take-one specials that were at each establishment along the beach. But the good thing is that we were ready for bed 9pm!

Sunday morning, Riley, Matt, and I were up at 5am again and were ready for our first dive of the day. Well, to be more specific, we were ready for our thresher shark dive. Malapasqua is known for thresher sharks, but you have to get up really early in the morning, go out and dive down and sit on an underwater plateau at Monad Shoal, and wait for them to come! Sometimes people will sit there for 45 minutes without seeing one. But, if you're lucky, one will swim by you. (click here for a picture of a thresher shark). So we got on our pump boat, which took us out to a bigger boat, which was suppoed to take us to the dive site... but then once we transferred to the bigger boat, they discovered that the engine was no longer working. After sitting there for close to an hour, we decided to give up and head back to shore. The thresher sharks would have to wait for another day. It all ended okay though because we later heard that the other groups that went out that morning didn't see a shark at all.

A few hours later, we met up with Jo-jo again (our dive master for the day), got on a boat and headed out to Gato island for two more dives. This dive site was absolutely beautiful. It was a marine sancuary so all the coral and wild life was very well preserved. The colors were so vibrant - everything was pink and purple. There were tons of giant clams and when you swam close to them, they would slam close. Jo-jo swam down and peered in a little cave under a rock with his flashlight and motioned for us to join him one by one. When I swam down and looked into the darkness, the only thing I saw illuminated by a small flashlight was a shark's face... a few feet away from my face! Yikes! Thankfully, it was sleeping. It was a white tip shark! So cool. We also saw a cuddlefish (part of the squid family) - click here for more. Cuddlefish are called the chameleon of the sea because they able to change colors in order to camoflauge themselves to blend into the sediment on the ocean floor. When we swam near it, it shot away and started vibrating all these different colors. Very cool. On our second dive, we got to swim through a natural tunnel made out of rock. It was about 20 feet long, but pitch black inside. We had little flashlights, but it was still pretty dark. You can't help but think... I wonder if there is a shark over there in that abyss that I can't see anything in. So thrilling. I can't wait for my first night dive! After our dives, we took the boat back to Maya and I thought it would be a good idea to lay out on the front of the boat and soak in some sun. I am now half pink and half white. Oh well... I am trying to get tan because I am trying to get rid of my new nickname, blinding white light!

Here are some pictures from the trip. Click here to see more pictures on facebook.

(Malapasqua Island)

(Malapasqua Island)

(Gato Island - Dive Site)

(Group Picture with Jo-Jo)