Alpha Xperian Edventures: Malapascua Island, Cebu

4 things we did in Malapascua Island
December 18-20, 2015

Angelina Beach Hotel and Restaurant
Death defying Island Hopping
Snorkeling
Food Trip

Notes

Rough Rider Bus ordinary from Cebu City to Maya port - P160
Maya pier porters for each bag - P20
Outrigger boat to big boat - P20 per person and P20 per bag
Big boat from Maya to Malapascua - P100
Hotel per night for 2 - P3000
Boat for island hopping for 5 pax (gears included) - P1500
You can reach Lasco at 09262460846 for boat rentals
No concrete piers in this trip, you will have to go down in the water to get on and off the small boats.

December 18

From the hotel, we took a taxi to North Bus Terminal in Cebu City to take a bus going to Maya in Northern Cebu. We wanted to take an air-conditioned bus but we did not make it on time. So we took an ordinary Rough Rider bus that was about to leave. Good thing it was a gloomy day. The trip was about 4 hours with 2 stops, one for breakfast and one for another terminal.

Check out my bus stop snack here.

We arrived in Maya port to take a boat going to Malapascua Island. Because it's a low tide, we have to take a small boat first to get to a bigger boat anchored off the port. It was a bit scary because it looks like too many people were on the small boat, we are literally just inches above the water plus the bow was riding into the swells. Thankfully everything went fine and we made it to the big boat. When we reached Malapascua Island, we did the same thing, we anchored off the shore, transferred to a smaller boat and drop us off the beach. Travel time is about 45 minutes.

Angelina Beach Hotel and Restaurant. Our beachfront hotel is located on the same beach where the boat dropped us off, so we just went there by foot. We were all thrilled when we got into our rooms because it was the most elegant place we stayed in for the whole Cebu trip. We didn't want to leave the room anymore, we just wanted to stay inside day and night. This is life, this is vacation! Our room's amenities are TV, mini ref, air-condition, ceiling fan, sofa bed, closet, coffee table, electric kettle, coffee cups, soap, shampoo, towels, hot and cold water, vault, balcony, authentic Italian restaurant and wifi.

Caruso Room

Pina Room

After checking in, we went out to look for a place to eat. We had some home-cooked dishes for lunch in a karinderya. As we came back to our room, everybody was feeling lazy and sleepy already, the coziness of the room was pulling everyone onto the bed to slumber......except me. Something is pulling me outside the room, it's the Italian restaurant below. So when everybody fell asleep, I went to the restaurant and browsed their irresistible menu, looking for the most Italian food. Damn, I'm in heaven. Check out what I had here.

After this heavenly meal, I saw my uncle coming down from their room. We wandered along the beach of Malapascua. Familiarizing the area and looking for a place for dinner. Then we came across this fruit shake vendor, I'm a slurpy monster when it comes to ice blended drinks. I got curious with the price of P20 for a mango shake. I bought one to try and they serve it in a small cup, so that's why it's cheap, it's a small portion, but damn, the taste was a bomb. This is the best mango shake I ever tasted. Fruit shakes don't get this tasty in Manila. Although it is not 100% fresh because it's a mixture of fresh mango and mango syrup, they mix the right portions of milk, sugar and mango to make it taste so yummy. Came back here many times during our 2 night stay. Sorry Coke, not this time.

Dinner time! Forget all the restaurants we saw along the beach. Why go anywhere else when the best Italian restaurant in Asia is in our hotel. I urged everyone to have our dinner at Angelina's. It is a bit pricey but it's a bang for the bucks. After dinner, we're back in the room again, had a little chat and called it the night. Check out our dinner here.

December 19

I woke up late and everybody was out, they left me alone. They didn't bother to wake me up because they thought I slept late last night. So I dressed up and went outside to stroll at the beach. Later on I saw everyone else and kicked off our island hopping.

Japanese Shipwreck. Our first destination was the shipwreck just off the Lighthouse coast. It's about 3 meters deep. This is a popular spot for tourists to swim and snorkel. Divers use this site as a practice for penetrating bigger shipwrecks in the area. We saw very few sea life at the time and just swam and observed the length of the ship back and forth.

Bantigue Cove. This is located at the northern tip of the island, it was badly damaged by the recent typhoon Yolanda. It lies now in ruins and has ceased operation. Although closed, it is still a favorite spot for island hoppers because of the clear waters, soft-powdery sand and its tranquility. But today was a gloomy day so we didn't get the best of it.

Coral Garden. A snorkeling site located on the east side of the island. The seabed is teeming with live corals and sea life, a good place to snorkel. We started island hopping on a pleasant day but by the time we left Bantigue Cove, dark clouds were forming on the horizon. We know that there's a current typhoon on the southern part of Cebu but its range won't reach our location and won't be affected by it. So I let the boat men to push through bearing in mind that everything is going to be safe and not knowing that Coral Garden will be hit directly by the thunderstorm. As we arrive, everything seems to be ok, so we jumped into the water, swam around the area and got oblivious about the turning around of the weather.

When we decided to go back to the boat, we noticed that the swells got bigger and the wind grew stronger. We are now directly on the path of a thunderstorm in the middle of the sea. Suddenly it was like a powerful typhoon pounding on us. We can feel that the heavy rain and strong wind are dropping our body temperature and at risk of capsizing our boat. We were trying to stay calm as we can but we can see the boat men were panicking too. We sat on the deck of the boat to make it more stable and stayed as close as we can waiting for it to subside. We felt some relief that the thunderstorm was drifting us towards the island so the boat men drops the anchor before the boat gets grounded on shallow water.

The incident lasted for about 15 minutes. The locals call it "unos" which occurs regularly in the island even when there's no prevailing typhoon. From worst to better weather in a snap, it was all smiles for us now. We made it through.

This was taken just minutes the thunderstorm passed by. I forgot to film it because it scared the shit out of all of us.

I am tremendously sorry for the four souls who were with me for getting them into this, but we survived, and it was one hell of an adventure.

We ended our island hopping and head back to the hotel. We were so happy stepping on land once again. Big thanks to the boat men for bringing us back alive despite that they showed a bit of incompetence handling the situation.

Our island hopping spans in less than 3 hours. I forgot the names of the boat men, but Lasco was the one who negotiated with us.

After washing up, we had our late lunch in a karinderya for some grilled food like tuna, isaw and bbq.

Before that, I bought a couple of my island favorite mango shakes.

And before going back to the hotel, downed another couple of mango shakes.

It was all leisure for the rest of the afternoon. Stayed in the hotel to unwind while my companions were in for a whole body massage. Still being full from our late lunch, we were all feeling lazy to go somewhere for dinner. But not me, it was our last night and I can't afford to miss another meal from Angelina, so I went down alone to celebrate my last dinner in this amazing restaurant. Check out my dinner here.

December 20

Woke up early for the long trip to Bantayan Island. There were still no staff present when we left Angelina so we just left the keys in the room, turned off and closed everything. We are settled already anyway. We had a great time staying here, I'm gonna miss the food.

We headed to the beach for the small boat that will bring us to the bigger boat. We left early because we knew that the water is calm in the morning.

But when we reach the open sea, big swells made our boat roll. It was not that scary because we were on a big one but it took us longer to reach the mainland. Anchoring off Maya port, we will transfer again to a smaller boat but the rough sea reminded us what happened about the thunderstorm that struck us during island hopping yesterday. We were still traumatized specially my auntie, but we have to move on feeling fearful of the situation.