Good morning Malapascua!

I woke up on a sunny Saturday morning with my DIY Coron travel buddies and friends. It was amazing that from our room’s terrace at Blue Coral Hotel, we have a fantastic view of sunrise and sunset.

We were very thankful for the sun, it was raining hard in the city when we arrived in Cebu, the rain followed us in Malapascua. But the blue sky and the sun showed as we were starting to explore the island.

A Walk

We had a morning walk to the long stretch of white sand beach of Malapascua as the sun ray gently kiss the shore. The mildly blowing wind produced a soothing music of waves. It was indeed a great day.

As we walk along the beach, we passed by some of the beachfront resorts – Cocobana, Ocean Vida, Sunsplash, Malapascua Legend, Daño’s, Exotic Island, Mike and Diose’s, Aabana’s and more. There were a lot of foreign tourists who were having their morning rituals. Foreigners outnumbered local tourists significantly on our estimate. Certainly, Malapascua is Boracay and Puerto Galera minus the crowd, the party and the chaos. It is probably how the two popular spots looked like decades ago.

A Beach

We had our inclusive breakfast at the hotel when we returned, and shortly after, we proceeded to Los Bambos, the site we snorkeled the other day, but this time by habal habal (motorbike).

Fifteen pesos each for a five minutes ride from our hotel, we reached Los Bambos. It is a small strip of white sand beach that divides the water, with an open area covered by bermuda grass and shaded by coconut trees. The beach fronting northeast has big waves while the other fronting southwest is contrastingly calm. We spent some time swimming and snorkeling on the calm side. There were good population of small fishes and corals, we even spotted a sea horse, now a rare species. But there were also a lot of sea urchins and young crown of thorns.

A Lighthouse

From Los Bambos, the lighthouse of Malapascua is just a short walk away. It was our last stop before we bid adieu to the island. We asked the two kids along the way to lead us, and after few minutes of trekking, we reached the lighthouse.

Standing proud on an open hill 18 meters above sea level on the northwest of the island, the 16 meters solar panel powered lighthouse guides seafarers around the waters of Malapascua. The current octagonal steel tower was built in 1994, but the original wooden lighthouse was built in 1913. It has a focal plane (height of the lamp above sea level) of 34 meters and flashes white light twice every 10 seconds. Nearby is a separated keepers house that is already dilapidated. The trek to this lighthouse is an easy walk compared to the lighthouses of Cape Engaño or Capones. The tower is locked but can be climbed if you find the local keeper.

It was almost noon when we went down the lighthouse’s hill and rode the habal-habal to Ging-Ging Flower Garden for our lunch. Our short trip to Malapascua was almost finish, I wanted to stay longer to explore the island more and to dive, but we had to leave. The trip made me appreciate the inland beauty of the island more, and for this, I was thankful to Racquel and to the rest of the group.

I can’t wait to be back in Malapascua and that should happen very soon 🙂