Just Do It! Make a Difference: January 2015

I was just invited for a holiday on an Island, and as an adventure sucker and beach lover

I don’t want to lose that opportunity.

Malapascua is a small island, only about 2.5 by 1 kilometer, and has eight hamlets.

It is located in the Visayas, In the northern part of Cebu.
The name Malapascua, from the Spanish for “unfortunate Christmas.”

Diving with the thresher sharks is the main highlight, and it’s one of the best places in the world to see these distinctive long-tailed sharks. It has also known for its beautiful coral gardens.

How we get there:

Driving a Mazda from Mactan Cebu to Maya Port. It took us two and haft travel.

But if your planning to commute.

Take a Ceres Bus – Cebu North terminal to Daanbantayan in Maya port – Three and haft hours land travel
When you reach Maya Port, there’s a lot of Passenger boats there it cost php150 per person or the entire boat for about 1000php if going to Malapascua Island.

The Adventure Begins

After more than two hours of land travel and about an hour in a boat, we arrived at Malapascua.
Yes! It was paradise, crystals clear water, white sand beach, and of course the lovely smile of the beautiful tanned skin innocent children that reminds me of how blessed am I.
On the island, the main transportation is motorbikes. There’s no car on the island.
The road is just a footpath and also used for motorbikes. Being on the motorbike is already an adventure. Lots of path holes and roads are not that good.

Since I’m not going to stay at the resort, I able to experience the quality of life on the island.
My First day was lovely; I talked to the children there and take photos. I asked them” what is your name?”. And they introduced their name one by one. When I asked them how old are you? Some are still responding and repeating their names many times. I had decided to have a swim and they still there watching over me. When I remove my clothes and put them in the dry portion of the sand and after a few minutes I found them smelling my clothes and saying “HAMUT” which means smells good.

I was overwhelmed by the experience, I was surrounded by innocent faces and all I can think is curiosity and laughter through their faces until they decided to swim those small children are diving from the rocks into the water, It was a different and fun experience. As I finished my afternoon swim I asked the kids if they can help me to gather all the rubbish in the surroundings and I promised to give them Chocolate in return. They respond with a smile a start picking up the rubbish until we finished our tasks on the next morning the kids are so early peeking in my house and asking if I have more chocolate. I guess those kids don't eat chocolate more often.

The people also on the island are very friendly. Although they have a low quality of life, they are contented with what they have.

They have electricity on the island but only for those who can afford it. In the area which we stayed people there used basic light.

Food is not a problem on the island, There’s an area there called the front beach where most of the resorts and restaurants are located. It was the main part of the island. And if you’re planning to cook for yourself fresh seafood can buy near the ocean and there are a lot of fishermen selling it there for a very cheap price.

I don’t want to elaborate on every adventure that I had experienced there in my four days. I know I had fun.