I really didn’t plan to go off and cross the three main islands of the Philippines. It just so happened that I got an invite for a Mindanao festival and my other travel plans for the month of June 2012 just seamlessly volted in together. In the end, I ventured from one of the northernmost province of Luzon, visited the heart of Visayas and landed on the upper lands of Mindanao. Everything-everything in sixteen awesome days without boarding a single airplane.
 

One of the more expensive hauls I got from my recently concluded Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao runabout were these ceramic mugs from Starbucks Coffee, one of the most famous café in the world; and Boracay, one of the most celebrated and commercial beach in the world.

I knew that I wouldn’t be hurrying back to Boracay so soon after this jaunt, considering how underwhelmed I was about the place; so I also brought the mini demitasse mugs along with the standard Boracay Global Icon City Mug in one go.

Done with Cebu City’s historical tour, the next and final destination on our list was the Taboan Public Market. We prepared to don our snorkels, we were about to dive with the fishes, dried danggit fishes that is.

It’s quite tricky locating the place via jeepney, but we managed to find it in one go. But for the not-so-adventurous ones out there, I recommend taking a cab instead as we have to walk, ask and literally use our nose to locate the famous danggit market.

I distinctly recall a Yoyoy Villame tune playing every week over our house when I was a kid as I walked the few meters from the Sto. Niño Minor Basilica to Cebu’s iconic Magellan’s Cross.

               When Magellan landed in Cebu City, Rajah Humabon met him, they were very happy
               All people were baptized and built the church of Christ, And that's the beginning of our Catholic life

Comedic annotations aside, mention Cebu to anyone and the first probable thought balloon that would pop over their heads is the Cross of Magellan—besides lechon, that is, for food crazy persons like me haha. The iconic cross has been the link to our country’s fanatic devotion to the Catholic faith and has been standing on the same grounds where it has been erected by the first chronicled Europeans who stepped into our country 491 years ago.

Passing throngs of humanity through the streets of Cebu City, I caught a glimpse of my query; the faded white bell tower of the Minor Basilica of Sto. Niño. My pulse beat faster and my strides quickened. I was about to enter the oldest church (in terms of lineage) in the Philippines.
The sky was the same grey hue that blanketed the city’s Metropolitan Cathedral which was just a few minutes’ walk from the Sto. Niño church. Vendors selling candles walked along the plaza, mingling with the hundreds of tourist flocking the most famous church in the island.

It’s considered a miracle that Cebu City’s 104-year old church is standing in front of me at all. Various construction starts and stops have plagued this cathedral since its inception more than three hundred years ago. And now with a few hours of free time before our flight back to Manila, I have my chance to explore one of the oldest houses of worship in the Queen City of the South.

Traveling by boat and bus for hours all the way from the northern tip to the heart of Cebu can make one’s stomach growl with hunger. And when in Cebu the first thing that will pop into one’s head or more appropriately, one’s tummy, is that succulent meaty crunchy Pinoy fiesta favorite, lechon! According to the worldwideweb, the best of these can be found within the city at CnT Lechon.

Wasting no time, we immediately deposited our backpacks inside SM Cebu’s baggage counter and briskly walked through the searing noontime sun, crossed the highway in front of the mall and looked for that yellow building with the CnT signboard.

My hammock was lazily swinging about as the soft sun escaped through the leaves overhead and filtered through the thatch roof of Aabana’s large viewing deck. Getting up was a chore but Malapascua Island’s white sand beach was beckoning me for an afternoon stroll.

Like most places in the Philippines, the island got its name from the Spanish conquerors of yore. It was said that a group of Spaniards once got marooned in the island during Christmas Eve. Irked by the accident, they dubbed the island as Mala Pascua, which translated means Bad Easter. Even though the real name of the island is Logon, the name stuck like a seven-year bad luck.

Malapascua is famous for two things; white sand beaches and thresher sharks. From above, one can see that the whole island is completely surrounded by a strip of white sandy shoreline. The more popular of these is the Bounty Beach on the south side where numerous resorts and restaurants have made their stakes along the banks.

Foreign tourists often flock the island not for the beach though but for the sharks, thresher sharks. These long-tailed super predators are regularly sighted along Monad Shoal which is about twenty minutes away by boat from Malapascua. Local dive shops are often busy with activities during the day, catering to more adventurous explorers wanting to experience swimming with these graceful predators.

To be honest, I enjoyed swimming more along the beach at Bantigue Cove than at Bounty Beach. The sand is equally fine at both beach but a large part of Bounty Beach’s underwater is densely populated by sea grass, which makes swimming, especially on low tide, very uncomfortable.

The sky started warming up as I reached the far end of the beach. A hut at a rock outcrop indicated the happy hour for beer chuggers; for photographers though, the golden hour is our happy hour. I crossed over to Logon Beach and immediately found my hour.

Small wooden boats lazily bob along the serene shore of the cove as waves softly slap the cream-colored sand of the beach. A few fisherfolks on their way seawards looking for dinner were framed by puffs of yellowish clouds and the silhouette of the far-off Chocolate Island.

The clouds parted and the sun broke. The sky and waters of Malapascua were painted in warm yellows and tinge of oranges. God rays poured down into the horizon, the locals seemingly unaware of the majesty of the scene rolling before my very eyes. I suppose these are nothing but everyday occurrence to the people of Malapascua, I envy the people of this island.

Evening descended and a cool blue darkness enveloped the island. The restaurants fronting the beach switched on their lights and transformed the shoreline of the island into an outdoor bar. Torches were staked and soft music wafted in and out of the coconuts lining the beach.
I have seen a similar scene in Boracay but I like how intimate Malapascua’s night life is compared to the jungle parties of Boracay. There are hardly any crowd here and there is no partying going on, the atmosphere is laid back and still very beach-like.

The night soon got darker and I proceeded homeward. Along the way I spotted a couple of hammocks swinging just as lazily as the hammock I abandoned a few hour before I took a walk along the shores of Malapascua. I thought to myself, what’s a couple minutes more of lounging around before going back to the resort. Hurrying is a foreign word and relaxation is the common word at Cebu’s Malapascua Island.

Bounty Beach Malapascua Island
Address: Bounty Beach, Brgy. Logon, Malapascua Island, Daanbantayan, Cebu
Entrance Fee: None

GPS Coordinates: 11.3302,124.121313
View Location on Google Maps: Click Here

Our bare feet were buried under the soft white sand of Malapascua Island. Sitting on fluffy beanies near the shore, we were telling stories about nothing while the sea breeze was whipping like crazy. Warm globes of lights floated overhead, dancing with the leaves and casting everything into oranges. Dinner was gonna be a beachfront affair at Ocean Vida Restaurant.

On a tight budget, we brought canned food with us during the trip and were satisfied to have those as lunch and dinner. But it was our last night on the island and we wanted something grander than corned beef hash. Passing through the numerous restaurants fronting Bounty Beach, we were attracted by the warm fuzzy lights of Ocean Vida’s restaurant like helpless moths to a fiery flame.

One of the things I really look forward to when going to a remote island like Malapascua is the place’s island hopping tours. I love visiting out of the way coves and diving below the surface to underwater gardens.

Malapascua offers such adventure either through the resorts one is staying in or via the numerous dive shops that can be found along the beach front. We got ours from a nearby sari-sari store where I usually buy snacks and what-nots, it turns out that the owner’s husband works in one of the larger dive shop in the island and has a boat of his own. We sealed the deal at Php500.00 (2pax inclusive of snorkels, masks and vests) and off we went.

It was raining intermittently the past few days and we were so lucky for having clear skies the day we chose to tour around the island. There was a slight sea breeze with a few wisps of clouds sailing just above the horizon. A perfect day to go around.

Our boat calmly chugged along across the blue-green waters surrounding Malapascua, our boatman pointing out interesting houses and resorts dotting the shoreline. Twenty minutes later and we were oohhing and aahhing at the fine stretch of white sand covering the shore of a cove. Our first destination of the day; Bantigue Cove.

Dark coral stones lush with island shrubs and trees towers over a side of the beach. The green cover provides a nice shade to the otherwise blinding heat of the sun. The long stretch of sand at Bantigue is very very fine and very very white. I almost wished we had stayed to a resort closer to this paradise.

The water sparkles towards the blue horizon. I can see a few dark spots farther away from the shore, indications of marine life. After doing the requisite above water photos, I ran and dove down; snorkel and mask on my face, underwater camera in my hand.

Bands of light shimmered below the green water and snaked across the undulating white sand below the island. Small fishes roved across the streaming sunlight and starfishes lazily lay their five arms across patches of green areas. Schools of small Striped Catfishes moved across the algae-ridden parts of the seabed, taking strength in numbers. Everything was paradise except for the plastics that litter the shallower parts of the bed.

I wish we could have spent an hour or two more at this spot but we have to move. Our second destination was the shipwreck. Above the water one can see the Lighthouse near Guimbitayan. One can opt to access the tower for a panoramic 360-degree view of Malapascua.
But I’m really not that interested in that, what I want to see is what’s below our boat. So I don my mask, turned on my camera and jumped. Air bubbles exploded around me as I plunged into the depths of the clear blue waters. A basketball-sized jellyfish flapped its body and greeted me, I said a brief hi in return and promptly swam away from the massive creature.

The ribs of the sunken World War II Japanese ship came into view. Said to be a transport vessel, it was shipping in a supply of cement for gun batteries in the island when it was bombed. The ship was a good twent to thirty feet below from the surface. And like a spine of a fossilized dinosaur, it simply lay across the seabed, a giant now encased in organic sea life. Corals have now attached themselves into its rusting metal body and fishes made the nooks of its belly as their homes.

The wreck used to be larger than what we were seeing now. Our boatman relates how the locals have salvaged parts of the ship for scraps ‘til only the skeletons of the once mighty ship are left. Still, there are still parts of the vessel that stretches almost to the surface, seemingly reaching for the air that it once breathed.

Snorkeling around the wreck whetted by appetite for more underwater action and I got my wish on our next and last stop, a coral garden near an islet. Circling a group of rock outcrops known to the locals as Dakit Dakit Islands. Our boat anchored down in the middle of the sea and without ado, I dove down.

Soft corals waved at me from below and fished stared and quickly scrammed as I started my descent. It is a garden down below with flower-like blooms, veined ferns, hardened shrubs and massive tables of corals covering the ground. The ever present brains pop in and out across the land while colorful fishes in all shapes and sizes glide along.

I swam towards more corals but my will was not as strong as the current. It easily led me on its own course and since I really cannot do anything about it, I stopped struggling and let it flow. It was an easier way to check out the teeming water life below, but like a strict tour guide, it doesn’t allow side trips and lingering on an area too much.

I bid adieu to a platoon of Sergeant Majors swimming above a table of corals and broke the surface. I saw our boat anchored quite a distance away and waved to be rescued from paradise. Although I still wanted to see more, the current was just too strong for my unathletic limbs. It’s goodbye paradise; for now.

Island Hopping at Malapascua
Address: Malapascua Island, Daanbantayan, Cebu
Rates: Usually Php200.00 to Php250.00 per person depending on the number of persons

GPS Coordinates: 11.3302,124.121313
View Location on Google Maps: Click Here

The rain poured buckets while we were in the middle of the choppy waters separating the mainland Cebu and the island of Malapascua. The waves, thank goodness, didn’t rock n’ rolled with the heavens. It remained as calm as it can be.

We already contacted our resort of choice a few days before venturing to Malapascua Island. Browsing through various travel deals; we looked for a balance between affordability, comfort and location. The three filters narrowed it down to Mike & Diose’s Beach Cottage in Bounty Beach. A habal-habal motorcycle was waiting for us at the port of Malapascua as we hopped from the boat to the white sand beach of the island.

We missed the bus terminal going to Daanbantayan and had to circle Cebu City before finally boarding a bus bound to the north of the island. We were going to Malapascua but the night was getting too deep. Our only option was to spend the night somewhere around the area and continue our journey in the morning. We found Virgin Beach Resort at Daanbantayan through Roomorama which is relatively near the port that serves Malapascua and decided to make it our home for the night.

Pangs of hunger rumbled through our stomachs as we came out from Mactan Internation Airport. While waiting for the yellow multicab that transfers passengers from the airport to the highway, we met a friendly Cebuana who recommended a place where we can get a hot meal in Cebu without breaking the bank; she said there’s a nearby dimsum house that serves really excellent Chinese; Harbour City Dimsum.

Ten minutes later, we were checking the food strip along Mactan Marina Mall. We entered Mactan’s Harbour City Dimsum and were greeted by a modern looking restaurant; clean-lined wood panels, curving white ceiling, chic white and red furnishing. Dragons and Chinese junks decorate the wall of the place, reminding us that it is still after all a Chinese restaurant.

Before pushing on to Camotes Island, we passed a stone church off Cebu’s Central Nautical Highway. Our necks craned as our van zoomed pass it. Framed by an empty plaza and white balustrades, the massive Danao City Church looms over the sparkling waters of Camotes Sea.

It was just too bad that we have no more time to check out it out since we were hurrying to catch the ferry to Camotes Island. I made it a point to visit the church the moment my soles made contact with mainland Cebu again.

Our muddy trek shoes crunched on the narrow gravel strip that makes up the road going to the main thoroughfare of Camotes Island. The darkness was almost complete except for the stars twinkling in between the whispering boughs of leaves overhead and the artificial lights of the distant houses in the neighbor. We sacrificed sleep to head for the biggest lake in the Visayas Region, Lake Danao.

The plan to crisscross the area from Poro to Santiago in Camotes Island didn’t push through. The new plan was to now stay at the Boho Rock Resort in Poro for the night and push ahead with the traverse the next day instead.

Boho Rock Resort is a public beach that Porohanons frequent. There is a minimal entrance fee and a few cottages for rent. The tourism office was kind enough to let us occupy one of the halls as our sleeping quarter.

Motorcycle drivers swamped us the moment we stepped on land. We just came from a four-hour ferry ride from Danao City to Poro in Camotes Island and the last thing we wanted was to be constantly asked if we wanted a ride.

Life is probably not that easy in an island like Camotes and the habal habal drivers here are probably just trying to eke out a living from the meager tourists that visit the island during off-peak season, but really, I hope when they hear a tourist say no, they understand that they don’t mean yes or maybe. They really meant no and expect those asking them to stop bugging them with repeated questions. It doesn’t do any good for tourism of the place.

It seemed we never have enough time. We roared through the road as the sun was setting. Palm trees bent as we sped, bleeding the golden afternoon light between its green leaves. We were leaving Dapitan City too soon, we were saying goodbye to Mindanao.

A ferry was silently waiting at the port of Dapitan City. The sun had set and left magenta embers across the sky. It started to fade as our vessel departed from the shores of the city. The lumbering ship sorrowfully howled across the open sea and darkness soon welcomed us.

The ride to Cebu City would take a total of ten hours and we should’ve been more prepared. With no dinner food for the night, we were forced to eat unawesome food at the canteen at a very unawesome price. Our stomachs filled with bland chow, we bunked down for the night and imagined Cebu in our dreams.

The faithful of Dapitan City stood up and bowed as their priest showered them with blessings in the vernacular tongue. It was a Sunday and the cavernous hall of St. James Church is filled with locals attending mass. The choir started their last praise, an altar boy rang his bell and the people solemnly chorused along. It was a quiet afternoon in Dapitan City. Kids were out chasing each other at the larger than life map that Rizal had made across the church but the streets were devoid of people. It seemed everyone has gathered inside the towering Dapitan Church.

Half a kilometer away from the Rizal Landing Site in Sta. Cruz beach is another set of landmarks worthy of a visit when in Dapitan City. Towering over the town of Dapitan is the Baroque-styled St. James Church and along its perimeter, the relief map of Mindanao made by none other than Jose Rizal.

The map is made of grassy mounds in rough scale of the Mindanao Islands. It was based from a scientific one made in 1734 by a University of Manila professor, French Jesuit Fr. Murilio Velarde, for the then Governor Valdes Tamón.