OUR OFFICE IN MALAPASCUA

Holidays in the "land of King Phillip" of Spain was just amazing. We were in Malapascua, a tiny island that you can walk the circumference in about 2 hours. In this small paradise we established our "office" for issuing the annual report, plan the next year and updating our blog.

Front beach WiFi

As work is not everything in life, we also enjoyed massages on the white sand beaches, snorkeling on turquoise lagoons, dancing at street disco, making new friends, swing in a hammock, walking through coconut farms... There are no cars in Malapascua, many motorbikes instead.

Cute little friend!

Beach massage.

Coconut farm

Malapascua does not have a port, pier or dock. All boats are anchored by the beach. The "shipyard" is also the sand.

"Sharkanoe"

Beach shipyard. Details of the Philippinean typical "spider" boats' structure.

The island is a great destination for diving. A variety of offers, such as manta rays and thresher sharks spotting, coral reefs, wreaks, are available in many Dive shops/Resorts. A dive starts from USD 35 and accommodation, as especial deals for divers, can be as cheap as USD 15 for a simple double bed cottage. For non certified divers, courses and PADI certification are available.

But, if the aim is to relax in a silent neighborhood, the option could be somewhere else. Very loud music and karaoke are widespread. Thousands of fight roosters equipped with broken clocks can ruin your rest any time of the day. However, we have to confess that, after a week or so, we've got used to all this and had a great time with locals. Whenever we heard a loud music - the "disco" - we followed the waves and had fun with this happy "Philippinos"!

Future Fight roosters eating with their mom.

When dinning, even having always minimized portions, we appreciated very much the food served in Eateries (we never heard this term before for a restaurant. Do you?). We can recommend Ging Ging Eatery: excellent value. For extreme shrank budgets and true local experience, try Mama & Jopay's eatery. For ultimate budget cold beer, stop by the Dick & Agnes's shop, in front of the main church. Can't miss.

Raquel, Agnes, Frederick and Francis, in their shop.

If you would like to find an "island in the island", The Other Place is the name o the place for good music, pool table, late evening excellent snack (ask for the burger) and a very warm welcome from Marco, Winwin and all the crew. Recommended!!!!

"The Other Place" crew and friends.
The owners Winwin on white shirt, Marco at the right.

Our friend Noa's (right) Birthday!

For Christmas and new year's eve, it's a tradition to roast a whole pig at the beach. Very interesting to see the preparation process. Basically, the main course arrives walking and after being cleaned, one single stick holds the whole pig over the ground fire. Somebody keeps turning it for about 5 hours. Manually. It is delicious! We also saw the most bizarre stick bbq's ever: squid, chicken skin, necks, feet, gizzard, liver, gut.

The local rum Boracay tastes good and is very cheap, US$ 2,5/bottle at a hotel bar. Drinks in returnable containers are much cheaper, which is a green incentive. There is no free drinking water in this country - do not drink water from the tap! But it’s easy to find water refueling spots for a reasonable price though.

All of these would be so much fun and perfect if we were not missing family, friends and black beans.

ARRIVING IN THE PHILIPPINES

Philippines is the second largest archipelago in the world. It is made of approximately 7.000 islands, 300.000 sq km. It is an island nation, so boats and canoes play a major role in many people’s lives. Majority Roman Catholic, ethnically, Philippines is a melting pot. Islands are mountainous and seismically active. Earthquakes and  volcanic eruption are common. Climate is tropical and monsoonal.

Fort SAN PEDRO, proof of Hispanic and Catholic
occupation in the Philippines

But, before arriving here, we known very little about the country, e.g., the fact that Philippines is the place where the captain of first circumnavigation voyage was killed by natives on 1521. This history was written by Pigafetta, a italian crew member of the expedition financed by Spain and leaded by Ferdinand Magellan (Fernando Magalhães), the Portuguese who's decapitation was celebrated in Mactan Island.

Part of a big panel on the site where Magellan was
killed by Mactan's people 

Also, Back into childhood, a memory about Corazon Aquino, a Philippines' Democratic President who was been acclaimed by her People after a long period of dictatorship.

But arriving here, after a 40+ days cruise in a sailboat from Solomon Islands - almost 3 thousand nautical miles - the captain tried to approach the city of Cebu, in a bay where "should have a marina". It was around 3 am, in a very dark and foggy night and reefs were shown by the charts there. We waited - drifting - for the first daylight shimmer. Completely worn out after being driven the boat for a lot of hours (we can even remember how many), we didn't notice the bay we were was the "Magellan's bay". We actually arrived in Philippines right on the spot were, literally, he lost his head fighting the Mactan's Island chief, Lapu-Lapu, now reckon in Philippines as the first nation's hero. 

Lapu-Lapu statue, in Mactan Island

Fist Philippinean Hero plaque

Magellan's Death plaque.

"1866 - REINANDO YSABEL II" 

The above obelisc is located in the same site where LapuLapu is honored as the first Philippine's Hero. Seem to be without maintenance for long period and will be probably worn out by the weather.


Later, Raquel visited San Carlos University's Library where there's a original volume Pigafetta's 1st circumnavigation voyage diary, publication from XVI century.


This is a little about the history of this country that first had repelled european invasion, even though have had it's culture and resources later spoiled by invaders.


Praises, comments, adds and/or criticism are always welcome!


dfE team