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.