I woke up at 5am as usual and made us coffee. We drank the coffees in bed and watched the sun rise over the harbour from our balcony overlooking the arrival dock. At about 7am I called my mom on Whatapp to show here the beautiful view from our room. It had snowed a lot in Canada, so it felt a bit like we were “rubbing it in”, but I think my mom was happy for us, sitting in a tropical paradise. I told here next time she should just come with us as she loves snorkeling as much as I do!

We went down to breakfast at the hotel restaurant. It was a buffet style breakfast with eggs, glass noodles, fried rice with garlic and some meat dishes as well as toast. I was asked to show our “breakfast card” but the lady when we checked in said our room didn’t have one and that the room key would be ok. We enjoyed a small breakfast and then walked out behind the hotel to see the little bay area there. We also wanted to try and figure out how you go about swimming in the shark marine reserve area. The process seemed pretty straight forward. There are quite a few rules regarding swimming in the reserve ie. no water shoes or cameras and you cannot place your feet on the ground, no touching coral or marine life, no chasing the sharks etc.

We then went down to reception to pay for our transportation from Cebu to Malapascua and back. Two super cute dogs were in reception! We then went back to our room to prepare for our adventure of the day, walking across the island to visit as many beaches as possible!

We packed a backpack with our water bottles, sunscreen, snorkels, cameras and towels and headed out for an adventure. Along the way we bought two beers to have later in the day. We walked up the west coast of Malapascua island, or tired to… Google maps must be old and outdated as the roads it showed were not there or even ran though peoples homes, whilst big roads we could see with our eyes were not on the map at all. Our advice for getting to the norther beaches and the ship wreck is, just start walking north through town and follow what appears to be the biggest roadways. Stay along the west coastline if you can, it’s actually pretty straightforward, google maps just made it more difficult. We eventually made it to the shipwreck beach. The trail went straight up a mountain and peaked before sloping down to the coast.

Shipwreck beach was a lovely little pebble beach under a huge tree with a swing. There was only one couple there when we arrived, an older French couple that I think snorkeled for six hours straight (we later saw them on the White sand beach and I don’t think they had left the water to get there)! Another male couple followed us up the hill as well.

We found a spot on the rocks to set our stuff down and then set off to snorkel the area ourselves! We initially snorkeled to the south of the beach, but set off north on our second attempt, finding the shipwreck after quite awhile of looking. To find the shipwreck, set our north from the beach and swim about 30 metres along the coastline. When you are inline with the lighthouse on the shore you then swim about 30 metres away from the shore. We were looking for other boats or snorkelers in order to find the wreck, but no one showed up until right after we found the wreck. As soon as we arrived at the boat, impressed that we had actually found it, a sight seeing boat zoomed over and yelled at us to move out of the way. Then a tourist dove off the boat, narrowly missing hitting the wreck and harming himself. The wreck is barely a metre from the surface in places (depending on the tide).

It’s annoying how many times tourist boats have told us to move on this trip so that they can get a nice parking spot near shipwrecks, turtles and the sardines. 

The ship wreck is of a Japanese World War two supply ship that was carrying concrete (and probably other things). The ship was bombed and sunk just off the coast and had been left there since the war. You can see the hull and some of the deck boards. Apparently you can also see cement bags, but I cannot personally say I saw this (actually in the video footage I can see some cement bags, so you should watch the video at the top for a better description). The fish and coral have really created an impressive eco system on the boat hull, it was so interesting to float around and see how intertwined nature is with the structure of the boat.

We then walked up to the lighthouse, it was worth the short hike, but mostly it was just a white tower and very little view as the trees had grown up a lot around the concrete platform, blocking the view down to the water.

Next we tried to walk to North Beach… but I think we ended up at White Beach… we actually aren’t 100% sure which beach we were on. Either way it was a lovely white sand beach (signage basically doesn’t exist, but we did follow a sign for North Beach). We picked a spot to set up our towel under a palm tree and had our beer as we watched the water. There were kids playing and a birthday party going on. After our lovely beverages we went for a dip in the beautiful turquoise waters, swimming out to a rock protruding on the horizon. There wasn’t a whole lot to see in terms of snorkeling, some yellow fishes and a few different types of starfish, but the water was so warm and lovely. 

After some time to dry off on the shore line we started the walk back to the hotel. Along the way many people wished us a “Happy Valentines Day”, including a kid on a bike double his height and a man dressed as batman. 

We then went back to “Villa Potenciana”, the vegan restaurant for lunch/ dinner. I ordered a traditional Filipino dish that is made with meat, but this version was made with mushrooms instead! Jives got a taco pizza, he also got a San Miguel beer. I got an insane mixed drink with rum, whiskey, lime juice and lemon beer. It was valentines day so the staff was putting up decorations. We sat and enjoyed our drinks as the sun set. 

We then headed back to our hotel where we had a mojito each on the beach at the hotel bar. The lady that made the mojitos went and physically picked the mint from a garden nearby to make the drink. It was the best mojito I have ever had. The sunset over the shark marine reserve area was gorgeous and we watched big bats come out as the orange and pink sun disappeared below the horizon.

We started our day once again with coffee in the room before breakfast at the hotel restaurant. After breakfast we suited up and headed to the marine reserve area that bordered on the back of our hotel. We wanted to try and swim with the baby sharks that are born in that little bay area. The rules are pretty strict for swimming with the sharks; you can only bring a bathing suit and a snorkel into the water with you. They are also very specific about when you can swim and cannot swim, regulating the amount of people that are out in the area at one time. When you swim you cannot set your feet down at all, as you may damage the coral. We wadded into the water a short distance and floated on our stomachs and pushed off into the water. The coral and marine life in this area was on steroids!! We swam around for about 30 minutes looking at elaborate coral and long skinny silver fish that looked like blades. I saw a little clown fish in the wiggly kind of coral!!! 

Then something really upsetting happened. A boat drove up with tourists and they jumped out into the reserve area. One couple swam right over to us, as I was watching the clown fish swim around his coral. They swam right up to the coral and stepped all over it with their shoes, mashing it around and breaking off pieces…. Then they proceeded to PICK UP the clown fish and trip and get a photo with it!!!!!! I lost my mind. I had to get out of the water, as I was about to fist fight the couple. The “security” guy that regulates people going into the reserve area noticed what the couple was doing and went over to them in his kayak. People like this are exactly why tourism is so horrible and destructive. If you are visiting a country, follow their rules. 

After our swim in the reserve area we headed back to our room to pack up some stuff for our adventure of the day, exploring the south of the island and all of the beaches it had to offer. 

We started out at Bounty Beach and snorkeled in a few places along it, but mostly we found the snorkeling here disappointing. I think further off the coast here is where people scuba dive to see the big sharks, but as we are snorkellers only, that wasn’t possible for us. 

We then headed back to the room as it was threatening to storm, with huge black clouds getting closer and closer. Just in front of our hotel we met three adorable puppies, one wearing a legit looking pearl necklace. We made it back to the room just in time as the sky opened and it rained really hard. 

It didn’t rain for more than an hour, but really really heavily. We were hungry, so as soon as it looked safe to leave our dry room, we headed out to find a place for dinner at a new place for us called “Hippocampus”. Jives ordered the same dish I had the day before (but I had the veggie version). It was called Sisilig or something similar to that. I ordered a fish burger with fries and we each ordered a cocktail. I got an old fashioned and Jives got a negroni, but as it was “happy hour” they brought us each TWO drinks. The food was lovely and we watched the sunset once again over the water. 

We walked along the beach back to our hotel.