Malapascua, Philippines

Malapascua Island

This island is located just above the northern most tip of Cebu Island. I heard rumors that the island was once a paradise and Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan came a year ago and destroyed everything. It seems like the island was still rebuilding but you could still see the scars from the typhoon all over the island. There is not much to do on this small island but the main attraction here is diving. Specifically, the Thresher shark is the main celebrity on  or should I say around the island. 

Thresher Cove Resort

This place seemed like it was on its way to be a five star resort with its own private beach and pool. I stayed in the air conditioned dorm room for about 5USD if I remember correctly. In fact you can stay for free in a tent if you are diving with the resort. This place is really nice but because of the lack of rain the pool was full of warm salt water and even the showers had salty water. The beach is more coral than anything but even with all of this it was probably one of the nicer parts of the island and had the cheapest diving on the island. 

(The damages from the Typhoon)

The Sky

(The nightly lightning)

Diving and Snorkeling

The real treasure of this island is not what is on the land but what is under water. I strongly recommend getting a pair of snorkels and snorkel all the way around the northern top of the island. You will see massive schools of little shimmering minnows and many other surprises. After swimming a long day of snorkeling while walking back a local offered me to try some dry salted minnows and it was actually pretty good. Then he offered me a drink and I quickly realized it was Tanduay, local rum. I politely declined since I was starving and dehydrated from snorkeling all day.

Thresher Sharks

This is the only place in the world that you are almost guaranteed to see Thresher Sharks every single day at about 6am. They swim up to 30 meters instead of their normal 100 meters in order to visit the fish cleaning stations where little fish eat the bacteria off of their skin.

These sharks have giant teddy bear like eyes and small alien like mouths. Their tales are really long. Sitting on a landing and watching them swim by was breathtaking.