Malapascua Island

Photo above (December 2007): Sharks on the beach of Malapascua Island.

Yes, there are some places where one should come back to! We went to Malapascua Island (northern tip of Cebu island) for the third time and—no regrets. Surely, the island is developing in terms of more accommodation, more restaurants and a rapidly (or is it rabbitly) growing island population (the latter applies to the entire Philippines) but it has kept its charm and its major attractions: ‘La Dolce Vita’ and the thresher sharks.

The Italian restaurant ‘La Dolce Vita’ seems to be out of place on such an island in the Philippines but trust me, forget Italy and its weather in December and enjoy all year long great Italian food in a tropical setting instead. The thresher sharks were the second driving force which pulled me to Malapascua. Threshers are some 2 to 4m long and have a tail which is at least 1/3 the length of the shark’s body. Each time I went to Malapascua, I saw them. Malapascua is the only place (at least to my knowledge) where threshers can be sighted on a regular basis due to a cleaning station in some 23m depth.

Photo above: Seahorse at Gato Island (30min or in big waves 70min away from Malapascua, we had big waves!)

Photo above: Mandarin fish (Malapascua Island).

Photo above: Cuttlefishes (Gato island).

Video above: Mating cuttlefish. How entertaining! Three males fight for one girlie cuttlefish. We stayed there for 15min at the end of our dive. We ran out of air but not them.

Photo above: Whitetip reef sharks in a cave. We saw four in one cave and one cruising around at Gato Island.