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Published: June 25th 2008
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Malapascua Island was purportedly an idyllic tropical paradise, an unknown little island tucked away just north of the big island of Cebu. Until thresher sharks were discovered on the nearby shoals, Malapascua was simply an island of villages. Since then, a diving boom has created a string of resorts and dive shops along the white sand beach, traditional thatch huts and a tiki bar with a thatch and bamboo roof, and views over the tropical turquoise sea.
Simon and Lauren called ahead to confirm that the threshers were around, and upon the dive shop confirming that they were spotted about 80%!o(MISSING)f the time they decided to go for it (at least they would get
out of Manila!). From Cebu they took a bus to the town of Maya and then a ferry to Malapascua. After a day of resting in Cebu (much needed after Palau!), we made our way to the North Bus Terminal. Here Lauren and Simon were instantly harangued by a crew of touts, who grabbed their luggage and begin moving, shouting 'Malapascua? Sir? Maam? Malapascua? Visayas?' The two intrepid travelers managed to recover their things before the self-employed porters had traveled far enough to demand a
Excited for Threshers
On the bus ride to Maya, Lauren and Simon whiled the time day dreaming about all the thresher sharks that they were going to see. tip. From here, Simon and Lauren surveyed their surroundings. As the rest of the Philippines, the bus station reeked strongly of human excrement. Sweaty little shops offered Cokes, peanuts, or the brightly colored products of 'Mister Donut.' The advertised air conditioning apparently referred to the open windows, and the seats were designed for Filipinos, leaving Simon and Lauren's knees crushed into the next row. However, they were excited about the threshers and upcoming tropical island, so they grinned on to bear the four and a half hour ride to Maya (which was astonishingly cheap at about US$1.80, however). There is one place to stay in Maya, the Abba Family Pension House. At this point, Simon and Lauren realized that they were flat out of cash! The last ATM was an hour back, so they made arrangements to hire a car for thousands of pesos (ok, it was only about 40USD, but still, it sounds alot) in the morning.
Grandpa Abba drove the two back to Bogo in the morning for banking. On the way, they passed several groups of waving children on the roadside near sugarcane fields. Grandpa Abba told Simon and Lauren how these children were working, all
Palms and Sugarcane
The northern end of Cebu island is covered in sugarcane fields, riddled with coconut and banana trees. day every day, for about 50 pesos (a little more than 1USD) a week. They earned about half of what the adults did, but they worked so that their families could scrape by each week with enough peso to afford food. "I pity those children," Grandpa Abba told them, "but at least its better than begging." To increase Lauren and Simon's depression, they drove past slews of torn up mangroves, employed as pools to grow shrimp as aquaculture. This landscape and shoreline destruction has much further reaching consequences than the immediate less enjoyable scenery.
After further trials and tribulations in Bogo (has Simon been fleeced by the ATM? this is still to be determined), Simon and Lauren finally procured cash and were dropped off at the docks in Maya, where they were informed that all of the ferries had been canceled because there weren't any tourists. Hefting out another large chunk of money, they finally made it to Malapascua Island.
After settling in to Blue Water resort and making friends with the amiable dive manager, Emma, Simon and Lauren spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach. They had a lovely candelight dinner just outside the tiki bar, were
Sunrise
A beautiful sunrise lit the way to Mohad Shoal as Simon and Lauren geared up for their thresher shark dive. pleased to learn that their resort offered various fruit shakes, and turned in for an early night- thresher shark dive in the morning!
Up before dawn, Simon and Lauren skipped breakfast and trotted on down to the dive boat. As they motored out to Monad Shoals, home of the thresher sharks, a beautiful tropical sunrise over nearby volcanic islands set the scene for an amazing day. Into the water, the swimsuit clad duo attempted to ignore the hoards of tiny stingers (or sea lice) attacking their bare skin as they descended. Making their way down the mooring line to the reef, Lauren detected something not quite right. They were in the Philippines, in the center of the worlds marine biodiversity triangle. Where were all the fish? Wasn't there supposed to be coral? They descended onto a desert of white, broken bits of calcium carbonate skeleton, shattered across the seafloor from dynamite fishing and washed onto these shoals. A few soft corals raked the water for planktonic food, large benthic anemones waved as they swam past. Lauren spotted a single lionfish, swimming along the white bottom, looking lost. They arrived at the cleaning station and waited, trying to not breathe
Thresher Shark at Monad Shoal
Emma (the dive guide) rests on the bottom as a 5m Thresher glides by on its way to the murky depths off Monad Shoal. too loudly. The reward came quickly- a beautiful thresher shark, 5 meters long including the tail, swam past in a graceful arc. The shark returned two more times, swimming in long, slow, circles, as they do when being cleaned. Simon and Lauren were ecstatic.
The afternoon and next day were spent snorkeling, napping, and enjoying the tropical island, trying to ignore the piles of garbage everywhere and small children begging for single pesos to buy bread. At night, the rain started rolling in. It grew more and more intense throughout the day, Simon and Lauren enjoyed the stormy weather and read under the shelter of the tiki bar roof. By evening, it became clear that this was a bit more of a problem than a passing summer thunderstorm. The seas had continued to build all day, and were crashing over a nearby rocky island. Palm fronds were no longer just falling off the trees, but being blown horizontally from them. The tiki bar area was completely soaked and the few guests had moved inside.
As Simon and Lauren waited for dinner, one of the staff rushed up to another couple, informing them that they would need to move
Locals search for sea urchins on the shore
Sea urchins appeared to be part of a staple diet for the locals, who'd cook them right there on the beach. It was hard not to have a dog in any photo at Malapascua. inside the concrete kitchen building, because the roof from next door had just been blown onto their hut. Concerned could be called an understatement as Simon sprinted back to their own hut, and returned quickly to collect Lauren. Water poured from the ceiling gaps, the ceiling sagging under the weight of accumulating water, the lights flickering intensely before burning out. All of their belongings were soaked, the two grabbed everything and ran back to the kitchen building through palm trees bent over double. They arrive completely sodden and covered in various bits of debris that were blowing forcibly in the wind. The staff promised to move them into an upstairs room in the concrete building as well. Dinner came and went, the power in the concrete building flickered and went out as electrical lines continued to short, and the talk between the Filipinos was becoming more and more frantic. Crashes and sounds of destruction came regularly from outside, and the wind was past the velocity where it howls. Later reports indicated that the storms winds were about 120 miles per hour. Water was creeping into the concrete stronghold, through window seals and under doors. Once of the large picture windows
The Morning After
Our crumpled resort, once the storm had receeded cracked suddenly, either from impact or pressure. When they asked one of the Filipino staff if they often received storms like this, she responded with "its never this bad." Deciding there was no point in waiting downstairs, Simon and Lauren grabbed a few necessities and ran outside and up the stairs, climbed over toppled deck furniture, and made their way into their room. The night was riddled with howling wind and crashing debris outside, there were small leaks even in their concrete room.
The morning showed little change, although the storm seemed to be lessening. In the daylight, Lauren and Simon could see that their resort was destroyed. The tiki bar had completely collapsed, thatch roofs had been destroyed, the ground was littered with debris.
After two days of slowly decreasing wind, surf, and rain, and a kitchen that had run out of even bread, they decided to make a run for it. They waited for a break in the storm, and paid a local fisherman 2000 pesos to ferry them back to mainland Cebu (the 40 peso public ferry service was indefinitely suspended, and to their knowledge no one else had come to or left the island).
Newspaper says it all
The final death toll (due to a ferry sinking) was more like 700... Finally safe and dry back in Cebu City, Simon and Lauren came downstairs to the bar in their hostel. Newspapers were strewn about, and all of the front pages bore similar headlines: "Hundreds Missing After Typhoon Frank" "Typhoon Frank Flattens Philippines" "Cebu to Manila Ferry Sinks in Typhoon"
"Well", said Lauren, "Malapascua
WAS a tropical island paradise."
"At least we saw a thresher shark!"
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mom
non-member comment
glad you are safe
Wow! Typhoon Frank is called Typhoon Fengshen here, for the Chinese goddess of wind. What an experience! The wetlands destruction for aquaculture must have allowed for much more significant flooding than they have seen before. Hopefully there will be international aid for the people there soon. We read that the US Navy assisted with the ferry rescue efforts. Looks like thre ios a great need for reconstruction and food as well.