Exposure-photo

My notes and travel stories…

Malapascua – From Puerto Galera

After a few days in Puerto Galera, I choose to go to discover an island which was always introduced to me as a piece of paradise, a little bit isolated from the world and, as a result calm and quiet. To join that island from Puerto Galera it is necessary to take a boat to Batangas, then a taxi or a bus to Manila, then a plane to Cebu, then a bus until Maya and finally a boat to Malapascua.

This island is in the region of Visayas, north of the Island of Cebu. Not so simple way from Puerto Galera, but rather nice. On this island, there is no car, no harbour or unloading bay, no ATM, no machine for credit card or Internet accesses and the common electricity works only from 6 am till 6 am.

On the other hand, it is surrounded by white sand beaches, palms bent back towards the sea, sea with turquoise colour and these splendid white barcas as only Filipinos can make. At that time of the year, it is also necessary to count on some big dark clouds and a little tropical rain, it is the period of time.

In short, for this itinerary, I reserved a boat ticket in my hotel a day before for a departure at 7am. As to some here, the choice for the boat is limited because there are only two companies but, with a boat per hour, this leaves rather well possibilities however.

During my quick breakfast in the hotel, a guy comes to find me because the sea is too far for the boat to come in Sabang beach and take us. As a result, he informs me that it is necessary to take a vehicle and to join the city of Puerto Galera to get a bigger boat. Until my arriving in the boat, he will say to me that the one that we are going to take is quicker than the standard one, a kind of apologise.

During my stay in Puerto Galera I met Giorgio, an Italian fan of diving and with whom I am going to follow my trip to Malapascua. We are now on the way with our bag packs to reach the centre of Sabang beach to take this first vehicle for Puerto Galera.

The vehicle is a kind of tiny bus but tinier than bus. So, wide as a really small car and in which we succeed in stacking up in 8 in the back. Adventure begins therefore here. The road is rather very tortuous and not really flat. Let us say rather than it is a road of badly maintained very sinuous mountain and undoubtedly strongly broken because of many tropical rains.

After 30 minutes, we arrived at Puerto Galera. The city looks like a standard city. With a lot of small shops which sell a few of everything possible. We do not have so much time to visit and the driver drop us near our boat, very big barcas. Here, there is a true harbour, and among the fisherman’s barcas, there are some billionnaires’ boats.

Our boat leaves Puerto Galera practically at the envisaged time for around one hour trip. At the end of the harbour, the sea is a little agitated. Our driver seems rather very tired and succeeds even in falling asleep until he is awakened by starts of the unusual boat. People aboard are not reassured.

When arriving to Batangas, a group of guys skip us over to try to sold a taxi trip to the airport of Manila. Price starts in 3000 pesos to settle in 2400 pesos. Sceptic about that price and always in the doubt with a rip off, we are going to discuss the price with a bus driver. It is170 pesos per person, it is very far from the price for a taxi but it is without counting the time which it will take to go from the centre of Manila to the airport. Not simple if we want to take a flight from Manila to Cebu today. Not so much persuaded by our sellers, we try to find a vehicle which could take us to the airport of Manila. We finally find one driver for a price at 1200 pesos, that is 600 per person.

The road is the same as some days earlier and, quickly we are in the Manila’s traffic jams or rather, we started by traffic jams created by the constructions on the road, a huge bridge for a highway then the real manila’s traffic jam. Perhaps this highway will allow joining faster the south of Manila. After 2 hours and half of a rather nice trip, we arrived in the airport of Manila. We succeed in taking a ticket for a flight which will leave us 1 hour to wait in the airport; we take out there rather well.

Our flight is announced on time, then postponed and finally on time, in the big surprise of the pilots with which we drank a coffee during these waiting. Aboard I order a coffee which is served to me as a tea bag. It is rather surprising of some coffee in a tea bag…

Once in Cebu, it does not seem reasonable to join Maya by bus because of time that it risks to take. Time given in the guides of trips is very often underestimated and we do not like to go to Maya for the night without being able to cross to Malapascua. Knowing Cebu already vaguely, we go to Edie, a hotel in the centre of Cebu. It will allow us to relax and to leave the day after.

In taxi, we join the bus station in the north as stated in my guide book. Unfortunately, it is not any more there, but a guy points the place out in our taxi driver. Some moments later, we arrive on a parking where they are lined up full of yellow bus from the same company. They all go over there and one of them leaves in some moments. We are now on the way to Maya.

A bit stacked up with our baggage, we discover through the window some new landscapes. The bus stopped regularly to take and to let go down some peoples without knowing if it is a real stops or just someone to call from the street. After 2 hours, the bus stopped to make a pause of a dozen minutes well appreciated. More than 2 hours after we are finally arrived at Maya where we are the last people in the bus.

At that time, the dock of Maya does not attract a lot of people. A panel of advertising from hotels and of dive centres lets understand that it is really here that it is necessary to take the boat. On the contrary, to find a boat it is more complicated. There are 2 possibilities in fact. The first one, it is to go up to the boat which is normally the shuttle for 50 pesos by persons and to wait for the boat to be full, with 24 persons so that it leaves. The second, it is to pay 1200 pesos so that a boat leaves right away. OK, seen the world which passes here, we are not ready to leave. There are two other persons who wait for a boat for some time and which as really does not like us to pay 1200 pesos. Result, at 4 this takes price down to 300 pesos per person, then we go there!

The boat is again a barcas as I like them. But on those there, a thing entertains me a lot, it is the kitchen in the back as well as the toilets, suspended above the water. It is necessary to say that boats from here are easily used for this shuttle but also for the divers or quite other thing which it is possible to make. A good hour later to us here is in a bay of Malapascua without any harbour, just a white sand beach.

A small boat with a sputtering engine and a pilot having widely exceeded the well deserved age of a retirement come to search us one after another with our baggage. In my already 3 years old guide book, it is pointed out that a pontoon should be constructed… Anyway I very much like this approach of things.

Again, some people try to attract us towards their hotel but already having my addresses we reject them and go looking for by ourselves. The idea is to find 2 rooms with fan, on the beach and for about 800 pesos. Not simple as conditions of contract and we will practically have to visit them all to find our happiness with Cocobana.

The end of the day is approaching, the sun is becoming covered with black cloud and we are drinking a cocktail well deserved in deckchair on the beach sheltered from palms. We are in the paradise, in Malapascua.

Si vous avez apprécié cet article, s'il vous plait, prenez le temps de laisser un commentaire ou de souscrire au flux afin de recevoir les futurs articles directement dans votre lecteur de flux.

Propulsé par Wordpress | Thème WP Premium par WP Remix | Traduction (niss.fr).
Copyright 2007. Exposure-photo. Tous droits réservés

• Home
• About The Author
• How to use that blog