The Philippines Part II: The Island

Our beach front.



Just before we left the island. Outside of the resort where the islanders live.

One of many roosters. Sophia started immitating the rooster's crow in the morning.
Island laundry.
A little restaurant we ate at. There were lots of handmade decorations made from shells.

For some reason, there are lots of hanging things at these shops. Lots of little hanging packages all connected together. Very handy.

Coconut shells everywhere.
Stray dogs everywhere.

Roosters everywhere.

Homemade lights made inside bottles.

You see lots of religious things around due to the majority being Roman Catholic.


Our room.

Sophia happy as can be from the moment we got there. This is the restaurant on the beach. All of the rooms were like the one in the background.

Malapascua Island is paradise. As we walked down the wooden ramp into the surf, I was immediately relaxed. I knew that everything would be stress-free. How could it not. The water is so clear, you can look down and see the bottom, even when far out in a boat. It is a crystal clear blue and then darker further out where there is seaweed growing. The white beach stretches out before you, and the palm trees line the shore. Our resort had several hammocks strung between the trees, beggin to be used.

We were greeted as we got off the boat by one of the many Filipino ladies working at the resort. They all immediately learned our names and called us by name the rest of the time we were there. They gave us fruit juice and the men carried our bags to our room. There was no sidewalk, only white sand along the pathway to our room and even in the restaurant. In front of every room, there was a little foot bath to clean the sand from your shoes.

We had decided to get one of the fanciest rooms on the island, so we had TV and air conditioning. No hot water, as the website promised, but it wasn't freezing cold either. Our hotel also had its own 24-hour generator which was a bonus because in most places on the island, the generators turn off at 11 pm. I guess we were living the highlife because the other teachers who went to the island had cheap, simple rooms without air or hot water. We did really like our resort because you get anything you wanted at their very nice restaurant. The best part was that the island was so inexpensive. You could get a bottle of rum for a dollar, just to put it in perspective.

The island was absolutely beautiful. We could have spent our time getting our dive certificates and going out on several dives as we saw many people doing, but we decided to just take it easy with Sophia. She had a blast playing in the surf and collecting seashells. We are still playing with the pieces of coral and seashells that she collected. All along the shoreline are beautiful white pieces of coral and shell. Joe and I spent a little time snorkeling along the shore as well.

We only felt it necessary to venture away from our little resort a couple of times. We really didn't get far, but it was so interesting to see the life of the people on the island. They live in simple shacks, doing their laundry from washtubs. They all have roosters tied up since cockfights are the big pasttime. Apparently, there was a big cockfight that the other teachers went to the night before we arrived. There were stray dogs and laundry strung everywhere. You could see that it was definitely the simple life on the island. There was nothing more than little villages if you could call them that. Our resort was constantly running boats back and forth for supplies. I was amazed they were able to have the variety in their kitchen that they did.

The four days we were there were beautiful, even the last day when a tropical storm came through. We spent the day reading books and playing with seashells on the balcony. The pictures of the island will probably do more justice than I will.