Bounty Beach Cocobana Resort Malapascua

After our bonus trip to Manila we flew south to Cebu and Malapascua Island. After my stay in hospital I still had to take things easy and Malapascua was the perfect place to recuperate. It's a tiny island about 1 hour’s boat ride north of the island of Cebu. It is your archetypal tropical island, with white sand beaches ringed by palm trees and turquoise seas. During our few days here the most ...

... here as well as since leaving Cebu I didn't meet any tourists until reaching Malapascua Island, where it also took a while to spot some. The beach side is seeded with modern hotels whereas the rest, occupied with the locals, is very basic. I had planned only one activity here, yes, diving again. There are plenty of dive shops around so it took a while to find the right one. All diving happened the following day, I ...

... sharks showed up and it really was something not to be missed, their tail is something amazing. In the afternoon we went to the same spot to see mantas and also we were lucky to see one. The island is really nice, with a nice beach, 2 or 3 little villages and can be walked in 3 hours with the weather improving it became a great place mainly because the people that I met in here where great, from different countries and ages but all of them just ...

... swim a bit .. starting with doggy paddle for 10 meters.. well done Fran! On valentines day we went for drinks. Drinking along the beach was beautiful, with a few lovely uncrowded bars right on the sand. We ended up joining some other travellers, they left and we carried on with locals.. with Fran ending up behind the bar changing music and dancing with the girls haha. Ive never been diving but always a bit nervous but curious. I managed to find ...

... they were so cool and we saw 3 in total, they come here to get cleaned and they swam above us, the medium sized one extremely close to my head! It was fantastic. Then we hunted for more - I didnt want to get up, I was so comfortable! We swam along and there was a nice sized devilray swiming towards us - they are so graceful in the water - unbelievable! Even more so as the folowwing 2 dives no one saw the Thresher sharks - they must be pi55ed getting up ...

... holds a little bit of air that you can suck in through your nose. Most of you will say this is cheating because its supposed to be a one breath dive, but when you're down at a hundred feet and you get rattled by something, and you need that little bit of extra air, you're not going to be caring whether the freedive is "pure" or not. If you are new to the sport of freediving or a seasoned SCUBA diver that wants to try something different ...

... than the others Tacio's wife proudly replied that she was a business woman. She went on to explain that she was raising Figs. I asked her:"You're raising what?" And she replied:"Figs, I raise Figs." I really didn't get it so I asked her if she could perhaps show me some of those Figs. She was very pleased to take me to the back of their home where a bunch of Pigs were eating. I said:" Oh, you're raising Pigs !!!" She said ...

Yep we saw sharks, whooo actually it was a little scary we were snorkelling out by a couple islands and chad went to go back into shore and saw 3 on his way back! they were just swimming around with little cleaner fish on them. Black tip reef sharks not dangerouse. So I got to shore and got a big hug!! Chad thought i had been eaten by sharks and he told me about his experience. So i went out in search of them back to the same ...

... and lows of the beaten track, I caught glimpses of the island's bucolic beauty here and there — verdant rice paddies; lush mangrove forests; nipa shanties dotting the fertile, sunlit expanse; farmers astride their beasts of burden; fowl, pigs and dogs scampering every which way as we approached them.

The idyllic visuals had a soothing effect; I felt light and at peace with the world, as if a cumbrous burden were taken off my shoulders.

... you. The nightlife there pales in comparison to Boracay. But serenity was what I came for so I was just too pleased to have finally found that there on that balmy night in Bantayan.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'll give the island a 10 for being the perfect place for relaxation and self-exploration, where you get to enjoy the sun, sea, sand and silence of the island's surroundings.