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Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Take me to the beach
Day trip for Christmas? What better destination than Cebu’s own Christmas Island…Malapascua. Kara Mae Muga Noveda is our tour guide.
Life is a beach, so they say.
If there was a golden moral to be picked from Alex Garland’s novel, The Beach, it is this: keeping a paradise to oneself is a curse. Tracing this profound philosophy, perhaps this is why the largely fisher folk residents of the idyllic island of Malapascua welcome visitors like a bountiful harvest from the sea.
The sojourn to their paradise begins with a relatively smooth (warning: rough in the absence of cushioned seats) land trip on the northern highway that culminates at the beautifully named tip of Cebu province, Maya. From here the ride could only get rougher as the half-hour motorized outrigger boat carrying thrill seekers, rises and falls with the infamous waves caused by the crosscurrents.
Frizzy-haired tourists could only heave a sigh of relief when, finally, the gentler breeze and single-direction current calm the opening shores of an island whose name is historically attributed to “bad Christmas” when the Spanish explorers found themselves stuck in what is known today as the Malapascua island on a Christmas long ago, as Barangay Captain Mariano Ceros shares.
Far from its name’s tragic origins— Malapascua epitomizes the laid-back island life: cozy, sandy, and merry.
Unofficially hailed by quick word of mouth as Cebu’s Boracay, Malapascua is a lot of things Boracay is not: being shark inhabited (NOT infested, with non-man-eating thresher and white tip sharks), virginal, and a diving destination with at least three sunken ships turned into makeshift coral reefs. Not quite Boracay also, this island of fifteen resorts does not have a steady power source; thus the lights turn off at sunset. But on the southern part of the island packed with establishments, the party has just begun— in a nightly fiesta fashion, visitors could take their pick from a block of alcohol-friendly, disco-heavy restobars to strictly dining havens.
“If it took some 20 years for the public and private sectors to notice and invest in Boracay, it will take Malapascua some more time,” concerns Boy Miranda, executive director of the island’s business foundation. While sharing this concern, Exotic restaurateur Pura De Baer positively adds that business is picking up with former clients (mostly foreign) recommending the island to their acquaintances abroad.
This secret out: can we expect the island’s siren to beckon more people? It depends. Business noses are eyeing the construction of a power plant to enhance a visitor’s stay while the environmentally-conscious lot like Dive Link dive master, Gary Casas, does his part in keeping a goggled vigilant eye on incidents of dynamite fishing which the barangay captain has officially noted to have decreased already.
Beauty, lest shared, could become a curse. Far from being lost, Malapascua’s charm transcends to its smiling locals giving us baffled first-timers detailed directions to their port of sorts on our last day. Experiencing a challenging, choppier-than-usual ride on the way back— Malapascua is somehow still worth the trip, unprecedented detours and personalities (wink, wink), and a frizzy hair day ahead.
(December 21, 2004 issue)
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