Malapascua and Siquijor, Philippines

Did we say sunshine in our last blog post? We arrived in the Philippines to very awful weather as a tropical storm made its way across the country. We were also exhausted after travelling all night and day on planes, buses and boats with no sleep and little food. After touching down in Cebu we had a race to get to Maya in time to make the boat across to our first stop, Malapascua. It took a very long time to get anywhere in our bus as even the highways are pothole filled nightmares. We made it on the last Banka fishing boat that was leaving that night and got battered by the waves with a local Filipino family. We just got to the other side before it got dark and all sixteen of us were squeezed into a rowing boat to be taken to shore.

If you Google Malapascua you'll see it is paradise with white sandy beaches perfect for relaxing on, nearby islands to explore and world class diving. Unfortunately the arrival of the sudden typhoon meant we couldn't do any of this as we were held captive by the howling wind and rain. I had chosen to take Josh here as a gift to dive with the elusive Thresher Sharks with their scythe like tails as it's the only place in the world you can see them. This is when they come up from their usual 200m depth to use the cleaning station to rid themselves of parasites, the ocean is so wonderful! We were very excited to get into the water and desperately hoping the rain would ease up by tomorrow. The storm had different ideas as it churned up the sea making 3m high waves which meant our diving plans had to change. We did go out in the late morning to try and see the sharks, but it was a dive from hell. The storm was throwing the boat around like crazy, we just about made it in the water but had to get down to 5m as soon as possible to avoid getting churned around. The currents were so strong we barely had any time at the depth the sharks use the cleaning station so we didn't see any unfortunately, and we also got stung by a lot of fire coral. To add to this nightmare, the whole boat, minus Josh and the crew, were horrendously seasick on our way back through the huge waves. We wouldn't have been able to get in and out of the boat without the fantastic team at Evolution Divers, the conditions were tough but our guide, the crew and the captain kept us safe.

The rest of our time on Malapascua involved eating at Villa Sandra and sitting on our balcony wishing the storm would ease up just a little. There was a real likelihood that we would be stranded on the island due to the awful sea conditions which is something we really didn't want. With the wind and rain still battering us, we managed to board a boat to head to the mainland although we were sure we'd heard they had all been cancelled by the coastguard. Indeed they had, we were on an illegal crossing in which we had to go miles away from the port and get smuggled onto the shore in small rowing boats. On the way there a local threw up on us, we all got soaked through by the rain and waves and paid double the normal amount. We got loaded into a mini van on the other side with fifteen other people and we were so wet the entire car was like a steam room. Finally we got to Cebu City where we hoped to catch our ferry to the sunnier Siquijor the next day. We found Cebu to be a dirty, loud and unwelcoming city which is very difficult to get around as a tourist. The best part about our time here was watching Star Wars, The Last Jedi twice as we got stranded because of more cancelled ferries due to the typhoon.

Siquijor is a mysterious island known for witchcraft and healers and there are some Filipino people who won't even step foot on the island for fear of the magic that takes place here. To us it was perfect paradise with sleepy laid back villages dotted along the coast next to gorgeous beaches and untouched coral reefs. We were staying in a bungalow near San Juan where we could watch the sunset every night by the crystal clear water. Our first day was spent hunting out the beautiful beaches in the area, it's a hard life! We went to Sabgaloong which had bright blue water that was amazing to snorkel in, but the rocky sand had little to be desired. Our next stop Paliton Beach was our favourite as it was secluded, lined with coconut palm trees and had a perfect view of the setting sun. We spent almost every afternoon relaxing on this beach watching the boats pass by. The island also has some stunning waterfalls one being the Zodiac Falls so named as each one of the twelve falls are named after a sign of the Zodiac. I unfortunately got a nasty cold and although I tried my hardest to soldier on, we had to take things easy and not see everything we had planned to. This wasn't such a bad thing as we were staying in a quiet, picturesque part of town so we could just take some time to relax.

It is no exaggeration to say we saw a stunning sunset every night whilst in Siquijor, either from our own beach or a secret cove near Paliton that we mostly had to ourselves minus a cheery shaman. We dedicated one day to diving where we saw some beautiful reefs just off the shore in Paliton Wall and Sanctuary. On our two dives the visibility was amazing and we saw sea snakes, lion fish, lots of shrimp and even eels. We had initially planned to head to Apo Island which is a famous dive spot in the area, but Frontier Divers convinced us to see the local reefs and we are so glad they did. Our last dive was a spectacular night dive but after getting down to 6m I couldn't equalise due to the sinus cold I had, so I had to swim back to shore. Josh carried on and came back with a big smile after seeing mandarin fish as well as other delights when day turned to night like bobtail squid, an octopus, a boxer crab and a blue spotted stingray. We ended our time in Siquijor on a high and couldn't wait to go to the island of Panglao on Bohol for Christmas celebrations.