Life in Malapascua

Malapascua is a unique island in itself and very isolated from the rest of the Philippines with their own rules and regulations such as no cars allowed and electricity is only available from 6PM to 11PM. That said it is also somewhat touristy, with plenty of bungalows throughout the island. All the bungalows are pretty much the same. The only variance is hot water showers or A/C. These variables double or triple price. So we said sayonara to these luxuries a long time ago!
The boat schedule to get back to CEBU or any other island goes somewhat like this- you wait by the boat until at least 10 passengers show up (or they would have you to believe-26), and then they leave. Or if you’re a tourist in a hurry you can charter your own boat for about 10 times the price. Through our various travel here, we’ve been learning to be flexible, so we decided to just wait it out. A local woman, who seems to be the one organizing the charters, kept approaching us and telling us that “there might not be any other boats today!” Fortunately, we knew better! A nice local even leaned over to whisper in our ears that one usually leaves around 1 pm everyday…only a 30 minute wait! Oh, how we appreciate the locals who tell us how it really is! So after we waded out to the boat and literally climbed the bamboo outriggers to get in, we noticed 3 more tourists approaching the boat. Without wasting a second, the boat crew started the engine and pushed out to sea. We were shocked, so we spoke up and said there were 3 more passengers ready to board. To which they laughed and with a sly smile said they had a “schedule” to stick to. Obviously doing anything to get more money:( But fortunately we were able to talk them into staying and the tourists paid off a boat at shore to carry them to the ferry.