This is not what I expected to see from almost an hour and a half of a boat ride. I just stayed optimistic that maybe the real star of the show is hiding beyond that small hill.
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| (The back of the island) |
And yeah, I was right. That beach (photo above) is not the Malcapuya beach that I have in mind. Time to explore the island to see the real star of the show.
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| (Waiting to be surprised of the island's white sand beach) |
From where our boat docked, we need to climb up a small hill to get to the main beach.
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| (Going up the small hill to see the real star of the island) |
It's just a few minutes of walking to get to the other side of the island.
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| (A little more walk/climb) |
From the top of the small hill, I can now get a better view of the Malcapuya Beach!! I was so thrilled to see how the beach looks like.
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| (Waiting for the surprise) |
Welcome to Malcapuya Island!
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| (Welcome to Malcapuya Island!) |
After checking out the white sand beach of the island and after snapping some photos, I went to the hut of the caretakers of the island to pay the entrance fee.
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| (Perfect for beach bums) |
They collect P200 entrance fees for every person who steps on the island.
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| (The beach leading to the viewing deck) |
That's what I don't like about Coron's islands, unlike El Nido here in Coron every island that you go to, you have to pay an entrance fee of a minimum of P100-200.
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| (Enjoying Malcapuya) |
There are a total of 5 tents in the island which you could use and aside from those, there are some beach tables and chairs as well as a number of hammocks scattered around the area.
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| (Relaxation Island) |
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| (Hangout Nook) |
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| (Gorgeous beach of Malcapuya) |
Malcapuya's beach is really gorgeous. It has I think a kilometer and a half long stretch of white sand beach.
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| (A long stretch of white sand beach) |
After setting aside our stuff, we decided to go snorkeling to check out what Malcapuya has to offer aside from its gorgeous beach.
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| (Time to go snorkeling!) |
Snorkeling time!
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| (Snorkeling time) |
We are all excited to see the beauty of the underwater view of the island.
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| (Exploring Malcapuya's hidden gems) |
With our boatman as our guide, we went on exploring the deep waters of Malcapuya.
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| (Fishes with stripes) |
We saw a lot of fishes like these stripe fishes.
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| (I see this fish a lot) |
We also saw a lot of interesting fishes and corals. The marine life in the island is really rich.
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| (Looks like a disturbed grumpy old man haha "What's that noise?") |
One of the most interesting fishes that we saw is this fish in a hole.
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| (A fighter fish!) |
When you go near it, it hides itself inside the hole. And when you move away from it, it goes out of its hole again. It looks like a grumpy old man disturbed from his nap. haha.
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| (Finding Nemo) |
Aside from what looks like a fighter fish, our boatman also showed us nemo's home!
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| (There he is!) |
Nemo is a cute character from a Disney movie and he looks so adorable and cute. Far from the harmless looking Nemo character, the real clown fish here is really a feisty one.
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| (We found Nemo!) |
These clown fishes are very territorial. Unlike the fish in the hole, Nemo attacks anyone who tries to get into his home. I observed that when we tried to get closer to him or his home, he all of a sudden tries to scare you and swim towards you like he's trying to make you go away to leave him alone. Haha what a feisty little fish!
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| (A huge starfish!) |
Aside from all those cute fishes, we also saw a huge starfish, a giant clam and some interesting corals.
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| (Some of the corals there) |
Sorry for the underwater photos, they might not give justice to how beautiful the underwater scenery looks like in person.
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| (Seascape) |
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| (Underwater Scenery) |
The rich marine life of Malcapuya is something that you should see. Though there are parts where the corals are already dead, a big area in the island's snorkeling area is still full of life.
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| (Some colorful corals) |
My aunt really enjoyed the snorkeling activity that we had.
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| (Snorkel pa more) |
After I think an hour and a half of snorkeling, we went up another hill to get to the island's viewing deck.
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| (Climbing up to the view deck) |
You need to be careful while hiking up the small hill as the trail is a bit rocky. After a few careful steps this will be your reward, the beautiful overlooking view of the island and the surrounding ocean.
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| (The view of the long beach from the top of the cliff) |
From the view deck you will also get to see the neighboring islands such as Banana Island and Bulog Island. One of Coron's luxury resorts, Two Seasons can also be seen from the island's view deck.
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| (The hill's peak) |
God's creations are really awesome.
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| (Enjoying the awesome view) |
I snapped some photos of my aunt and little cousin while we're on the view deck.
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| (Mama Lyds and Hernielle) |
Group picture time! Courtesy of our kind boatman, Kuya Ariel.
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| (Group picture!) |
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| (Some weird shaped trees at the top of the hill) |
Here's a view of another area of the island where the boats are parked. I noticed that not a single boat docked at the front of the main beach, it made me think that they're not allowed to park in there. The island is huge that's why a lot of parking/docking areas are available in some other parts of the island aside from the main beach.
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| The view from the left side of the cliff) |
After enjoying the beautiful views from the island's view deck we already went down the small hill to enjoy the island once more before we leave.
From what I heard, Malcapuya has already been bought by a company from Boracay and any time soon they'll be developing the island to make it into a resort.
Good thing we were already able to visit the island before it becomes private and high end.
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| (The little mermaid can't get enough of the ocean) |
My little cousin just can't get enough of the ocean. She loves the beach so much, just like me.
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| (Henrielle while sipping her Buko Juice) |
The caretakers in the island has a stall where they sell buko, each piece costs P50.
Before
we left the island, we bought some Buko for refreshments. After sipping
all the coconut water, you can ask them to cut the shell open so that
you can eat the coconut meat. They will give improvised spoons made from
the coconut shell itself. After finishing our Buko, we decided to proceed to our next destination where we'll have our lunch.
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| (The island's glimmering white sand) |
It was just during the time when we're departing the island did I see it's front view. The beach of Malcapuya is Immaculate. Should I had seen this view on our initial approach, I wouldn't be so disappointed for the long boat ride that we took just to go to this place.
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| (The front view of the island from afar) |
Time to bid good bye to one of the beautiful islands of Coron. Until next time, Malcapuya!
ADIOS!
The Palaweña Explorer ;)
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