A quick look around

People i met here, who contributed to and improved my trip: Julia (Russia)

We arrived into Cebu around 7am after a surprisingly good nights sleep on the ferry. We decided to grab a taxi to the tourist information centre and plan our assault on the city. Our first problem was getting the taxi driver to stop driving round in circles. I accompished this by explaining that i knew what he was doing and i wasn't going to pay the fare. Miraculously upon hearing this, he found his sense of direction and upon arrival accepted less than what was on the metre.

The tourist information centre kindly let us leave our bags there and gave us a detailed map of what to see in the city. We decided to head to a cafe to grab a quick meal of semi cooked bloody chicken with rice and tasteless over stewed veggies, mmm! When trying to pay the bill to the lady, in fashion with our earlier experiences, she tried to up the price and then short change us.

After a few minutes explaining that we weren't stupid and we would like the proper change, she gave up and gave us our money.

First stop on the tourist trail was Fort San Pedro, which was only small, but housed a nice little museum and garden. After a walk along its walls we headed to Magellans cross, which is a cross in the place where it is thought that Magellan first placed his, when he completed his voyage from Spain. Another religious site was next on the agenda as we took in morning mass at Basilica Minore del Santo Nino, followed by a look around its museum located 50m in front of it. A 5 minute walk then took us to the pretty Cebu Cathedral, which was a bit quieter with fewer worshippers.

On the way to Casa Gorodo Museum we passed the impressive Heritage of Cebu Monument, although its surroundings were far from beautiful.

The museum was located in a restored Spanish building and was actually the main reason to visit. After half an hour looking around, we caught a jeepney to the rich area of Beverley Hills, where a very pretty Taoist Temple stood on a hillside, offering some fantastic vistas over the city below. Back in downtown Cebu we walked along Colon Street where an obelisk stands to mark the oldest street in the Philippines.

Having seen everything in Cebu that we wanted to, we decided to withdraw some cash and make a move for Malapascua Island. Unfortunately every bank i went to rejected my card, which i found funny, but i figured that my bank may be offline with technical difficulties, it wouldn't have been the first time. More to follow on this later.

Anyway, i used another card in the end and we caught a bus for 4 hours to the small village of Maya, on the mainland opposite Malapascua. We arrived at 8pm and as there were no boats running for less than $40 at that time of night, we stayed at the Abba Family Lodge where our host was the gracious 10 year old Joanna, who took us to the local barbeque for some supper. A couple of beers on our rooftop terrace and we were ready to call it a night.