In an effort to move away from the stink of Dumaguete we travelled a short distance down the coast to Malatapay. Treating ourselves to some delightful accommodation on the seafront we spent the next few days sitting in the sunshine and doing very little. There was reason to come here other than to be lazy, the diving at nearby Apo Island was rumoured to be spectacular. Whilst I read books and got a little pink James donned his wetsuit and took to the waters around Apo. The coral here has been protected along with the marine life as it is the oldest marine sanctuary in the Philippines so there was much to see and it lived up to expectations. Leon pictures attached for you with species to identify.

One of the only reasons tourists and locals alike come to Malatapay is the large Wednesday market where people from all around come to sell their wares. An early morning stroll to the market took us past the usual fruit and veg stalls, fish stalls, machete stalls and much more. All to a soundtrack of pigs squealing as they realise their fate is soon to be decided at the hands of a butcher's knife. Cows and Pigs were being brought to market in converted 'livestock' tricycles that are rather ingenious. It's quite strange seeing a cow on a motorbike side car. The highlight has to be the Lechon, at the end of the strip we came across the delicious smell of roast pork and laid out on the tables were whole spit roast pigs cut up in various bits. Despite just having had breakfast we couldn't resist the look of the crackling so bought ourselves a little carrier bag of meat. Back at the hotel the lady on reception was thrilled to finish off the bag of pork minus crackling. The crackling was particularly spectacular, it looked a little like caramel and wasn't bubbly like ours on a roast joint. Not sure how they achieved this perfection.

The hotel was small and perfectly formed with a salt water pool surrounded by Frangipani trees whose flowers drifted down into the water. Even better was the mini bar. As they are normally extortionately expensive, this was the first time we raided ours. Ridiculously cheap bottles of Gin were soon consumed.