Moalboal

About 90km southwest of Cebu City is the sleepy little market town of Moalboal. About 3km from the town centre down a well paved road is Panagsama Beach, which was one of the original destinations for backpackers in the 70’s.

In the early 1980’s, this was one of the first places where scuba diving caught on in the Philippines, which led to dive resorts having sprung up all along the coast. A Typhoon in 1984 washed away most of the sandy beach and damaged some parts of the house-reef. The reef has now recovered but the huge amount of sand was never regained. The Sumisid Lodge however still has its own small but pretty beach. The area has since been taken over by divers, snorkellers and various kinds of adventure seekers.

© Photo by Michael Herzentiel