Evening in Moalboal Town

After a full day at Kawasan Falls, I rode back to Moalboal, dropped my bags at the hotel, and took a short walk down to the beach to watch the sunset. I’ve seen many sunsets and sunrises since moving to Cebu — with fewer tall buildings blocking the sky, the horizon feels wider here. I never get tired of it.

It happened to be Halloween evening. Restaurants along the main street were dressed up with pumpkins and cobwebs, and groups of costumed kids were doing their rounds, chanting “Trick or treat!” in cheerful unison. There’s something special about stumbling into a local festival while traveling.

For dinner, I looked up a well-reviewed Filipino restaurant nearby. Seated upstairs, the walls were covered in bats and spider webs — serious Halloween effort. I ordered fresh seafood — fish, shrimp — and a chicken dish wrapped and grilled in banana leaf, apparently a Cebu specialty. Everything was delicious. A light breeze off the water, good food, cold beer. A perfect end to the day.

Day 2: Into the Water

I woke up to brilliant sunshine flooding the room. The hotel was right on the beach — and not just any beach. Step into that water and you can snorkel with the sardine tornado and sea turtles Moalboal is famous for.

Breakfast with a view, then back to the room to gear up. Swimsuit, snorkel set, waterproof phone case. The turtles were not going to get away from me this time.

Sardines!

Just a short swim from shore, coral reefs began to appear. The ocean here is rich. Swimming further out, I spotted something odd — what looked like roses blooming on the coral.

Google later told me these were nudibranch (sea slug) eggs. Not what I expected eggs to look like, but nudibranchs are wild.

Then, where the reef dropped away sharply into deep blue, I found them. A dense, shimmering cloud of thousands of tiny fish — the sardines. They moved like a single living thing, swirling and flashing in the light. Not quite the famous “tornado” formation, but still an incredible sight. I swam through and around them, spinning to follow their movement, completely absorbed.

Then I surfaced, looked around, and realized I had absolutely no idea where I was.

I had drifted far down the coast. The buildings I recognized were nowhere in sight. The current had quietly, patiently carried me while I was busy staring at fish.

Not great. I swam hard against the current, scanning the shore for anything familiar. It took a while — longer than I’d like to admit — to spot a boat I recognized. I’d drifted well past it. That was a genuine scare, and a genuine lesson.

Sea Turtles!

Back near the hotel, I regrouped and went back in. And that’s when it happened.

Without warning, a large sea turtle appeared right below me, calmly grazing on the reef. I swam circles around it, fumbling with the camera. It paid me no attention whatsoever.

Then it started to swim. In the water, sea turtles look like they’re flying — slow, powerful wingbeats, sunlight shimmering off the shell. I followed as long as I could, then let it go and said goodbye in my head.

That day I encountered two separate turtles. Sea turtles are always special — there’s something about them that never loses its magic.

Moalboal is an underwater paradise. Just — maybe don’t get so distracted by the wildlife that you forget to check which way the current is running.

I’ll be back.

The End