a bit of cebu lovin' and a dash of bohol too!

and bohol!  i will never grow tired of repeating this over and over again, i am a proud bisdak - half cebuana from my dad's side, half bol-anon from my mom's side, 100% bisaya! 

going home to cebu and bohol is always something i look forward to. not only because i get to see my cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles and a whole barangay of relatives, i also get to revisit my childhood - do, eat and go back to stuff i grew up with, even discover new things & places that have cropped up in my absence.

cebu: food tripping

being at home with the family is a big occasion and in every occasion there is food! lots and lots of food. and cebu has the best culinary delights to offer but i'm perfectly happy with cebu street food! 

i don't know why this is not a staple all over the country.  the most ingenious thing ever invented the puso' is rice cooked in triangle shaped coconut leaves. can be eaten on the go, usually with barbeque.  i've seen puso' being sold in davao but never in luzon.

kinilaw! lamia oy!

lato': a rubbery seaweed cooked in boiling water and made as a salad with ginger, tomatoes, onions & vinegar. yum! yum!

there is an abundance of fruits in cebu and for me the best mangoes come from my city!

barbeque-han everywhere, not just stands but whole blocks of them - larsian being the most famous. barbeque chicken, pork, squid, fish, chorizo,  whatever else you can barbeque they're sure to have it. you can get pork barbeque as cheap as P5 per stick.

torta. cebu (and bohol) torta is actually a pastry made out of flour and eggs and lard. tortas from carcar, cebu are known to be yummy!

cebu: road tripping

everytime i go home i make it a point to revisit as much of the local sights as i can and try to go around and see whatever improvements have happened in the city.  this is quite a challenge because when the family gets together we are perfectly content to sit around and just talk and talk and talk (and eat!).  but i did get to drag them to become tourists in our own hometown.

the old but spiffified cebu city hall.  it has been there all my life but i just felt it was worth taking a picture of this time.

just across the city hall is the courtyard with the famous magellan's cross shrine which houses the replica of the original cross planted by magellan during his arrival in 1521.  it is usually filled with tourists and local candle vendors who would offer their services to say a prayer and dance to the sto. nino for a fee.

basilica del sto. nino de cebu was built in 1565 and houses the oldest and most celebrated relic in the country - the image of senor sto. nino de cebu which was given to queen Juliana as a gift by ferdinand magellan. with the sto. nino being the patron saint of cebu, the church is never empty of devotees & churchgoers. thousand of them gather at the basilica during friday and during the sinulog celebration which may be the reason why they have added another altar on the compound face to face with the actual church forming a courtyard in between that fills up with people during mass.

devotees flock to the basilica to do their novenas walking on their knees all the way to the altar or lighting candles in return for their prayers.

a relatively new sight to me is the SRP or the south road project, a 12-kilometer 4-lane highway that traverses through most of cebu city.  this used to be the seawall or beach front areas which had been reclaimed for the purpose of development.  the srp has also become a venue for kite-flying and bird-watching activities for some cebuanos. below is a shot of the horizon taken from a vehicle cruising along the SRP.  next time i will take a picture of the SRP itself.

cebu: malling

like most urbanites, cebuanos are fond of malling and my relatives are no different.  everytime i go home to cebu, they never fail plan a trip to the mall.  i would rather go to the beach but sometimes a trip to the mall is ineveitable.  there is one shop i always to when in cebu - the bisaya ispisyal store where i got my now classic guapa shirt (and where i got the first picture on this post - it was a design on one of the shirts).

bohol homecoming

every cebu homecoming usually means a visit to bohol unless there really is no time to do so.  this time, we had two days to spare.  bohol used to be a 4-5 hour boat trip from cebu but with emergence of the the fast crafts like supercat & ocean jet (fare P800++ round trip)  travel time was cut into half.  so crossing over to bohol from cebu is just like going from one end of edsa to the other during rush hour traffic. 

a familiar sight in the pier of bohol (and cebu) are the badjaos - the sea gypsies, who mostly live on boats and make their living off the sea.  these badjaos on the port of cebu and bohol, usually children, ask the passengers to throw coins into the sea while they swim to catch the coins before they sink down to the bottom of the sea.

baclayon is the town we call home in bohol, it is also home to the famous baclayon church where my parents got married. as often as we go home to bohol, we never pass up the chance to visit the church. the second oldest stone church in the country, baclayon church houses important relics and images of the historic roman catholic religion. 

the church compound includes the museum and the high school where my mom went to school as a young girl. how cool is that!

as a kid on e thing i look forward to when going home to the province, whether it be cebu or bohol, is riding at the back of an open-air jeep, my younger siblings and cousins are the same, this time multicabs are all the rage.  this is one thing you cannot do in polluted manila.

a familiar sight among street vendors in bohol, the kalamay, a sweet sticky delicacy made of nuts and coconuts.  bohol is also famous for its nut delicacies like the pinato & the peanut kisses.

doing the touristy thing

we usually don't have the time to go around bohol since there are a lot of relatives to visit, but this time around, we made it a point to make the most out of our visit.

above, a visit to prony, the largest phyton in captivity, in albur bohol just a town away from baclayon. below the road & bridge crossing to panglao currently undergoing road widening.

woven bags are all the rage among tourists.  sold in almost all the tourists spots, these same products are also available at the local mercado for almost half the price.

a visit to the bohol bee farm, located in panglao island, which can actually be considered a resort in itself because they have accommodations, a restaurant, a souvenir shop, bakeshop and various activities to do within the farm.

one of my favorite destinations in bohol is the hinagdanan cave.  as kids we loved swimming in the large underground pool with stalactites and stalagmites all around.  the usually dark cave is naturally lighted by sunlight which filters through the holes in the ceiling.

it was my first time to visit sagbayan peak.  we were actually on our way to wahig river but we were pressed for time so we decided to head to sagbayan peak instead.  this 5-hectare resort and recreation center has a viewdeck that has an amazing 360-degree view of the chocolate hills, the bohol sea and the island of cebu.  it is an attraction in itself as it features a waterpark, kidstown, butterfly dome, chapel, grotto, tarsier sanctuary & picnic grounds.

after the trip to sagbayan peak, we were ready to head home and call it a day.  our fun-filled bohol expedition was capped with a gorgeous sunset.  below taken a few minutes down from sagbayan peak...

and from the tubigon port.

the next day the kids were eager to go to the baluarte, during my growing up years we would trek down from the mountains along a dirt road down to the mercado and walk all the way to the baluarte's sea wall where we would jump into crystal clear waters of the baclayon port.  today it remains as clean as it was before but the dirt roads are now replaced with paved roads.

below is a familiar sight and vivid childhood memory for me - the kiosk in the foreground and baclayon church in the background - it is where i spent many a days and night waiting for a ride back to tagbilaran when it was time to go back to cebu.

thats my mom walking along the stretch of the baluarte, towards the watchtower.  i wonder how she feels, imagining how she used to walk these streets and swim on these shores as a child, now her children and grandchildren enjoying the things she used to.

this is a new extension to the baluarte, maybe to accommodate more boats from panglao & pamilacan. boats that bring in passengers and fresh catch from the sea.

deja vu.  it was i that my aunt and uncles used to watch over as i waded by the seawall, now it is my turn to watch over my nephew zeik swimming by the bancas.

a view of baclayon church from the baluarte.

a view of pamilacan island from afar. we took a banca to do the one hour crossing to pamilacan island.

and it was paradise.  clear blue skies, aquamarine water, peaceful and unspoiled beauty of nature at its finest,, what more can one ask for? 

i would have loved to stay longer.  maybe forever, but it was time to head back.  i will be back soon i promise.

i am very lucky to call two of the best places in the philippines my home. and i appreciate it even more now that i live far away from it. every trip back home seems to be too short.  i long for the day when i get to go home and never have to leave again.