The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 19,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
Iloilo City, The Philippines
April 18 and 20, 2011
Though the name Iloilo may have come from the word “ilong”, the vernacular for nose, the province is known for another facial organ – the tongue. Not only because its local cuisine is a delight to the taste buds, but for a molluscan species endemic to the waters around the island: diwal. The Ilonggo word means to stick out one’s tongue. That pretty much describes the appearance of this mollusk. When its shell is pried open, its elongated body hangs out limply like a tongue.
Diwal: Tongue in Shell
Miag-ao, Iloilo, The Philippines
April 19, 2011
Miag-ao Church, built in the late 18th century in the province of Iloilo, is not to be missed. For one, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with three other churches in the country, all of which I had already visited. But more than checking it off my heritage site list, the church’s flamboyantly-designed facade, its singular claim to fame in a country dotted with baroque churches, is for the books and that alone calls for a go-see.
Miag-ao Church
Silay City / Bacolod City, The Philippines
January, April, and October, 2011
What do you expect from the sugar capital of the Philippines? I’ve been in my home province, Negros Occidental, three times this year and every time felt like being in a candy shop. I blame my sweet tooth on growing up next door to a sugar mill. The sweet aroma of molasses during milling season pervaded the house in the morning. My sweet dreams carried on after I had awakened. On to adulthood.
Welcome to my Dessert Trail (First Stop: El Ideal Bakery)
And so when in Negros, do as the Negrense do – indulge your sweet tooth. These are some of the sweet stops on my dessert trail: Continue reading
Bacolod City, The Philippines
April 17, 2011
There was a time when stereo systems and television sets were furniture pieces and telephones were household fixtures. But with each new innovation in technology, we dispose of our obsolete gadgets. Not so with one family in my hometown who has preserved their appliances, among other things, reflecting the lifestyle of Negrense bourgeois in the last century.
Mom Demonstrating the Use of a Candlestick Telephone
The Dizon-Ramos Museum, formerly a house beside the mansion of Raymundo L. Dizon and Hermelinda V. Ramos, transported me, not only to the tantalizing world behind its perennially closed gates, but also to the bygone era of my childhood in the 70s. Continue reading
Silay City, Negros Occidental, The Philippines
April 16, 2011
Heritage conservation begins at home.
Ramon Hofileña doesn’t say it, but the winningest smile this side of Silay certainly makes that statement. A tour guide in his own home, Ramon has been welcoming visitors into his family’s ancestral house, the Manuel Severino Hofileña Heritage House, built by his father in 1934, for almost 38 years now – and counting. He runs the longest cultural tour in the world.
Hofileña Heritage House
Bacolod City, The Philippines
April 17, 2011
I walked amongst the dead.
Every morning of my childhood, the gaping gate of the public cemetery would greet me. I lived in a house directly across it. My first parade was a funeral procession, my first live band music a dirge. My neighbors across the street were stacked in cement boxes painted white, guarded by frozen angels and adorned with melted candle wax and wilted flowers.
Lopez Jaena St. cor. Burgos St., Bacolod City, Philippines
Panglao and Dauis, Bohol, The Philippines
April 3, 2011
Even a whirlwind trip to Bohol would not be complete without sun-worshiping and spelunking. I gotta hand it to my sister for packing our itinerary with as varied an experience as night and day. From bumming around the beach to cavorting in a cave, she got it all covered in the space of a few hours.
Beach Buds: The Transcendental Tourist and his Sister
Loboc, Bohol, The Philippines
May 30, 2004 and April 2, 2011
The lead star of the Visayan-language film Panaghoy sa Suba (The Call of the River) got me at the opening credits. With apologies to (actor-director) Cesar Montano, the languid Loboc River stole every scene it was in. But before the film’s release at the end of 2004, I had already seen its titular star up close and personal during a trip to Bohol.
Busay Falls, Loboc River in 2004
Loboc and Bilar, Bohol, The Philippines
April 2, 2011
What’s a cross between a marmoset (a furry monkey so tiny it can fit in the cup of your hand) and a gremlin (that 80′s movie critter with huge protruding eyes, long bony fingers, pointy ears, and upturned lips)? The cute mascot of the province of Bohol – the tarsier.
Tarsier: Marmoset and Gremlin in One
The tarsier is among the smallest primates in the world. It is endemic in Bohol and its neighboring islands in the Philippines. It is known to do a Linda Blair in The Exorcist – a 360-degree head rotation, minus the vomit. Like a gremlin, it is nocturnal and highly sensitive to light. Exposure to the noontime sun can be fatal. But unlike a gremlin that multiplies asexually when wet, the tarsier is very fragile. Exposed in the open during a thunderstorm without any leaf cover, the tarsier can die from pellets of raindrops. Continue reading
Dauis / Panglao / Baclayon, Bohol, The Philippines
April 1 – 3, 2011
Bohol, already blessed with natural gifts – the Chocolate Hills and the tarsier, is embellished with some of the most beautifully dramatic Catholic churches in the country. I visited three with my mother and sister, not on a spiritual journey – none of us is Catholic, but for a more sensuous reason – for our love of heritage and art.
Sunset and Watch Tower: Dauis Church
Carmen / Sevilla / Antequera, Bohol, The Philippines
April 2 – 3, 2011
My 78-year-old mother didn’t balk at the 214 steps before her. She was as gung-ho to climb one of the Chocolate Hills as my sister and I.
SuperMom and the Chocolate Hills
The Chocolate Hills are a collection of over a thousand conical hills of similar height and shape. During the hot and dry Philippine summers, their grass cover turns chocolaty brown. These geological Hershey’s Kisses are generously strewn all over Carmen and neighboring towns at the heart of Bohol Island. But this year’s monsoon season started too early; the hills were alive – lush and verdant. Continue reading
Tagbilaran / Dauis, Bohol, The Philippines
April 1 – 4, 2011
The quickest way to a traveler’s heart is through his tummy. The province of Bohol, home of the Chocolate Hills, is not really known for its food though. But this cookie-shaped island and the adjacent Panglao Island, which looks like a crumb on the map, got me at first bite.
Mom in Dauis, Bohol
I’m not much of a foodie. My gastronomic standards scrape the bottom of the food chain. But I was with my mom and sister on this trip so at least I was assured of decent food, not my usual sustenance of street food when I’m on the road. So I’d let my mom (the real foodie in the family, along with dad) reveal her inner food critic. Continue reading
Boljoon, Cebu, The Philippines
March 5, 2011
Boljoon, Cebu Island, 1823. Monsoon winds from the south are agitating the waters around the Spanish settlement town of Boljoon. Atop a watchtower, a sentry spots a fleet of pancos, Muslim wooden boats with thatched canopies, on the horizon. He frantically hoists a red flag on a tall bamboo pole. A group of villagers, assigned sentinel duties for the week, shouts “Moros! Moros!” They ring a massive bell at the baluarte (bulwark) and prepare the canons peeking out of the loopholes. Hearing the alarm toll, brawny menfolk mount their armada of balangayes.
Lindzey Romero, MHistory
Ten balangayes race to meet seven pancos on the high sea. Canon fires are exchanged. Three pancos capsize as the others gather speed and collide with the Cebuano fleet. The warring vessels lock into one another. The Boljoanons engage the Moros in close combat using arnis (indigenous martial arts) moves while teetering on their bobbing boats on the choppy sea. At this point, the battle is waged by the bolo (a machete) and the kris (a wavy dagger native to Southeast Asian Muslims). Continue reading
Boljoon, Cebu, The Philippines
March 5, 2011
Who needs plans when you can have surprises?
Ceres Bus to Boljoon
With no agenda for the afternoon in Cebu City, road trip buddy Ki and I decide to hop on a southbound Ceres bus. As is my wont, I get a shut-eye as the bus cruises out of the city. I open my eyes momentarily, barely catching a glimpse of the famous Carcar rotunda. Hours later, I fully awaken to the enchanting blue of Bohol Strait glistening in the sunlight. The bus is now tracing the coastline of Cebu Island. But we can see the end of the sunny afternoon further south. A compact column of clouds blurs the horizon. It is dumping rain on Bohol, the island next door.
The highway gradually zigzags. One side shows the expanse of water lapping the shore, the other the jagged wall of limestone cliffs. Hard to believe that the gentle kisses of the sea have sculpted the rocky mountainside into a looming fortress. As the bus negotiates the last hairpin turn, the graceful outline of a cove emerges dramatically. It is a crescent-shaped cove embraced by the panorama of the postcard pretty town of Boljoon.
On the Banks of Boljoon
