El Capitan Parroco

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 (wooden sailboats).

Lindzey Romero, MHistory

A Series of Fortunate Events

Boljoon, Cebu, the Philippines

March 5, 2011

On the Banks of Boljoon

Who needs plans when you can have surprises?

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.

Fontainebleau in Cebu

Cebu City, the Philippines

March 5, 2011

Other than my bedroom, I don’t have a literal comfort zone – a feel-good place that I’d repeatedly go back to. My fellow transcendental traveler, Ki, seems to know such a place where he feels “in the zone”. He takes to his solitary journeys there like a fish to water.

Ki and his favorite McDonald's in Fuente Osmeña Circle

Filipino Gothic

Manila, the Philippines

January 29, 2011

Overcast, Gothic, Illuminati. No, these are not plot elements of the latest installment in the Da Vinci Code franchise.

San Sebastian Church

One gloomy January day, I attended an Illuminati event at the only Neo-Gothic church in Manila, the Basilica Minore de San Sebastian. From the elevated train, the sight of the church’s twin spires piercing the sunless sky evoked an ominous Gothic atmosphere. Despite the warmly whimsical aquamarine exterior, a bleary darkness enveloped my tentative steps as the basilica’s main portal creaked open as if it were a film noir opening sequence.