Cebu City
See My Links F Cebu City for pics
Wow, what a trip to get here. I left Legazpi City at 830am got to Manila around 10am and took an afternoon flight to Cebu City at 1pm and got in Cebu City around 230pm. Got checked in at the hotel by 330pm.
Wednesday, July 25 arrived in Cebu and pretty just much just crashed for the rest of the day. The hotel (Cebu Midtown Hotel) is attached to a mall. So the first things I did was get some cash as I was running down low on funds and got some water. Was tired from traveling around Legaspi yesterday and the trip today. Did not have any breakfast or lunch so dinner was at the mall. Just some rice and adobo.
Thursday, July 26. Went to the big SM Megamall in Cebu and pretty much updated the blog the whole afternoon. The weather here in Cebu City is horribly hot and being the second largest city in the Philippines, it also very polluted with buses and trikes all over. Tried to stay away from being outside and the air condiitoning going full blast in the mall, this for sure was the place to be. Anyway, pretty much rested today too.
Friday, July 27. After being well rested I went into the heat and smog to do some touristy things.
Cebu especially Cebu City is the hub of the Visayas. It has an international airport and actually is a better route to come into the PI if you want to skip the mayhem in NAIA in Manila. Cubuano the local dialect is spoken thoughout the visayas and parts of mindanao. Cebu City is a magnet for migrants from all over the region. It comes with being the second largest city of the country. As far as visitors are concerned, Cebu City is like Manila without the mayhem. Its traffic is chaotic but not insane. Its size and layout can actually be understood, rather than merely endured. But most important diference from Manila is that you notice that the taxi drivers here aren’t employed by SATAN!
I started the day by visiting the Mactan Shrine. Mactan Island is the site of one of the defining moments of the history of the Philippines. It was here, where the Shrine is located, on April 27m 1521, that Ferdinand Magellan made the fatal mistake of underestimating the fighting spirit of Chief Lapu-Lapu. For goodness sakes, they named all different kind of fishes after him. And they’re all good grilled. More on grilled fish later. As the chief representor of Spain, Magellan had the favours of all of the powerfull chiefs in the area except for Lapu-Lapu. So with 60 of his best soldiers, Magellan sailed to the island to teach him a lesson in gun-boat diplomacy. But Lapu-Lapu and his men defended thier island with unimaginable ferocity and Magellan was soon taken back to his boat fatally wounded by a spear to his head and a poisoned arrow to his leg. This event of course is commemorated by the Shrine.
Next I went to visit Fort San Pedro in the old downtown section. Built in 1565 by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, conqueror of the Philippines, Fort San Pedro has served as an army garrison, a rebel stronghold, a prison camp and the city zoo. Now, it’s a retired as a peaceful, walled garden and handsomely crumbling ruin. A perfect retreat from the chaos and the madness of downtown Cebu. But best of all, it has public toilets. Some of the relic guns are still implaced on the ramparts pointing out to sea. But these days the sea has been filled for reclemation and increase the size of the ports and the city. So the “seashore” is actually a kilometer or two away from the fort. They have a nice display of life on the fort in years gone by.
Then I wanted to visit the Basilica and Magellan’s cross. Instead of taking a taxi, I walked and got lost and wandered into the Carbon Market (which is a dangerous area at nigt). Carbon Market is urban living in the raw. As Cebu’s oldest and biggest produce market – where racks of clothes and baskets snuggle cheek to cheek with stalls of fish, live chickens, drying intestines and videoke, the area is smelly, loud and an experience of a lifetime. I missed the Basilica by overshooting it by one block. After asking a guard at a store I found my way to the Basilica.
The Basilica Minore Del Santo Nino is the one of the holiest of churches in the world. Built in 1565 and burnt down three times, it was rebuilt in its present form in 1737. Perhaps it owes its incendiary past to the perenial bonfire of candles in its courtyard,, stoked by an endless procession of pilgrims and other worshippers. Which I became one as I offered some prayers to family and friends. The object of the worshipping in this church is a Flemish image of the infant Jesus, sequestered in a chapel to the left side of the alter. I could not take some pictures as friday noon mass was in progress. The image dates back to Magellan’s time and is said to be miraculous (which explains how it has survived all those fires). Every year, the image is the centerpiece of Cebu’s largest annual event, the Sinulog Festival. This event is telivised thoughout the country in January. I will someday come back just to see this festival. It’s an incredible month of celebration.
Then I went to see Magellan’s cross. Ferdinand’s catholic legacy, a large wooden cross, is housed in a stone rotunda (built in 1841) across the Cebu City Hall. The crucifix on show here apparently contains a few splinters from a cross Magellan planted on the shores of Cebu in 1521. A painting on the ceiling of the rotunda show Magellan erecting the cross (actually, the locals doing all the work – Magellan just standing around along with the other spaniards).
After touring all day, at night I met with my cousins that are either working or studying in Cebu City. There was a total of seven of them five of which I met this night. Joanne and Janice I met for the first time. We went to an authentic Pilipino resto and had a great dinner then later went to Ayala Mall to a Mexican resto to have drinks and ice cream. It was alot of fun to see them all and hear the family stories.
A rainstorm came and ended the night. Said goodbye to my cousins (of which some I will see later on) went to the hotel exhausted. What a day. Thank goodnes I have that behind me, cause now when I come back I’ll head for the beaches right away.
until next time, bahla na…………….
Tags: F 2007 Philippines Trip
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