Ati-Atihan and Sunshine
Firstly to continue with our regularly scheduled Philippines weather update: the last few days have been much improved, with sunshine and blue sky and everything, so hopefully the rain has passed and we’ll have fine weather for Palawan.
Having said that, literally the moment we stepped off the bus in Kalibo for Ati-Atihan on Sunday, it started pouring and the afternoon was shaping up as a bit of a disaster. But luckily it was only a five-minute monsoon downpour and it didn’t rain again for the rest of the afternoon, so we were able to enjoy the festival.
The only way to describe Ati-Atihan is a completely Latin American style carnival parade, which was so fascinating and remarkable to see here in this environment. In over two years spent in Asia, I’ve never seen local people like this: drinking, dancing, parading through the streets in tribal costumes and generally creating a raucous atmosphere that you could never imagine seeing in Indonesia or Burma or China or anywhere else across this vast continent. (It’s kind of interesting to wonder if, say, the Portuguese had tried to conquer all of India rather than merely setting up coastal trading ports, whether Mardi Gras parades like this would happen on the subcontinent…).
Thousands of locals paraded their way through the streets of Kalibo, both those dressed up as part of tribes and ordinary people in ordinary clothing just having a good time. To attend this festival was the entire reason for us scheduling our Philippines trip at this time and going to the Visayas first, and though it was a long day (more than 7 hours on buses and six different jeepneys) to get there from Iloilo, it was well worth it and it’s a festival to remember along with the other major ones we’ve been fortunate enough to witness in various countries over the years.
More photos of the festival are here.
Taking advantage of the €15 flights available with Cebu Pacific these days, we flew back to Cebu City last night and are moving on to Palawan tomorrow. We never expected the Visayas to be our favourite part of the Philippines, so while we’ve enjoyed ourselves so far with the easy travel, friendly locals and laid-back atmosphere, hopefully the best is yet to come. Tomorrow we’ll be in Puerto Princesa, and on Friday we’ll visit the nearby Subterranean River, which, despite extensive advertising in Bohol for locals to vote for the Chocolate Hills, is the only place in the Philippines to have made it through to the second phase of voting for the Seven Natural Wonders of the world. (Remarkably, Bangladesh has three places in the second round, so something has gone wrong…).
Tags: Asia, Ati-Atihan, festivals, parades, Southeast Asia, sun, The Philippines
Nick