DiscoveringPinas

This is my very first post for the year 2012. Please accept my apologies as I haven’t blogged for a very long time because of work-related reasons. I have become a career woman and I never regretted that I chose this path. There are disadvantages with the job I have now, like, for example, I work 10 hours a day; 12 hours or more on busy periods which is March-June and September-December; which means, sometimes, I only have 5-6 hours of sleep. But the advantages weigh more because, for example, I get paid to do what I like. Apart from the salary, I also earned new friends that I share common interests with. Like, we all  love to travel, go to the movies,  have sparties and taste good food. Speaking of food, we just had our nth get-together. We chose to dine in one of the most kept secrets of Cebu – 10 Dove Street.
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Oslob Church

This town called Oslob is located in the south of Cebu. The first time I went there, I was on a History class fieldtrip way back 2002. 9 years later, I thought of this place when my cousin and her boyfriend went to Cebu for a short vacation. I thought they might like to go to the south to see some historical towns and also for me to get away from the metro for a day.

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This lighthouse in Liloan, Cebu has been a guiding light for fishermen and sea captains for more than a hundred years. This 102-year-old lighthouse was built by the order of William Howard Taft in 1908 who was the Governor-General at that time. It is one of the few remaining examples American architecture in the Philippines. The lighthouse is octagonal in shape and is 72 meters high. It sits on top of a small hill and is near the posh AyalaLand subdivision called Amara. There is actually an old Spanish lighthouse around the area but is now in ruins. I didn’t see it when we were there but it was the original lighthouse before the octagonal lighthouse was built.

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Arroceros Forest Park is a bit of land beside the Quezon Bridge and Pasig River, and across LRT Central Terminal Station. You might have heard about it from the new Echo-Kristine soap “Dahil May Isang Ikaw” on ABS-CBN. Echo’s character waits every day for Kristine’s character on the bridge of that park . It’s their supposed meeting place after being separated since childhood.

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(This post is my entry to lagawan.info‘s anniversary contest)

This photo was not taken by me. It was actually taken by a friend who shared my passion for photography. This photo has become my logo for my website discoveringpinas.com. This photo is very memorable to me because it was my first time to travel alone without parents or friends. I’ve never traveled alone before and this trip became an adventure for me. I just met this old friend through a social-networking site and invited me to go to Camiguin Island for the holy week. I never had any second thoughts on what may happen on my trip or if my parents will get mad at me for this decision. I thought that I was on the right age to travel alone and do what I really want in my life and that is to visit new places and discover historical facts. I was really fascinated with the island. The stories about Mt. Hibok-Hibok and the sunken cemetery awakened my curiosity for historical facts.So I practically used most of my month’s salary for this trip which was a big deal because I was getting a real big sum of money back then. As I look back and think of what I did, I’d still use all my money for that trip. Man, Camiguin has a mystical charm on me.

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Watch TV 5′s Promdi Chef every Tuesday night at 11:30 as Chef Jomi Gaston takes you on a tour of the best eating spots in the Visayas. Each episode features different “must-try” delicacies and dining locations in the region, with guest celebrities testing and satisfying their gustatory buds in search of the perfect Visayan meal.

“Promdi Chef” is not just a food show, it is also a travel show, ” says Chef Jomi, who studied in the Culinary Institute of America for an Associate Degree in Culinary Arts. As a professional, he owns an Italian restaurant and a cafe in Bacolod, where he’s the Director for Operations in Cafe Uma, specializing in Asian and European Cafe cuisine.
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If you’re looking for a beach away from the city, you might want to check out Panagsama Beach and White Beach of Moalboal, Cebu. Moalboal is a municipality of Cebu situated on the southwest of the island. There are a few bars, lodging houses, resorts and restaurants in Moalboal but it still has this provincial feel so it can still be classified as rural.

Sunset in Moalboal

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Sumilon is a small island in the southeastern part of Cebu. It is a part of the municipality of Oslob, Cebu. I’ve been to Oslob once in my college days. We went to this museum house full of antiques, images of saints, Salvador Dali paintings (replicas) and Faberge eggs. They say you can hire a pump boat from Oslob and cross the strait separating Cebu and Negros to reach Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental. But little is known about this secluded island called Sumilon. What I do know is it’s an island worth going. It’s one of Cebu’s best kept secrets.

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I was invited by my cousin Bing to this church outing in Batangas on Labor Day. I said, ‘why not?’ I haven’t left the metro for like 9 months and I don’t include going to Dasmarinas, Cavite monthly as a roadtrip since my aunt has a house there and I treat it as my second home. So when this opportunity came by, I grabbed it immediately.

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Basilica Minore del Santo Nino was founded in 1565. The first structure was made of wood and nipa. The stone church was constructed from 1735 to 1739 so the church itself is 270 years old. The church houses the image of Sto. Nino de Cebu, the patron saint of Cebu. It was a gift from Magellan to Queen Juana. It’s considered a sign of the alliance between the Spaniards and the natives. A story was told that wood and nipa church housing the Sto. Nino image was burned down. After the fire, the image was found safely intact. The image of the Sto. Nino de Cebu is now displayed on a shrine on the left side of the church’s altar. The queue for viewing the Sto. Nino is always long even at noontime when most people are having their siesta. I remember going to the church to accompany my friend to light candles and pray. I wanted to see the image closely out of curiosity but I didn’t have the time to stand in line because I had chores to do later that day. All the 10 years I’ve lived in Cebu, I never got to see the image at a closer view.

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