Reluctant Relocator: Elizabeth goes to the Philippines February 2011

No, I didn't go on my own. Rakesh and Vivian came with me. We were ~~escaping~~ leaving China while the nation went nuts celebrating Chinese New Year. Hare opted to go back to Toronto and Montreal for his week off school. The rest of us decided that we would check out Mactan, a small island off the mid-south island of Cebu, in the nation of islands, the Philippines. Got it?

By popular request (OK, I only asked one person), I will be posting this vacation thematically as well.

Let me start with our arrival in Cebu International Airport where we were greeted by a figure of Santo Nino, a Philippine representation of the Child Jesus. There is a big festival for Santo Nino, but that is in January.

Closer...

Closest

So odd to see Christian icons in public.
Quite the change from China.

The Costabella Tropical Beach Hotel was more intimate than the one we had stayed at in Thailand and had that colonial Spanish flair.

I love fountains and porte-cocheres.

This also caught my eye, pineapple shaped lamps.

The reception area

My kind of chandelier!

The open air hall leading away from the reception to the main restaurant, also open air.

The main restaurant, La Marina, at night

The main pool, also at night.
It was more magical "live".

Our room was very nice, complete with chaise-longue and good-sized balcony. What I couldn't get a shot of was our lovely bathroom with a huge step-up tub. I never used the tub; I felt too guilty about using all that scarce fresh water. I only showered.

We had a true ocean view, albeit on a slight angle.

Sunrise over the Philippine Sea

This view was looking right.

Looking left...

...and obviously down

These were the two pools. The one closest had a water slide, waterfall and a bridge going over it. I never went in either of these pools as the ocean was warmer and way more fun. You can also make out the thatched roof of the Asia Restaurant.

Ground level

The Asia Restaurant, a quieter place to enjoy dinner and drinks.

Views from our open air hallway outside our room

Looking left

Closer shot of the boats

Closer still

Same view at low tide

Just like the Bay of Fundy!

They were looking for crabs, I believe.

Looking right at the greenery on the hotel property and beyond.

Our hotel from the beach

We stayed on the sixth floor of the new tower.

The grey wall in the foreground is a breakwater.

A closer shot of the beach and its fine, white sand.

Rakesh and Vivian with Bob and Diane, a Canadian couple we befriended.

We were on Mactan Island for seven days, plus a day at each end for travel. I'd say we had an equal mix of sun and showers. Oh, well. We made do with the overcast days. There are worse things that could happen than a bad weather day.

Our first "rain day" we went to Cebu City, the main town about a 45 minute drive from the hotel. We toured the city in half a day. There is not a lot to see in Cebu City. Trust me. I did enjoy what we did manage to find.

On our way to Cebu City, we first stopped at this shrine to Magellan.

Wow! Wikipedia does have everything!
Here's info on this shrine.

The Magellan shrine is a large memorial tower erected in honor of the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The spot is believed to be the area were Magellan was killed in the Battle of Mactan on 1521, Philippines.

Closer shot of the shrine

At the same site, there was a statue erected in memory of Lapu Lapu.

Who was Lapu Lapu, you ask? Great question.
I'll let the plaque do the talking.

Both these monuments were on an inlet with some seriously low tides.

On to Cebu City!

View approaching Cebu City

The tower in the background is a hotel and the tallest building in Cebu City.
Such a different skyline from Shanghai!

Jeepnies everywhere, but I know someone who would appreciate this colour.

Love the name!

Lots of signs mixing English and Tagalog
It was hard to pick a favourite.

More Magellan once we arrived in Cebu City

This was Magellan's Cross

I felt like was doing Grade 5 History again.

Magellan's Cross was housed here.

Across from Magellan's Cross, down a lane, through a plaza, was the Basilica of Santo Nino,
the oldest church in the Philippines.

Here's some more info, courtesy of Wikipedia:

The Minor Basilica of the Santo Niño or Basilica Minore del Santo Niño is a 16th century church in Cebu City in the Philippines. It was built purportedly on the spot where the image of the Santo Niño, a sculpture depicting the Holy Child Jesus found by Spanish explorers in 1565 preserved in a burned wooden box which was left behind during the 1521 Magellan expedition.

The ESL teacher in me cringes at the grammatical mistakes in that passage. Gee, I'm glad I'm perfect. I'll manage. I hope you do, too, and get the gist of the importance of the Basilica.

The plaza

Balloon seller

The racks of votive candles outside the Basilica. There were dozens of these racks. I guess it's a good idea to keep the candles outside, seeing as how the Basilica was burnt down twice.

Looking down a hallway where people were lighting candles.

The facade of the Basilica

Looking up at the Basilica

Detail from the wall

The interior, the nave, specifically.
Yeah, I wanted to show off my church terminology.

Closer view of the altar

I don't know if you can make out the painted ceiling of the apse (popular crossword answer).

The Chapel of Santo Nino containing the relic.

A pretty, understated church

Next on the agenda, Fort San Pedro.

Rakesh and Vivian at the main gate.

Once again, I'll let the plaque do the explaining.

There was a religious statue here as well, our Lady of the Fort, the Virgin of Remedies.

Guess what she was renowned for?

In the 1570's, her image was discovered by the Cebuanos in a well in the Fort San Pedro. The water from the well was said to cure many illnesses. She is still highly revered today.

Inside the Fort walls

Ramp leading to the upper level

Ground level
Love the architecture

After Fort San Pedro, we visited a monument called "Cebu Heritage". As the name suggests, this sculpture incorporates all the people who had a role in the making of Cebu.

Vivian on the Spanish explorer side.

You can see how huge this "Cebu Heritage" is.

Can you make out the Basilica of Santo Nino?

Closer shot

Kitty corner from "Cebu Heritage" was the one of the oldest houses in the Philippines.
We popped by there briefly.

Note the lanterns. I was thinking, "The Chinese are everywhere!" and indeed they are. This house was built sometime between 1675 and 1700. It was originally owned by a Chinese merchant named Don Juan Yap and his wife, Doña Maria Florido. The lanterns were put up in honour of Chinese New Year. One of the interesting facts about this house is that it is constructed of wood and coral stones glued together with egg whites. Delicious!

We had another overcast day with showers. This time, having seen all there was to see in terms of historical sites, we went to a local mall on Mactan Island, the Gaisano Grand Mall. Nothing fancy at all, but perfectly adequate. It reminded me a little of Gerrard Square Mall for those of you know this Toronto shopping spot.

Views of the street from Gaisano Grand Mall

Yeah, I know. I've go to work on my camera angles.

Unlike China, the Philippines is a country that bakes, as evidenced by the numerous bakeries just in this one small mall.

A local delicacy, ube cake. Ube is a purple yam. I didn't try it, but it was pretty to look at.

Excellent choice in brand name.

After poking around, we all indulged at a salon/spa located in the mall.

Vivian got a new 'do and a pedicure

Rakesh had a Swedish massage (sounds odd, being in the Philippines and all) and I had my bangs thinned, a hair mask and a facial. All of this came to... are you ready for this.... $86 Cdn. I know! I had to go to two different currency conversion websites to check that this was correct. Such a deal! Yes, we tipped generously. After that afternoon, I didn't care if it rained again. Un/fortunately, it didn't.

Speaking of money, here are some photos of Philippine currency.

Missing are the 1,000 peso and the 20 peso bills.

Here's some cool trivia (isn't all trivia cool?). The new bills are eco-friendly as they are made of abaca-cotton. They are also hygienically treated to make them anti-bacterial. Maybe the second feature cancels out the first. The Central Bank of the Philippines did spend three years on research. At any rate, it's amazing what one can learn from an in-flight magazine.

The coins

Missing are the rest of the sentimos pieces, the ten, five and one.

I only got the 25 sentimos coin.

Note the Philippine twoonie!

Actually a ten peso coin, followed by the five and one peso coins.

One of our sunny days we went on a snorkelling trip. What a blast! We booked it through our hotel and the boat pulled up at the breakwater.

The boat

Definitely more authentic than the one we went on in Thailand.

I preferred this one.

Getting on the boat was an adventure in itself!

Interesting arrangement...gang plank with bamboo pole handrail, both removable

Settled in with a British couple who are teaching in Shanghai.

We met a lot of teachers from Shanghai while on Mactan Island.

Our skipper

I'd never seen such a long tiller.

You can make out a crew member crouched on the stern.
He was eating his lunch.

Yours truly on the bow.
Best seat on a boat, in my opinion.

How happy was I?

The coast
It was slightly overcast, so you can't see how blue the water was.

Vivian

Those outriggers were surprisingly effective at stabilizing the boat.

After a 45 minute boat ride, we arrived at Olango Reef, part of a marine sanctuary off Nalusuan Island.

The next part is going to be tricky as I didn't have a waterproof digital camera. The following underwater fish photos are all from the Internet. I hope I remember all the creatures I saw. I hope I can download the photos!

Aha! Problem solved! I saw many of these fish, including the clown fish (aka Nemo, for my younger readers), the angel fish and an animal that looked like a brown mottled vacuum hose (not on the chart). I saw fish in all sizes and shapes, from tiny teal hued fish in caramel coloured sea anemones to long-nosed, skinny, silver needle fish to round, aptly named parrot fish. There were fish that wanted to remain hidden, like tan, fringed bottom feeders, and fish that wanted to be on display, like butterfly fish. I saw solid coloured yellow fish and blue fish with white stripes. I even saw fish that looked like they were wearing fishnet (ar, ar) stockings. True! All I could think was, "Wow! God has quite the imagination."

I was in the water for an hour.

Can you tell?

We stopped for lunch on Nalusuan Island at the "resort",
more like a rustic picnic area, but still lovely.

Another Canadian we met.

We're oot and aboot everywhere, eh?

After lunch, we ~~waddled~~ waded out for some swimming on the non-reef side of the island.

Vivian

It was low tide and I swear, we could have waded all the way to Mactan Island. We had to be careful when snorkelling that we didn't accidentally kick any coral or step on a starfish, which came in various shades of brick and, shockingly, blue!

After our dip, we strolled from Nasuluan Island down the pier back to the boat.
We had been snorkelling just off this pier.

The pier's archway

I snorkelled some more after lunch. I reluctantly (the story of my life) got out of the water because everyone else was ready to go.

Shoving off

The ride back was rougher, which in my book equals better. Nothing compares to being out on the ocean.

We spent our last day on the hotel's beach, chatting with new friends and enjoying some final cocktails.

Mangorita