Stories of Places, People and Photography in the Philippines and Beyond
Ooops! I just realized I still have a lot of back log from my travels. So in Between the China posts, I’ll be posting entries from those recent local travels as well. I thought it would add variety and hope not to cause confusion on continuity. This entry is another one of my favorite places in our country, Batanes. Same trip brought to you by the cool guys at Geiser Maclang and Epson Philippines. And probably one of the most memorable series as well.
Wow! I’ve never felt so busy lately. Lots of things to take care of and lots of things to write and look forward to. Just along with some stuff from the Batanes Photo Safari, I still have to write about some sites from Pangasinan. This is just another short posts briefing some of the places we visited in Iloilo and Guimaras and something to for you guys to watch out for. We only had a limited time so we have to pick some spots. Iloilo and Guimaras is huge!
No, this isn’t an early Visita Inglesia post in Manila nor did I shoot a wedding here, it just so happen that there’s a wedding being held at San Sebastian Basilica Church when I was there. I was supposed to shoot a few scenes around the neighborhood of Malacañang, the country’s seat of the government, as a minor assignment for a publication I regularly contribute at. My route was the same as Ivan Mandy’s San Miguel Walking tour, but since I’m no historian, I pulled out a fellow blogger, Tito of Tutubi Patrol, whose more adept to history than I am and we were also joined by another photographer/writer Joselle for a short walk around the San Miguel District in Manila.
When we arrived in Casa Dela Playa in Sandugan, Larena, we didn’t waste much time to be back on the road again. After checking our beach front house, leaving some of our things and being friendly with the resort dogs. Yes I said dogs (there’s a really friendly and cute one there)! We hopped on our AUV and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon at the municipality of Lazi down south.
The coastal city of Dumaguete in Negros Oriental is also considered the land of the gentle people. At some sense I had to agree with that since I found Dumaguete upon first impression very peaceful. You don’t have that sense of danger or urgency. It’s almost like any rural city but this one dominated by the large Silliman University and a lot cleaner in my opinion. And it was a surprise to see a lot of foreign backpackers and nationals are here. Just says something about the place.
One of the more popular destination in Bohol is the municipality of Loboc. More famous for its musically talented and award winning Loboc Children’s Choir, the place also holds the 2nd oldest church in Bohol, a scenic cruise along its river and another world famous primate, the Tarsiers. Here recounts our brief exploration of Loboc, the oldest town in Bohol.
Old churches are fascinating structures. If other countries and cultures have temples or mosques constructed in elegance to glorify their gods, I consider our churches as silent witnesses of our history. A milestone as the time it was constructed and the history it tells on its walls. Their design tells much about their story and the area where they are situated. I became even more intrigued of our historical churches when I got to visit one of the oldest churches in our country, the Immaculate Concepcion Church in Baclayon, Bohol.
