Stories of Places, People and Photography in the Philippines and Beyond
This would be a quick post on one of my favorite looking church in Batanes, the San Jose de Ivana Church. Although built in 1814 with foundation dating back as far as 1795, it is one of the well preserved structures in the island. Right now, it still looks new. I like this church since it looks a bit different from the other churches as it looks more like a fortress at first.
One of the must-see places when you visit Iloilo province in Panay Island is the Santo Tomas de Villanueva Church or most commonly known as the Miagao Church. This church is one of the four Baroque churches in the Philippines inscribe in UNESCO‘s list of World Heritage Sites. On our first day in Iloilo City, the coastal town of Miagao is our first top where we stayed with out kind host Tita Linda.
After setting our stuff at Nanbin Youth Hostel in Chongqing Municipality, we didn’t want to waste time that afternoon so we headed to Caiyuan Ba bus station to get tickets to Dazu County 大足县 and visit one of the most important Cultural Heritage Sites in China, the Dazu Rock Carvings 大足石刻, which is also included in China’s numerous list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
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.
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.
After eating a Satti breakfast at one of the Satti shops in Pilar Street, morning finds us strolling the streets of Zambaonga City ending up at the imposing structure by the Zamboanga Peninsula Seas, which is the historical Fort Pilar. This venerable fort founded in 1635 yet still proudly stands strong until now, represents the rich colonial history of this region of our country.
