Imagine a strip of land dotted with retail shops, boutiques, bars, cafes and restaurants. Shaded walkways and landscaped gardens allow people to walk along the 11 connected buildings that can be found all throughout its length. The whole stretch has a view of the sea on one side. At the far end is built a…
Tag: Cebu
Just Wine Cebu serves affordable, quality wines
It goes by Just Wine but don’t let the seeming simplicity of the name deceive you. Cebu’s newest wine and tapas bar is cozy and comfortable and provides the perfect place for Cebuanos to hang out and bond with friends over a glass (or glasses) of red or white. Just Wine sells a bottle of…
Sinulog 2014 mobile web guide now available
It’s less than three months to the Sinulog 2014 celebration in Cebu and accommodations along and near the procession and parade routes are fast filling up. (Update: We now have an Android app version) Have you made your reservations? Some Cebu hotels and pension houses require two-night, three-night, or four-night stays during the Sinulog Festival…
Blue Bell Ice Cream introduces products in Cebu
One thing I’m looking forward to this week is Saturday’s Discover Blue Bell Ice Cream event that will serve to introduce the brand in Cebu. The Blue Bell Ice Cream is exclusively distributed in the Visayas by Visfood Corporation and it has organized a country fair-themed ice cream-tasting party at the Ayala Center Cebu Activity…
Around Argao in a day
Argao’s pueblo was patterned after Spain’s blueprint for its settlements in the colonies, which specified a church-rectory-municipal hall-plaza-complex and with the natives living nearby or “bajo el sonido de la campana (under the sound of the bell).”
Kalanggaman Island boasts of powder fine sand, clean sea
Around 400 foreign tourists in a cruise ship that stopped by Kalanggaman Island in Palompon, Leyte were so blown away they stayed for 12 hours. Powder fine white beach. Clean sea. Long, long sandbar. This in a nutshell is Kalanggaman, an uninhabited island between the northern Cebu mainland and Leyte. Locals call it paradise and…
Kawasan Falls perfect balm to summer heat
If you’ve ever been caught in a cloudburst, when huge drops of rain suddenly fall on you, multiply that feeling a thousand times and you know what it’s like to stand under Kawasan Falls in Cebu, Philippines. The tallest of the seven Kawasan Falls is just the right height and has just enough volume to…
Cebu heritage walk showcases island’s history
What tourists should include in their Cebu to do list is go on a heritage walk. Cebu City’s downtown area is a heritage belt of old churches, houses, and other structures that date back to its colonial Spanish past spanning no less than 300 years. These places are of walking distance from each other and…
Hale Manna: House of Good Energy
Nature never travels in a straight line and at Hale Manna, which is Hawaiian for House of Good Energy, great pains are taken to ensure that this natural order of things is followed. The ground is uneven and rocky and trees are planted to match this terrain, steps are carved from rocks to serve as…
Cebuanos go on Visita Iglesia or beach trips during Holy Week
For Christian Catholics in Cebu, the Holy Week celebration entails a long break from work. In keeping with the solemnity of the week, many Catholics go on a “Visita Iglesia,” a religious practice that involves visiting seven churches on Maundy Thursday. In Cebu City, there are a lot of churches that can be included in…
Centuries-old churches in southern Cebu
Centuries-old churches of various architectural influences that were built during the Spanish occupation of Cebu can be found along the entire stretch of the mainland and even in satellite islands. A trip down Cebu’s southern part is a glimpse into the religious aspect of Spain’s influence on Cebuano heritage. Spanish period churches in souther towns…
Cebu City’s heritage of churches
Cebu is an architectural feast of Spanish period churches in the styles of late Baroque, neoclassical, Greco-Roman, and Gothic or a combination of their elements. The Augustinians came with Spanish conqueror Miguel Lopez de Legazpi to the Philippines through Cebu in 1565 and zealously went about converting people to Christianity. Proof of their fervour is…
Sinulog 2012 depicts Cebu as ‘City of Culture’
A retracing of Cebu’s journey through the years, the people and countries it interacted with, and their influences on the island’s values and beliefs will be the central idea behind the 2012 Sinulog Festival. The theme “One Beat. One Dance. One Vision.” remains the same but the concept changes year by year and it will…
BPI museum traces history of banking in Philippines
Ever wondered how and when banking started in the Philippines? The oldest bank in the country, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), tells the story through its newly opened museum in Cebu City. On display at the museum are gold coins that started circulation in 1861, 10 years after the El Banco Español Filipino de…
280-year-old Jesuit house in Cebu
In the hustle and bustle of Cebu City are houses so old, they’ve stood for about 300 years. One of these structures is located between Calle Zulueta and the narrow side street of Binakayan in downtown Parian, the old Chinese district of Cebu. It’s a two-storey house of cut coral stone walls, tugas hardwood floors…