cebu, five years later (day 1)

Five years after first envisioning the trip and five years after the actual planning I was finally able to whisk myself away from Manila with enough vacation time to spend in Cebu.

I had planned to take the trip with a friend before I entered medical school but in the flurry of activities regarding applications, interviews and enrolment the trip kept getting postponed. And as air fare and hotel accommodation money turned into payment for papers and application fees I lost all hope of actually going to Cebu.

Fast forward to five years later (which was two weeks ago), my friend now works in Cebu and I had just passed the physician licensure exam, there seemed no better time to hop on a plane and go to Cebu. Without even planning the trip I found myself there a few days later.

I flew via Cebu Pacific. The planes now left from NAIA Terminal 3 (no, nothing fell from the ceiling at that time) and I was in Cebu ten minutes earlier than expected.

I had lunch at Casa Verde (V. Ranudo St, Cebu City) where I gamely attacked the very generous portions of baby back ribs which were melt-in-your-mouth delicious. After that I made like a tourist and visited some of Cebu's well-known tourist spots. Of course, the church was the first stop.



Basilica Minor del Santo Niño was built on the site where an image of Santo Niño was found in 1565. The structure was razed by a fire soon after that and the church has been rebuilt and added to since then.

In January, during the Sinulog Festival, the grand procession of The Holy Image of Señor Santo Niño de Cebu comes to a halt in this church patio. In late August, the stage and the patio is closed, no drums beat and no colors adorn the space. It's almost sad.



After saying a short prayer of thanks, we headed to the Basilica del Santo Niño Museum. I did not expect such a small space to house so many different images of Santo Niño, including capes, clothing and accessories. Offerings for the Santo Niño overflowed from shelves and glass cases -- these included an assortment of jewelry, clothes, shoes and even toys. Also housed in the museum are highly embroidered vestments, carvings, ornate candelabras and old church documents written in Spanish.

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Magellan's Cross in front of the city hall at Megallanes St. was our next stop. The cross was planted by Ferdinand Magellan in April 21, 1521 (hey, that's my birthday, definitely not my birth year).

The cross which we see today is also not the original one planted by Magellan. In the early years after Augustinian friars built a shrine for the cross, the natives were said to take wood chips from the cross. They believed that these chips held some miraculous power. A hollow wooden cross now encases the original one.

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The Taoist Temple at Beverly Hills was our third stop. There is something surreal and at the same time enlightening about visiting temples. There is a sense of the here and now. Yet at the same time there is a sort of distance, a detachment from one's self felt by a Christian not at all attuned with the religion. Sort of a Lost in Translation, the religion version.

A Korean tourist (right) stops to catch her breath after climbing the 81 steps (left).

Climbing up the 81 steps proved to be a mean feat. We stopped halfway to the top. The break allowed us to drink in the view of Cebu City.


Here are more pictures taken from the Temple grounds.

A painter making the old new again

Behold the dragon

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We run out of things to do later in the afternoon. We stopped and had coffee, exchanged news and gossip, and proceeded onto mall-hopping. National Bookstore was having it's big sale and I could not resist taking a peek. Half an hour later though, I went out of the store empty-handed.

I had dinner at a colleague's house. It was nice to see the whole family there. It was nice to see people who were centered and grounded. The dinner went well and I was happy to hone my social skills as I contributed a few interesting quips to get the conversation going.

My first day in Cebu had come to a close. Catching up with friends was a vital part of the trip. If I had to cut my trip short and go home the next day I would still have been more than satisfied.

To be continued . . .