quick visit at the queen city of the south Unknown 9:35 PM

I know every great cities must be explored thoroughly but the time and budget that we had was not enough (which is always the case) so we chose the popular destinations and hopefully we could go back and explore the wholeness of it.

We kinda explored the city in a day after leaving the beautiful Bantayan Island..

not your typical jeepney Unknown 8:35 PM

Jeepneys normally look like this:

Lapu-Lapu Unknown 7:30 PM

Lapu-Lapu is regarded, retroactively, as the first Filipino hero.  The Philippine government has since erected a statue in his honor on Mactan Island and renamed the town of Opon in Cebu to Lapu-Lapu City.  Another statue stands in Rizal Park in the national capital of Manila.  Lapu-Lapu also appears on the official seal of the Philippine National Police.  His face was used as the main design on the defunct 1-centavo coin circulated in the Philippines from 1967 to 1974.

During the First Regular Season of the 14th Congress of the Philippines, Senator Richard Gordon introduced a bill proposing to declare April 27 as an official Philippines national holiday to be known as Adlaw ni Lapu-Lapu ("Day of Lapu-Lapu").  In the United States, a street in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California is named after Lapu-Lapu.

According to the native legend, Lapu-Lapu never died but turned into stone, and has since then been guarding the seas of Mactan.  

let's respect the rules.. Unknown 5:22 PM

The Taoist Temple in Beverly Hills Subdivision in Cebu City was the first temple I ever visited.  I think I was too amazed that I kinda forgot the rules; to be quiet, and not to take pictures of their gods.. of their altar(?).. well I was quiet, quietly taking pictures of everything until I climbed up the stairs and I saw some people were praying.  I was about to take a shot when my friend stopped me and reminded me of the rules.. a few seconds later, the guard came.  

the fun of getting to the market Unknown 1:22 PM

Last year of December, I went to Cebu with my friends.  I've been posting some photos and half telling stories about that trip not only because I don't have much to write, but I'm really running out of words.. I don't even know what to say about this, but I'll try.

So right after visiting the Virgin Island, we went straight to Ogtong Cave.. around 30 minutes drive from our cottage in Sta. Fe Beach Club which you will first notice approaching Bantayan Island in Cebu.  That huge white house with the prettiest cottages on its side and the white sand is like the prettiest I've seen.  You must be rolling your eyes right now because I always say that this thing or that place is the prettiest, but really, I'm just shallow like thaaaat (shiiit, I sound so maarte).

So we hired a van going to Ogtong Cave and discussed with the driver if he could also drop us off the market.. he didn't agree.  He said it's out of the way and also he's got something else to do.  We weren't able to persuade him which kinda made us question our convincing power, but it's alright, because we were able to explore their town on our own which was a lot of fun.  

The fun started with a 15 minute walk to the main road from Ogtong cave.  We passed by some kids going home from school, and this shot below could have been better if my camera was faster because that girl on the red bike stared at my camera as she was passing by and that could have been really nice if I was able to shoot her properly.

groovy lolos Unknown 2:21 PM

Last 2 weeks, we remembered our grandmothers and their incomparable love through the photo of this grandma who comforted her grandson and took care of him while we're being shaken by the sea.  

Now, I got a few shots, actually just 2 of the grooviest, coolest grandfathers I encountered.  One of them in Cebu and the other in Makati.

We were in a fast food restaurant when my office mate pointed us in the direction of the cars outside.. I didn't know what we're looking at at first, but then I saw the prettiest, coolest car.. a vintage car being driven in the street!  And look who's driving it!

The second photo was at a souvenir shop in Mactan, Cebu.  I caught my friends buying ukulele for the kid who's with us, and the man was showing them every colors, and every kind, and kind of strumming each of them.  I asked him if he could play, and right about strumming the strings, I took a few shots.

I'm glad he let me do that.. or maybe he was surprised that a camera was suddenly on his face that he wasn't able to evade it.  I named him coololo.  Lolo is grandfather in Tagalog, by the way.  So there you go.

seas the moment Unknown 8:15 PM

We spent an hour and a half together in the sea; staring at the huge waves, at the television which once played a comedy film, me staring at their backs, at their actions, trying to get a good shot of whatever I could shoot discreetly.

There's this story of a grandma and her grandchildren who were searching for a vacant seat.  There's no vacant seats but they could share with others.. but I guess she doesn't like the idea so they remained standing on the side.  I fell asleep and when I opened my eyes, I saw them 3 sitting on the chair and her grandson not feeling well; he puked, and the other child, the girl, jumped to the other seat in front of them.  The man who was sitting there.. I don't know where he went.  And the grandma continued comforting her grandson.

The waves were huge.. huge enough to sway a ship, a ship loaded with trucks, huge trucks.. it also kinda made me sick, well I just had the worst hangover before that trip.

hue hue hue Cebu! Unknown 12:32 PM

I was in Cebu last week.. one of the best trips I've had.. although I've said that many times before, but it really was kind of a smooth travel; from the plane to the boats rides.  Anyway, we landed on this super beautiful island, it's so pretty and gorgeous.. the sand is so white and pure, and the water is crystal clear.. they call it the Virgin Island.  

These photos below with its every color and every hue was taken at its snorkeling spot.. scroll down, for at the bottom you'll see its original color.