PHILIPPINES (EXPERIENCE WESTERN VISAYAS FIRST)
WEST VISAYAS WAITED MORE THAN A THOUSAND YEARS FOR YOU
You are in West Visayas the moment you board a plane or ship
for lloilo, Bacold Kalibo,Roxas City or Caticlan
The mestizo seated near you and 60 percent of all other
passengers are llonggos, people of the region. On a Negros Navigation Company
ship, you are pampered with other I percent of all aboard, ilonggos,82 in
percent of all board, from captain to deckhand.
The trip reveals the real Philippines –an archipelago,large
and small green islands in placid waters. At the center are Panay, Negros
Guimaras and more than a hundred of tiny others, home of a guileless people.
Their Catholic culture rubs of tiny others, home history antedates Julius
Caesar, their quaint cities and towns bathe in sunlight, in cool ,clean fresh
air , their centuries old industries and arts –survivors amidst galloping
technologies and suffocating dissonant forms- continue to nourish a lifestyle
of grace and elegance.
HURRY OR TAKE YOUR TIME ! It’s easy to get here.
Iloilo , Bacolod , Kalibo ,Roxas and Caticlan airports are
about an hour from Manila with flights several tmes daily; from Cebu, much
less, By ship, 19 relaxing clock hours ,shorter for scenery , shipboard
comfort.
From Iloilo or Bacolod, go anywhere-Roxas City, Kalibo, San
Jose, cities of Negros, any town or barangay –but come first to Iloilo city
where regional local Department of Tourism Office or commercial tour operators
will assist you. In 1572, Spanish colonizer Miguel Lopez de Legazpi came to
Iloilo first and worked his way up to Manila with scantily dressed natives as
guides.Today’s guides are professional, trained and pretty if they are
girls.Most of them are.
HOTELS, WHETHER YOU ARE IN OR OUT, THEY ARE FIRST CLASS. OR
GOOD
You will be out of your hotel or resort most of the time.
But in or out, whatever you do or don’t do with hotel rooms, in Iloilo and
Bacolod, they are first class. Of resorts, Guimaras,Boracay or Sipalay offer
similar accommodations in cottages under stately coco palms or near shady cool
green trees.
Genuinely tropic, tranquilizing or exciting ,never boring. In
Mambucal, Murcia, Negros Occidental, 1200 feet aboe sea level, hot spring bath,
bracing mountain ar.Hotels are good in Kalibbo and Roxas city, San Jose ,
Antique has good inns. Rates are reasonable.
WE TAKE CARE THAT YOU EAT AND DRINK
Restaurants serve Filipino , American, Chinese , Japanese
,Thai and European dishes; bar dispense Philippine –brewed or imported liquor.
Try Tuba, pure sweet coconut flower nectar, fermented as it
collects drop by drop from a fresh every 6 hour gash on the flower cluster, in
the same way tuba had been produced centuries before the first pyramid was
built.
You stay in a resort, take tuba in place of morning coffee
as daytime refreshment and late evening nightcap.3 days of this, as many of
swimming and sunning and the pink glow on you will be conversation piece for
weeks in Rome, Copenhagen or Vladivostok.
RUMOURS ABOUT EXOTIC THINGS TO EAT ARE TRUE
Durian, rambutan, lanzones are plentiful, juicy and sweet in
Aklan, northern Antique, central Capiz, Iloilo highlands, southern Negros,
Mangoes from Guimaras and Iloilo are the sweetest and exported abroad. Atis,
sineguelas and kamunsil flood markets in summer.
Seafoods like crab, lobster , prawn , shrimp , eel, snail,
clam or shellfish . Don’t miss pancit molo, spiced pork chicken meat balls,
each ball daintily wrapped in thin dough,boiled in chicken pork broth. Used to
be served only to Spanish governors, archbishops and generals.
MUSEUMS
Visit these showcases of West Viisayas culture and history
for panoramic view enough to last until you return for a closer look, two ,
three, four times or more when you will begin to hear centuries rustle by.
Museo Iloilo , Negros, Capiz, Aklan and Guimaras Musuems are showcases of local
culture and heritage worthy of the great histories of the provinces.
WE HAVE THE LARGEST PLAYGROUND IN ASIA. THIS PART OF ASIA,
ANYWAY.
5 golf courses open all year around; 3 in Negros , one each
in Iloilo and Boracay .Tennis ,badminton ,basketball, courts ,bowling alleys,
football fields, rugged country hiking.
Fish antique waters for tunas that fight .Boats for rent
available. Swim any hour of a fine day. All days are fine while you are here.
Much more sea than land in the region.
Blending science ,art ,superstition and gambling ,
cockfighting is gymnastics as much for cocks as for spectators. Buy razor-
sharp fighting cock spurs for souvenirs that should be kept out of children’s
reach at home
Camp in Guimaras’ and Capiz’s virgin forests ,anywhere from
base to summit of active Kanlaon volcano in Negros.
For scuba divers: 18th century Spanish galleon
between northern Iloilo and Negros; 19th century British frigate
wreck near Iloilo city; steamship Panak sunk by Japanese bombers at Maricalum
Bay 1942; Japanese transport shelled, sunk by American submarine off Tigbauan
in 1943;and Japanese warships at bottom of Sibuyan sea since 1944.
Twenty caves in Capiz,5 in Iloilo , 5 in Guimaras, 3 in
Antique , 2 in Aklan, await spelunkers.
Those who resent other tourists getting in their way can ask
to be marroned away on small vacation islands
off northern Iloilo. The numerous opposite breed can shriek, shout , squeal ,
sweat , stomp, prance ,dance for a day ,
two , four , or whole week, day and night at Kalibo’s Ati-athan festival every
3rd week of January; Iloilo’s Dinagyang, 4th week of
January; Antique’s Binirayan; Bacolod’s Masskara , weekend nearest 19 October ,
Panaad sa Negros; Gumaras’ Manggahan; and Capiz ‘s Sinadya Sa Halaran , 5-8
December
THESE YOU HAVE GOT TO SEE
ILOILO
Heritage churches, watchtowers, cemeteries and houses
Countryside flowers , shrubs , trees stretching from beach
to mountains many kilometers away
Blue sea washing beaches clean
Large outriggered fishing boats moored at day time, net hung
out to dry ,crewmen sleeping off fatigue under coconut trees
Christmas lantern festival
Dinagyang
Sailboat Regatt, 2nd Sunday of February
Jaro Fiest, most opulent religious pageantry
Old World Holy Week
Flores de Mayo Observances
Shell Crafts Jusi Weaving
Private antique collections
AKLAN
Biggest, noisiest rowdiest foregathering of moc Negritos at
Ati-atihan festival
Pina weaving
Mangrove Park
New Washington
Tangalan
Manduyog Hill in Banga
Boracay Island,they call it paradise
ANTIQUE
Siraan hot spring, scuba divinf , old churches cemetery chapel
Seat teeming with anchovies at season
Bamboo craft demonstrating llonggo art ,manual skill,
Mararison, Nogas Island, Madya-as,tallest peak in Panay, glows like solid gold
atsuunset
CAPIZ
Birthplace of first Republic President Manuel Roxas
Pan –ay Church bell, seven feet across, 10400 kilograms,
cast from 76 sacks of coins
Unspoiled white sand Basiiao, Ivisan beach
Baybay Park
Courtship dance of Mundos, primitive Indonesian tribe in
Tapaz
Exotix fish, unique shells at coral reefs of Pilar, caves in
Pilar
GUIMARAS
Wharf constructed by late General Douglas MaxArthur then
lieutenant in U.S Army Engineers
Isles of Seven Sins, Roca Encantada and scores of white sand
offshore islets
Marine garden thick with coral of all sizes,shapes and
colors, varicolored fish
Daliran Springs and cave
Isla Naburot
Nagarao Island Resort
Tatlong Pulo Vacation Islands
Ang Pagtaltal sa Guimaras
NEGROS OCCIDENTAL
Angry Christ in Saint Joseph the Worker Chapel, Victorias
Milling Compang compound native scene, Christ and disciples , in popbottle
mosaic , depicted with Filipino faces figures,dress
Wooden Santa Rosalia Chapel ,Manapla , with scores of used
carabao cartwheels antique collections in Bacolod and towns
Mambucal Resort with 7 waterfalls and medicinal waters
Resorts in Sipalay , San Carlos,
Cauayan; Waterfals in Kabankalan, Bago, Salvador Benedict,La Carlot and
Victorias
BORACAY
4 kilometer of powder –fine sand
Clear and calm water
Swaying coconut palms and awe
–inspiring sunsets
Stylish bars, homey restaurants,
international cuisine, vibrant night life, golf
top hotels
Melting pot of cultures and the
world at your feet
BUY THESE, THEY WILL LOOK WELL IN
YOUR COUNTRY
KAPIS (PEARL CALM), shell
chandeliers, lampshades, fruit trays, wind chimes, coasters , hot plate
SINAMAY FABRICS from banana or hemp leaves , pina cloth
extracted from pineapple fibers, hablon and patadyong woven from centuries old
looms, hand embroidered for Filipino national costumes, table lines, drapes,
shawls, bedcovers, table cloths, placemats tapestries, ceramics
Baskets, handbags, giftwares, toys
jewelries and accessories, name it, western Visayas has it.
VERDICT: THEY ARE ALL GLAD THEY
CAME
Tourists leaving West Visayas
claim that they feel healthier and younger.
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