February 15 - 18, 2011

The next morning we began our "relax" days of getting up late, going for breakfast, spending some time on the beach, and swimming a along the shore. See the

I made a slide show of some of the views of the beach that were taken over several days. See the Slideshow.

One of the things we noticed early in the morning as the sun was coming up, the neighbors were returning from a night of fishing. As the tide was out, they were collecting something from the beach. Mary and Chuck went out there one morning and collected some star fish. On another occasion a boat of fishermen positioned a net in the water while another boat dropped swimmers off at stragetic locations. They then swam toward the net, apparently chasing the fish that way.

The evenings had some beautiful Sunsets. Lots of reds over the ocean and blending in with the trees. Since we were pretty isolated there, we would eat dinner in the pavillion, then return to our balcony to watch the sunset and see the Koreans returning from their day of golf.

At dusk we would see some pretty large bats flying about. I tried to catch them on video, but they are too swift. One evening we noticed them sneaking out from a crack in the boards to the ceiling outside our room. The best I was able to get photograph-wise was a picture of a wing.

The meal selections were limited. The menu was limited and most of the items on the menu were not available that evening. One evening we had a Korean Businessman who made the long trip up there and was disappointed with his accomadations join us for dinner. Chuck and he had a disagreement about the state of American Labor work ethics.

One day we hired a driver to take us to the "nearby" town to shop for fruits and stuff to eat. We got some good mangos and chico to munch on the next few days. When the Swiss owner showed up one evening we discussed the choices of the menu and he spoke to the help about improving that some. Apparently the Korean Golfers were on a Golf tour package that included their dinners which were arranged separate from the Restaurant.

He explained that as a golf resort it was struggling, so he expanded it to include a Polo Club. He relocated his Polo Ponies from Cebu to the resort and they have international groups that come there to use the facilities. His son and daughter were there practicing polo. They used the fairways which recover from the stress pretty easily since the grass grows so fast there.

February 18 - 19, 2011

We had intended to see Sto. Nino church in Cebu on this trip and the resort club was just too distant for a day trip, so we cut the beach stay short by two nights and rented a room in Cebu, Sampaguita Suites, very close to Magellan's Cross.

In order to understand the history of the area and the significance of the Sto. Nino I attached a destription fro Wikipedia for a refresher history lesson. History Lesson

We arrived in late aftenoon, checked in, and found our way to see Magellan's Cross and then to the Church of Santo Nino. It was already pretty late so we made our way back to the Hotel and ate Dinner in the restaurant next door to the hotel.

The next day we ate a late breakfast and headed back to Sto. Nino church. The altar area of the main church includes a golden statue of Santo De Nino. There was an outside mass area too that was about the size of a football field an included an altar at the far side with a large statue of Santo De Nino. In addition at the entrance to the outside worship area on the one side were statues of the four Evangelist, while on the other side were statues of St. Augustine and other saints. There is a museum part to the church where you could approach the original Santo Nino dressed that had been given to the wife of the Indian Chief by Magellan.

We then made our way to the Cathedral a couple of blocks away. When we arrived a Wedding was finishing up, and I was surprised at how quickly they were collecting the flowers at the conclusion. That was because another wedding was about to start, and they were in a hurry to put that parties flowers up. I was told that was the third wedding of the day there.

We attended the vigil mass at Sto. Nino. The priest made a very lively sermon. Some of it wasn't too comprehendible to English only speaking persons, but he included a description of the vision of St. Augustine on the beach, where the vision discussed the mystery of the Trinity.

After Mass we found a Chow King for Halo-Halo. In spite of the big crowd from the Mass we were served relatively quickly.

The slideshow starts out with the Magellans Cross, then the Church of Santo Nino, the Cathedral and back to the Sto Del Nino. See the Slideshow.

The persons depicted in the monument include the late president Sergio Osmena Sr., and Blessed Pedro Calungsod.

Our next stop was at the Casa Gorordo House/Museum. It housed the first Filipino Bishop of Cebu. Mary and Chuck chose not to take this tour and waited for us under the vines. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside.

Next we were driven up a steep hill to the Cebu Taoist Temple. It has a great view of the city and the Opon Channel. We didn't think Remy would climb the 81 steps, but she made it. It has some interesting Chinese flavor with the dragons, etc. The entrance to the steps looks like the Great Wall of China, and chuck found a fishing pond.The climb back down the steps was a bit more difficult than the trip up.

Next we made our way to Mactan Island where we were taken to a fish market where you picked out your lunch and they cooked it for you the way you want. Apparently they aren't too good a fileting, because the huge fish we bought didn't look so big when served. The shrimp and scallops were pretty good.

Finally we walked down the block past the Monument to Magellan and on to Lapu-Lapu Monument. See the Slideshow.

He then returned us to the Hotel. After a short rest, we headed to Sto. Nino, but it was packed for Sunday Mass. The same priest was giving a similar sermon on the outside altar area. It was elbow to Elbow in the whole outside area, and the church and the roadway between the two. So we moved through there and made our way to Chow King for some more Halo-Halo.

When we arrived in Manila, Helen picked us up and took us around during the afternoon. We tried to do some banking, visited the family, and went to eat dinner at Helen's treat at another one of those areas where you pick the fish you want to eat and they cook if for you. So I made some videos of people saying Hi! to Genveviv. I had to cull the images for a slideshow for the web page to limit the size of the files Hi! Slideshow

Following Dinner we settled into the Mariott for one night stay. We didn't know it at the time we booked it, but it is adjacent to a casino. So we had to try our luck at Phillipino games of chance. They had some new variations on the games that I hadn't seen before, but the bottom line was before the evening was done, they took my daily limit.