Cebu City, The Philippines

January 5-8, 2020

The Philippines
From Malaysia, we flew directly into Cebu City and our first reaction was, “whoa poverty”. We heard and expected the Philippines to be an impoverished country, but this was unlike anything either of us had ever experienced. Even Johannes, having traveled quite a bit around SE Asia hadn’t seen anything so extreme. The houses and street shops made of scraps of metals, cardboard, steel bars and pieces of wood we saw on the streets, the street children sleeping on the ground, literally face on cement… it was all a bit too much to bare.

• 

• 

On our first night, we found a restaurant near our Airbnb that serves lechon, which we learned was kind of a filipino specialty. It is actually originally from Spanish colonial times, but it has remained a staple dish here as well. It is roasted suckling pig. So anyway, we were sitting at this restaurant and outside the glass door were 3 street children between the ages of 4 and 10 I would guess. Two boys and a girl. They were running inside the restaurant, bare footed and absolutely filthy, and either eating or playing with the leftover food at the table behind us and then running back out again. The little girl seemed to be the trouble maker, making faces at her brothers outside and throwing water and rice around… and then she was tssk’ed at when the service staff noticed her. Like the sound you make to scare a stray cat, or make a pigeon fly away, or a rat scurry. That was probably the most heart breaking part of the whole experience.

View this post on Instagram

We had a few eye opening days in Cebu City. This is one of the main streets in the city and where we stayed in an airbnb. Although we enjoyed ourselves for the most part, I don't think we will be returning. Read my blog if you're interested. Post coming shortly. … AlpacaMyBags.travel.blog 🌏 Leave a comment if you had a similar experience when visiting! #travelblog #travelwonder #southeastasia

A post shared by AlpacaMyBags.Adventure (@alpacamybags.adventure) on Jan 18, 2020 at 10:04pm PST

Basilica Minore del Santo Nino de Cebu

There is alot of Spanish influence here, because the Spaniards had colonized these islands from 1521 until 1898. You really feel it in some of the architecture, the Spanish influence on the local language, Tagalog, and definitely in the religious beliefs and churches all around. The mix of mosques, temples and churches we saw in Malaysia is definitely not seen here.
The Basilica Minore del Santo Nino de Cebu is widely known in the Philippines and is visited by many people because it houses the oldest religious relic in the Philippines, a little baby Jesus figure. We saw people line up and wait for quite a while to be able to simply walk past it and place a hand on the glass casing. It was gifted to the ruler of Cebu Island in 1521 by Ferdinand Magellan on his way through the islands, creating strategic alliances on behalf of Spain and converting everyone to Catholicism on his way.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Did you know Magellan’s cross is here in Cebu?? We didn’t either, until we saw it on the map. In an effort to convey some kind of accurate information, this was copied from the Wiki page… “A sign below the cross states that the original cross is encased inside the wooden cross made of tingalo wood. This is to protect the original cross from people who chipped away parts of the cross for souvenir purposes in the belief that the cross possesses miraculous powers^. Some people, however, believe that the original cross has been destroyed or disappeared after Magellan’s death and the cross is a replica that was planted there by the Spaniards after they successfully christianized the Philippines.”

After this, but still all on the same day, we saw the Fort San Pedro. It is triangular and was built in 1738. They were setting up for some kind of dinner event when we walked around and there were many groups of people practicing dance routines in the outer courtyard. Not sure if one has anything to do with the other…

• 

• 

• 

We saw what Cebu has to offer tourists, which was not a lot, and then made our way to the next spot. YAY! BEACH! Next post coming very very soon!

Please leave a comment if you feel any desire whatsoever. I want to know if anyone is even reading this! 🙂