MEMBERS of print media were again invited back at Bluewater Maribago Resort on Mactan Island, this time staying at some of the resort’s 16 brand-new Premier Deluxe Rooms which bear architect and wood artist Benji Reyes’s signature mark on modern contemporary Filipino architecture—thatch roofs, the use of a lot of recycled wood and wooden sculpted furniture (including cantilevered beds).
For three days, we experienced Cebu’s unique cuisine and culture, as well as visited some of the province’s iconic churches. Our Cebu food experience started at the resort’s Allegro restaurant where we feasted on Cebuano and international favorites. It was raining on the afternoon of our first day, so our guide Balbino “Ka Bino” Guerrero Jr., the curator of the Cebu City Museum, brought us to Cebu City to experience pungko pungko (squat in English), a unique dining experience at small self-service eateries selling all-time favorite fried street foods.
The next day, we were to experience, at this early date, a bisita iglesia (the Holy Week tradition of visiting seven churches) of sorts. The mesmerizing, contemporary and airy San Pedro Calungsod Chapel, within the SM Seaside Complex, is dedicated to the second Filipino saint who, incidentally, is a Cebuano. The hilltop Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
(in Minglanilla) and the Church of Saint Isidore the Farmer (in San Fernando) are two of five structures built by the Augustinians in Cebu that have hints of Gothic architecture.
The unusual Baroque-style façade of the Archdiocesan Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi in Naga City (not the more familiar Camarines Sur city) is suggestive of Mexican art that’s skillfully integrated into the local Filipino religious architecture.
Carcar, our next destination, is noted for its striking examples of preserved colonial architecture, the most notable of which is the Church of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Its lovely and massive Graeco-Tuscan façade has a strong Muslim influence as seen from its double-recessed arched main entrance (similar to an iwan of a Middle Eastern mosque).
On the same hill as the Church are the American-era Carcar Dispensary (now the Carcar Museum) and Saint Catherine’s Academy (founded in 1923). The façades of both are decorated with carved wooden gingerbread fretwork, cut out in the manner of Victorian houses and all looking as delicate as fragile heirloom lace that could flutter even with a slight breeze. At the foot of the hill is a small but imposing plaza decorated with statues. Within the town are 46 quaint and antique ancestral houses called balay na bato (stone houses), some decorated with intricate lacy (calado) woodwork from the 1920s. This calado architecture, prevalent in Carcar, is unsurpassed in the country.
After a late lunch at Saint Catherine Boutique Hotel & Restaurant, we proceeded to Sibonga to visit two most-visited religious pilgrimage sites. The modern, castle-like Monastery of the Holy Eucharist, popularly known as the “Simala Shrine” or “Simala Church”, was built by Marian monks from Pampanga in 1998. The site has been associated with various miracles—one of which is the shedding tears of blood of a statue of the Virgin Mary housed in the site.
The century-old Church of Our Lady of the Pillar may have a simple and bare, Pseudo-Gothic façade, but it’s one-nave interior, clearly influenced by Carcar’s Church of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, has a wooden colonnade and a mesmerizing series of ceiling murals at the nave painted in amber and brownish tones by famed Cebuano artist Raymundo Francia (popularly called the “Michaelangelo” of Cebu”) in 1924. On our way back to our hotel, we made stopovers at Sibonga and Carcar City to buy some of Cebu’s famous delicacies, such as the spongy and sweet torta mamon and the sinful and crispy chicharon (pork rind).
The next day, prior to returning to Manila, we all visited the impressive-looking factory and showroom of Alegre Guitars where we observed the making of world-class, export-quality guitars (Lapu-Lapu City is the center of the guitar-making industry in Cebu) and interviewed owner Fernando Alegre. Just before the airport, we completed our Cebu culinary experience by having lunch at Rico’s Lechon, where we sampled, among other dishes, their famous spicy-flavored lechon.
In Photo:
1 The Carcar Museum
2 Rico’s Lechon
3 The castle-like Simala Shrine
4 The Church of Saint Isidore the Farmer (San Fernando)
5 Balay na Tisa
6 Bluewater Maribago Resort’s new Premier De Luxe Rooms