Cebu City Tour

Cebu City Tour
March 5, 2012

Today, Jessie and I decided to go out and explore the city a bit. Thanks to my handy guidebook, we had the most important destinations marked out and we just took a taxi to get there. The first destination was called Carbon market. It’s a MASSIVE market area where there are thousands of vendors selling everything you can possibly think of.

This was a big eye opener for us because you got to see how people live and also another side of society that we missed in the mall yesterday. Today it was very evident how poor people are in this country and how their way of life differs from ours.

We strolled through the market for an hour or so and looked at the various goods. One vendor was selling live chickens and he happily posed with Jessie for a picture. Other vendors sold food, flowers, knickknacks, hair accessories, socks… everything.

We also found a woman who was just so in love with her cat. She reminded us both of our dear grandmother Hildy. How she would have loved this woman.

After the market we went to the Basilica Minore del Santo Nino. It was built in 1740 and has a revered statuette of the Christ child (Santo Nino). It was a very eye opening experience for both of us, because we’re not overly familiar to Catholicism. Watching the dedicated Catholics venerate to various saints and rub the statues was a very different method of worship than what we grew up with.

As we walked out of the Basilica, we were given directions to walk to the Fort san Pedro, which is a crumbling ruin, which was built by Miguel Legazpi in 1565. It is known to be the oldest Spanish fort in the country and it is absolutely stunning. Jessie and I spent quite a while there because there were such beautiful gardens and fresh air. It gave beautiful views of the city and there was a blind man playing guitar with a very beautiful singing voice. It was the perfect way to spend a few hours in the afternoon.

By the time we finished the Fort, we were both exhausted. We had a few more errands to run so we were dropped off at the mall where we exchanged some currency and walked to the bus terminal to enquire about our next adventure tomorrow. We will be taking a bus to Maya, which is at the north part of Cebu Island. From there, we will take a banka (small boat) ride to Malapascua Island, where we will be staying for the next 3 or 4 nights… we’re both so excited!