church Archives ⋆ Leia Khu

Basilica del Santo Niño

Posted on January 7, 2013October 7, 2018 by xerox

Sinulog Festival is just around the corner and still no tickets to Cebu for this year (just like last year and the year before that… even all the way up to the year when I was just a puny helpless zygote).

I’ve always desired to experience the festivities of Cebu. But alas, this year is not yet the time. Maybe next year. With better a camera (gear) by then hopefully.

To distract and comfort myself from this misfortune, I went downstairs, grabbed a bag of chocolate chip cookies from the fridge (I need a good dose of endorphins you know), took it with me upstairs, sat down in front of the PC and, as I was eating, I decided to start editing some photos of my quick tour on Basilica del Santo Niño.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been to Cebu twice in 2012 so all the photos that you see here may not taken on the same date.

Basilica del Santo Niño is one the most crowded churches in Cebu.

It is constantly filled with devotees, pilgrims and tourists (both foreign and local).

This church has been standing for over 400 years now and still it looks pretty majestic up to this day. If you can tell what kind of architecture this is, I would appreciate if you would leave that in the comment section below.

Bet you tilted your head a bit, didn’t you? Hehe.

Standing very close to the entrance are women who sell candles and offer prayers for a living. Should you request that they pray for you, they will light the candles you bought from them, wave them in the air and do a little dance while reciting a prayer. You might want to keep away from them though, they do fight over on who gets to buy their candles sometimes (and they are absolutely not shy when it comes to expressing their indignation).

Inside the basilica.

A beautiful fresco painting on the ceiling.

Some tourists taking photos.

People offering flowers and praying before the crucified Jesus.

A closer view of the altar and the wall of statues.

Behind all the people praying is a door that leads to…

This. Since there are too many churchgoers and not everyone can be accommodated inside the basilica, they have this “extension” (forgive me if I don’t know that it’s technically called) that is just right in front of the basilica’s main entrance. Masses are no longer held inside the basilica but here. At the center is an altar and at the sides are rows of chairs.

Picture this: During masses, the people who are seated inside the basilica actually face the opposite direction of the altar outside. So they have to occasionally turn around when needed. If it’s time to stand up, they turn around to face the altar outside. And if it’s time to sit down again, they turn around once again to face the altar inside. Very unusual, isn’t it?

My boyfriend is not saying “hi” (nor attempting to portray Kim Jung Il) here but rather he tried to blend in and pretended to be a local by waving his hand as a sign of reverence to the basilica and Santo Niño.

Although both of us were born and raised to be Roman Catholics (we are now Pentecostal Christians), honestly, we found the hand-waving practice rather strange at first because from where we live, we’ve never seen anyone do this (not even the Catholics in other places). So this must be a Cebuano thing.

Also, in the premises of the basilica…

is a small garden with a quaint water fountain at the center. There are also sculptures standing at some corners of the garden. I heard there’s a museum somewhere.

This hallway leads to the adoration chapel where a statue of Santo Niño is placed. As you wait in line for you turn, you can look at the paintings hung on the wall which were donated by various artists.

When I was about to take a photo of the oldest religious relic of the Philippines inside the adoration chapel, an old lady raised an eyebrow at me and looked at me with much disdain… So to not spite that old lady, urm, anyone, I didn’t take a photo. Oh well, better try my luck again next time.

Up next…

Magellan’s Cross 🙂

Seafood Capital of the Philippines in Black and White

Posted on January 16, 2012January 15, 2019 by Leia Bartolome

It was Day Four and we barely had any sleep from last night. All the vigor and excitement for our planned Boracay get-away quickly faded away when we heard that our hometown, Iligan City, was deeply stricken by calamity.

PAG-ASA only gave a heads-up about an upcoming storm on the eleventh hour almost literally. But both my boyfriend and I never took that warning seriously because tropical storms in the Philippines normally go up North and never bother the part of the country where we live. To top that off, Iligan has been known to be closely guarded by nature and has been dubbed “Typhoon-free”.

But on that dreadful night, this tropical storm named Sendong decided to take a strange detour. Nobody was equipped for what was going to happen that night.

Sendong came like a thief in the night. It severely hit both Iligan and our neighboring city, Cagayan de Oro. The constant heavy downpour, strong winds and power interruption during an unholy hour was the perfect blend for disaster. Over a thousand of lives were instantly lost (and some are still missing up to now) in a blink of an eye.

People were very quick to post photos of the storm’s aftermath. We not only saw that Sendong drowned both cities in muddy flood waters, but it also dragged along with it tons and tons of logs from the mountains which destroyed everything that crossed their path… It was very ugly and heartbreaking.

Obviously, we were both in shock and in sheer disbelief.

I never knew about the illegal logging activities going on in Lanao del Sur until Iligan and Cagayan de Oro felt the fury of Mother Nature. I have never hated illegal loggers this much in my entire life and I am still extremely indignant of what had happened. Their selfish acts for personal gain has stained their hands with so much blood. I believe that Karma shall slap them in the face with a mighty sledgehammer andI cannot wait for the day of their retribution.

We really wanted to go back home right there and then, to be with our families and to help out our fellow Iliganons but can’t. The soonest that we could go back home was not until three days later.

So we took solace in making long-distance phone calls to our families and friends to feel assured that they were okay… And indeed they were.

With a big sense of relief, it was easier to carry on with our vacation. However, my boyfriend decided to postpone our trip to Boracay anyway because of the bad weather that day. Instead, we went to Capiz (a little earlier than initially planned) which is just a 3-hour bus ride away from Iloilo City (but depending on traffic and weather conditions it could only be 2 hours).

Hello and welcome to the Seafood Capital of the Philippines (Roxas is the capital city of Capiz) where every mollusk, fish, crustacean and everything edible that comes from the sea here are probably mutants on steroids! Nothing is exempted from being jumbo in size. Not even shrimps! Oxymoronic, I know.

To all seafood lovers of the world, this is paradise! Fish, shrimp, squid, oysters, scallops and everything seafood are priced ridiculously rock-bottom here that they’re almost for free! Must I mention I blitzkrieg them all. Hey, it’s not everyday I could have “last supper” meals you know.

In this post, I won’t be showering you with photos of food (because it won’t suit the black and white theme too well) so just simply take my word for it.

Pedicabs are the main mode of transporation in Capiz. I bet there must be only 1 four-wheeled vehicle, be it a jeepney or a private car, for every 20 pedicabs at the very least.

La Capiz Provincial Capitol. This is located in the heart of Roxas City. In its vicinity is Colegio de la Purisma Concepcion (a school where my boyfriend finished his highschool), Parish of Immaculate Conception Metropolitan Cathedral and a plaza if I remember it correctly.

La Museo de Santa Monica. This is now located in Pan-ay, Capiz. We did not have the opportunity to take a look inside unfortunately. This is just right next to a beautiful church established in the 1500s.

Glorious isn’t it? That’s now a wrap for our Capiz trip. Up next is Alkan and Boracay!

Have I left you hanging? For bits and pieces that I missed, you can check out my fave Filipino travel blogger’s post here on his trip to Capiz. Enjoy!

Exploring the Heart of the Philippines (Part Two)

Posted on January 11, 2012January 15, 2019 by Leia Bartolome

On Day Three, my boyfriend took me the “Old City”, this is the historical center of Iloilo where structures with Spanish architecture abound.

Usually, we went around Iloilo in a taxi cab but at this time we were fully committing to the whole “real street” experience so we took jeepney rides.

You probably can’t tell from the photo but the jeepneys in Iloilo look different from the ones in Iligan. There, the jeepneys are generally stubby at the front and are very elongated at the back; And what’s great is that they are also wider. Therefore, it’s more spacious and it keeps you from feeling really cramped inside when more people get in.

Old structures are pretty evident.

We were about to grab some lunch at Crave Burger, a burger joint that my boyfriend was incessantly talking about ever since this happened.

That beautiful water fountain (just right in the center of the city) distracted me.

Here is a peek of what’s inside Crave Burger. I like how the look and feel of this place seem to be very cozy and inviting. And I especially love how we didn’t have to wait so long for our food to be done. I think we only waited like 10 minutes tops. Now here’s what we had…

Twister Fries. Seriously, who doesn’t love twister fries? They’re not only fun to look at but their also fun to eat. I love how the fries were done.

Crave Ultimate Burger. This burger…

Wait! Somehow, a funny random thought just came across my mind.
The burger in the photo reminds me of this…

A wild Pokémon appears!
Notice the resemblance? Now, who’s that Pokémon?

Anyway, back to where I was…
The burger contains 100% beef patty seasoned to perfection, topped with maple bacon, American cheese, lettuce, caramelized onions and a slice of relish pickle. I love how everything in this burger is in perfect harmony with each other (and now I’m shaking my head and wishfully thinking to have a good twelve-month supply of Crave Ultimate Burger shipped to me right now).

And finally the dessert…

A pint of green tea ice cream. I’d like to just put it out there that green tea ice cream may not be everybody’s cup of tea (no pun intended!). Some might dismiss this after their first try. But I personally love it. I enjoy how its flavor develops after every spoonful.

Once we were done, we took a bus to Miagao to see this marvelous centuries-old church that I’ve been wishing to see with my very own eyes.

But before I go show-and-tell, I feel the need to say that bus rides in the entire Panay Island are uncomfortable (and dangerous–will talk about this in a different post) in general.

Not because all their buses in this island are dilapidated, like in the photo above (certainly this is not the case), but rather because they forcibly accommodate more people than the actual sitting capacity.

For jeepneys, it’s a norm anywhere in the Philippines. But for buses? We are talking about long-distance trips here. I was literally sitting for two hours with one of my butt cheeks hanging out from the edge of the seat because I was sharing a two-sitter seat with two other strangers. But left without any choice, there was really no room for me to complain…

Boy, I was glad when I finally saw Miagao Church because it sort of justified my butt-balancing act.

Isn’t it beautiful?

The front doors look like some kind entrance to a royal castle. I actually wished to get married here but now I am starting to have second thoughts all thanks to the gruesome butt-numbing two-hour ride.

After marveling at its beauty for a while, we took two jeepney rides so we can go back to Harbor Town Hotel (yes, we moved again) immediately because we were already getting tired.

Trivia: Harbor Town Hotel is owned by my boyfriend’s relatives. Remember his cousins who treated us dinner? Yup, them. Apparently, they also offered us to stay in their hotel for free. They’re a lifesaver.

But on our way back to the hotel, we stopped for a while and grabbed the opportunity to take a photo of Molo Church.

Actually, there are lots and lots of beautiful old churches scattered in Iloilo. However, it is impossible for me to take photos of them all considering our very limited time and our physical condition then (we both got sick after Day Two and that still continued even a week after the end of our trip).

Since this post is already miles long, I’ll end it now with what we had for dinner at Ponsyon by Breakthrough.

From top to bottom: Sizzling Sisig Bangus, Crab Fat Rice (just by mere looking at it gives me hypertension!), Crab in Coconut Milk Soup and Fried Shrimps.

I’ve never had a freakin’ delicious seafood feast like this for dinner!

P.S.
I thought this post is going to be shorter than the last one. My mistake.

P.P.S.
Pokémon photo courtesy of gtsplus.net

P.P.P.S.
The featured Pokémon is Shellder in case you still haven’t figured that out.