Day 2 - Tour of Cebu

The main event of day two was a 4 hour tour around Cebu guided by Mary. I found this tour on Air BnB for a very reasonable rate. If anyone is visiting Cebu and would like to have a tour, Mary has quite a few different options, you can see her page on Air BnB. The 4 hour tour that I chose has options to either use public transport or go via car. I ended up going in the car which due to the heat etc was fantastic (aircon FTW!).

Magellan's Cross

Our first stop off was at Magellan's Cross. This is a monument with a cross that Magellan gave/planted when he arrived in Cebu in April 1521. The original cross is located inside the cross that you now see to protect it. When you visit Magellan’s cross you can purchase a candle and give it to a person who will then pray on your behalf, I believe you can ask them what to pray for, after which the candles are placed at the bottom of the cross. In the past you used to be able to burn your candles, but this was damaging the artwork etc, so that doesn’t happen anymore. At the end of the day the candles are taken away and burnt elsewhere.

An interesting fact about Magellan is that he died a few days later in a battle with one of the other tribes in a near by island.

Basilica Minore del Santo Nino de Cebu

Next we headed over to the Basilica Minore del Santo Nino de Cebu, translated means “Minor Basilica of the Holy Child of Cebu”. We were able to go inside and take a little bit of a look around. Mary explained the importance of this place and also the Santo Nino in the culture, and even today. It was possible to go in line to see Santo Nino up close, people were touching the glass, or had a cloth/hanky type thing that they would wipe the glass with. There is a lot of rich culture and tradition around Santo Nino, grandparents might tell their children of how Santo Nino went out and came home grubby etc - these stories are passed on thru generations. As there was a mass in progress we were not allowed to take pictures inside.

Fort San Pedro

In 1565 the Spanish built the Fort San Pedro Fort. It’s a triangle shape, so two sides are pointing towards the sea, and the other side is facing the land. Here there are artwork, and you can go into some of the rooms in the Fort. Artwork often seems to contain illustration of Megallan’s fight with Lapu-Lapu. He only took about 50 men with him for the battle, but the Lapu-Lapu had many more than anticipated.

National Museum of the Philippines-Cebu

This museum is home to things from Cebu and surrounds… Lots of items that have been dug up etc are housed here as well as many artworks/portraits, some of past presidents The main museum is located in Manilla, but this one was opened semi recently to house some of the items.

A couple of things that I thought were particularly interesting was the death mask, and the old aerial photo of Cebu. The Death Mask would be put on a person when they were buried so that they soul was unable to leave the body. The aerial photo was cool cos I was able to easily identify Fort San Pedro as the triangle in the photo.

Cebu Heritage Monument

This monument was started in 1997, and completed/opened in 2000. It was created to remember the heritage of the city, and has lots of different sides, each side/area shows a different important event in Cebu’s history

Yap-San Diego Ancestral House

Yap-San Diego Ancestral House is one of the oldest Chinese houses in the country and was the ancestral home to the Yap-San family. The house is now a museum and open to the public, although the descendants for Yap-San still stay in the upstairs bedroom every weekend. There are many figurines, photos and portraits to look at. The roof is made from terracotta bricks, which were traditionally held together by egg whites (can u imagine the ants?) This family also traditionally likes to dance in the Santo Nino festival.

Temple of Leah

We were then off to the mountains… I was like, there are mountains here? Cos of the high rises I hadn’t seen any mountains so it has not really crossed my mind. It was a wee bit of a drive to the mountains, and the roads were narrow/bumpy etc

The temple of Leah is essentially a grand storage unit. The it looks like it’s quite old (probably cos of the Roman type of architecture) but was only completed in 2012. It was built by Teodorico Soriano Adarna in honor of his late wife, Leah Villa Albino-Adarna and it contains things that Leah owned. She liked to travel and bring home something from the various places she went to. Some rooms of the Temple are still being filled.

And here are some other random photos that I took through the day

After I got back to the air BnB I had a rest for a bit, then went out to get dinner (KFC today) and wondered around looking at the general area again. Tomorrow I will be moving to a different accomodation, and by the end of the day all the peeps from the party will be present in Cebu.