Adventure ala Alcoy (photo album)

Alcoy, Cebu, 24-25 November 2007 - A vacation in Cebu. My daddy's birthday. An overdue reunion. So a different getaway was the order of the day.
With my parents in tow...off to Alcoy we went! 

(Over my dad's grumblings of how far away it was, but 91 km? hahaha! its laughably a short distance for some people who don't live in Cebu). Ever since I heard my college buddy's Erwin's parents built a house by the sea in that town I have always wanted to visit it, especially since my mom comes from Sibonga, another town in Southern Cebu.

Benjie (Technologian also) and her kids Joy and Kean also came with us. She occasionally visits their own house by the sea in Malabuyoc (west-south of Cebu and near Kawasan Falls). 

Mom, Benjie and Erwin with an old-timer of the sea

Now that I think of it more as I write these words, I really think we should push through with our tentative plan of going on a trip "round South". With friends and acquaintances scattered all around Cebu towns far from the city, even if we don't know where they all are (or even if they are in Cebu), I'm sure we can get by with maybe five town visits. There are lots of lovely, crumbling-old, historic churches also on the way.

On this trek on the beach side, we marveled at all the nice new houses which were built alongside that stretch of sea and sand.
We asked who were the owners, and we inevitably get answered by "a Japanese...", "a Korean..", "a Belgian.." and the list goes on. I joked around that maybe I should get married to a foreigner so I could have one of those houses. Haha! Ironic ha...

We capped it by eating halo-halo on a totally unexpected restaurant.
Seems more and more establishments are being constructed on the southern portion of the island.
A far cry from those days when we had only gas lamps when I visited my lola's place in Sibonga.

Triple B as the sign says 

(Since it was only Benjie who brought money along, we had to split the P400 among six people. Each halo-halo cost about P90. I kidded around by trying to dissuade them from having one by coming up with excuses why they shouldn't taste it at all).

On the way back to Cebu City, we dropped by various places for a short while. One was Obong spring with ice-cold water for dipping into. 

Waah, I wish I had time for a dip 

Then Dalaguete, where the once very popular Argao Beach was really located (it sounded better calling it that way).
Dalaguete has lots of wonderfully fine-sand beaches and scenery. 

Since their beaches are usually found on the side of a sheer cliff and not all publicly fenced in...when I was grade 5 and on a road trip to Dumaguete in Negros, we stopped mid-summer on the side of the Dalaguete main road and gleefully dipped into the sea, ostensibly to cool off..but got attacked by a school of jellyfish! That is why I always remember this place with a grimace and grin on my face.

Next was the town of Argao where you have scrumptious torta and as usual, my lovely old Spanish-era buildings.
There is a picture of an old clock in their belltower somewhere here on this page.

Then on to Sibonga to check on the little hut my mom was buiilding as her "prayer house".
Sibonga's old church has a beautifully painted ceiling (shades of Sistine? pwede na rin).

We then got snarled for two hours of traffic in Carcar where a fiesta was going on (the town with shoes, chicharon, ampao and bocarillo as I posted before).

As we were driving through Naga City, I got the bright idea of dropping on an unsuspecting Rosemarie's beautifully-furnished house since Erwin knew where it stood. And so I I met for the first time Rose's only child and my godchild kuno (poor boy, he doesn't know what he is letting himself in for).
That was also one funny experience as I just knocked on their door at the dead of the night after calling her cellphone and pretending to be still in Manila..hehehe.
And so we connected again and planned a lunch/dinner while I was in Cebu and probably other December activities should I be back for the Yuletide season.

There are a variety of companies with their plants already dotting the way on this Southern route. I hope it will still retain its charms when I visit it in the future.

 - Dec 9, '07 10:08 PM