We were in Bantayan Island July of 2009. I never got to blog about the trip in full because I almost lost all my fotos. In fact I lost all my Cebu fotos and the ones I was lucky enough to recover were the Bantayan Island trip and Manila fotos. So after a year and a half, here it is.
To start, let me show you a map of Bantayan Island (click). Bantayan Island is located north of Cebu and is part of the Cebu province, a centrally situated bigger island in the Philippine archipelago, about an hour flight from Manila. It has 3 municipalities namely: Bantayan (capital of the island), Madridejos and Santa Fe. The port area is located in Santa Fe and has daily boat connections to Hagnaya (port) in San Remigio, Cebu.
For easy island exploration, Dutchman and I rented out a scooter and we rode to every nook and cranny of Bantayan Island. We even went to the northern part of the island in Madridejos, twice. For the old people, Madridejos is known as ‘Lawis’ (a peninsula, a cape) and on our first time visit there we met a few friendly children who loved being photographed.
What’s with the touching or showing off of the chin on fotos? All the kids, even the adults, do this in the Philippines!
Top to bottom: Madridejos welcome arch. Fishing village scenes with the children. Boardwalk to the sea and some picnic huts. Madridejos Town Hall and an old Spanish ruin.
During our second visit, we witnessed a local school festivity with a band, a boyscout league, majorettes and beauty muses—the Philippines is one of the countries that place physical beauty high up on a pedestal which means there are countless beauty pageants and searches in the country, as well as numerous ways of promoting a Filipina’s beauty, even down at the barangay level (smallest administrative division in the country) they get busy with this.
If you meet a (native) Filipino and you are good looking, be prepared to accept compliments! =)
The boys (boyscouts) and girls (majorettes in pink) waiting for their turn to parade, unfortunately the whole festivity got rained down, literally.
Here is a short clip of the majorettes in pink and white uniform before the rain:
Top to bottom: The local street festivity that got rained down, with the little beauty muses and their escorts hiding in umbrellas at the back of the trucks, and children running for cover. Scenes in a nearby market. Sachets of shampoo and conditioner, shows the little purchasing power of the locals. Filipinos do not consider a meal if its without rice.
Travel Period: July 2009