i decided to take a long weekend
last weekend, and it was a good one! i hopped on a $30 flight from tacloban,
and 45 minutes later was in cebu city. the city is the second largest in the
philippines, and is on the island of cebu, right in the middle of the country.
it is considered one of the philippine’s most culturally rich cities, hosting
some famous festivals and is known as a mecca for having a good time. there are
ferries from cebu to pretty much every corner of the philppines, making it a
melting pot of the country’s various people groups. the island’s native population
have their own language called cebuano, and have an independent streak with
some resentment at being under the hegmony of the big northern island of luzon.
i went downtown and explored santo nino church, the oldest church in the
philippines. it has been destroyed numerous times by fire, but a mannequin of
the baby jesus has survived each time; the object is deemed to be miraculous. close
by is magellan’s cross, a cross believed to be carried by magellan in his
exploration of the philippines. cebu is famous for being the place where
magellan was killed, with a spear and poison dart compliments of a local king
named lapu-lapu. lapu-lapu is considered a filipno hero for his resistance.
there is also a nice little spanish-built fort called san pedro in downtown
cebu, and 2 massive modern shopping malls that i spent some quality time
perusing.
at the southern tip of cebu island,
4 hours south of the city in a town called oslob, is a new tourist attraction
that involves swimming in the sea with whale sharks! it is best to be there
first thing in the morning. the experience starts with a preteen providing a
memorized briefing in monotone and with a classic filipino flair for placing
emphaaaasis on unexpected sylaaaaables, warning you not to get within 4 meters of
the sharks and offering assurance that the operation is being constantly
monitored by a marine biologist (which is, of course, not the case). then, you
jump on a little rowboat with a few other tourists, and head about 50 m
offshore, where the boat guys are throwing plankton to the whale sharks, who
come back to the area every morning for their breakfast! whale sharks are the
largest fish in the world, measuring up to 40 feet. you jump out and snorkel
with them, and it is truly awe-inspiring. you basically get as close as you
wish, and can touch them and get swiped by their tails as they swim by. they
feed by opening their mouth and sucking in hundreds of liters of water, which
is then strained for plankton before being ejected from their gills. apparently
at least once a day a tourist gets inadvertently sucked in to a whale shark
mouth. they let you swim with them for 30 minutes, and i must say it was one of
more exhilarating things i have ever done. after that and a long run along the
coast, i was lucky enough to randomly chance upon a pumpboat which was heading
straight across the sea to the island of bohol, my next destination!
