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Published: November 24th 2011
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We started our day today by heading to Pier 4 to buy our ferry tickets to Bohol tomorrow. After we walked down to Pier 1 to start our tour.
Beside Pier 1 is
Fort San Pedro. Fort San Pedro is the original site of the Spanish occupation in the Philippines. The fort is triangular in shape, with two sides facing the sea and the third side fronting the land. The two sides facing the sea were defended with artillery and the front with a strong palisade made of wood. Fourteen cannons were mounted in their emplacements most of which are still there today. The original structure of the Fort San Pedro was temporary built to provide immediate security to the members of the Spanish expedition encamped in the shores of Cebu. Construction commenced on May 8,1565, eleven days after Miguel Lopez de Legaspi's arrival in the island. It was a triangular wooden palisade situated on a promontory and enclosing a few "wells" of fresh water (one is still operational today). The two sides facing the sea were defended by artillery while the side facing land was sufficiently defended by a wall. The fort was named San Pedro, most
probably, in honor of Legaspi's flagship, the same ship that was sent back to Mexico after the establishment of the Spanish settlement in Cebu.
We walked around Fort San Pedro and a worker offered to take our photo for us. We said okay... and then one photo turned into a photo shoot. We were ordered to "Go stand over there, hold the tree like this, put your head like this..." Haha!
Our next stop was
Carbon Market. Walking around the market was really fun. Everyone said hello smiling and waving. Many stopped us and asked if we could take their photos. They would get so excited and pose in silly positions. That is one thing that we have noticed about Filipinos.. they are always smiling, immaculate service, always saying hello, and they
LOVE their photos taken. Unlike other countries where we would get hands shaken at us if we tried to snap a photo, or asked for money. so it has been really nice.
After the market we visited another Historical site called
Magellan's Cross Dome. Magellan's Cross is a Christian cross planted by Portuguese and Spanish explorers as ordered by Ferdinand Magellan upon arriving in Cebu
in the Philippines on April 21, 1521 just before he went over to Mactan island and got himself killed by Lapu Lapu.
A sign below the cross claims that the original cross is encased inside the wooden cross that is found in the center of this chapel. This is to protect the original cross from people who chipped away parts of the cross for sourvenir purposes or in the belief that the cross possesses miraculous powers.
The
Cebu Metropolitian Cathedral was a beautiful spanish inspired building. Mass was going on inside when we were there.
After walking a couple blocks we came to the
Heritage of Cebu statue. It is in the shape of a ships bow with statues around it.
San Diego Yap Ancestral House was really neat. It is considered to be the oldest house in the Philippines, built somewhere between 1675 and 1700. It was originally owned by a Chinese merchant named
Don Juan Yap and his wife, Doña Maria Florido. Just a few years ago (2008), the old ancestral
home was turned over to Doña Maria’s great great grandson, Val Sandiego. Val himself is known in Cebu at present times as an
art
collector, renowned choreographer and heritage icon. He's been offered lots of money to sell the house but he said he will not be selling within his lifetime.
The roof is made of “Tisa” clay which weighs 1 kilogram in each piece. The wooden parts were made of “balayong” and “tugas” (molave) which were considered to be the hardest woods of all time.
After the Yap house we went to another home called
Casa Gorordo. This house was built in the 1850's. Its lower level made out of coral stone and was stuck into place by a mixture of lime, sand and egg whites. The lower level was used to store corn, fruits, and other produce from the family farm. Most houses in this time used the basement for this. We learned that the wider the stairs, the wealthier the house.
Casa Gorordo was our last stop so we caught a taxi back to our hotel to have a rest. While resting we got a text from Ghia, a couchsurfer host that we'd been messaging. SHe was wondering if we wanted to get together. We went and met her and she took us to a Tao Temple
with a beautiful view of Cebu City. Next she took us to IT Park and we tried
SHISHA for our first time. It surprisingly was pretty good! We tried strawberry. After shisha'ing it up we met up with another couch surfer named Dutch David for a bite to eat and a drink!
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