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Published: August 28th 2008
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I arrived in Cebu yesterday and spent the rest of the day with my family. It was good to be back after years of being away and gave me the chance to see how much the city had changed in the time that I had been gone.
The following day we took a road trip today to the town of
Carcar, approximately 40kms south of Cebu City (or roughly a 1 hour trip on along Cebu's one and only freeway), which is for it's Spanish heritage homes built during the late 1800's to early 1900's in an effort to get some culture.
The houses are built out of wood and have elaborate wooden carvings and expansive windows and were originally painted in different colours. Unfortunately, today most of these houses are almost derelict or in significant need of restoration to regain some of their former glory.
Most of the houses can only be viewed from the outside because they still have families living in them, but we were lucky enough to gain access into one of the only two houses available for by tourists.
'Balay na Tisa' on Sta Catalina St was built in 1859 and is one
Balay na Tisa
A view of the Manor House of the remaining few well preserved manor houses, of its kind, left in Cebu. The first floor of the house was built with a stone floor and was used to store the carriages used by the family. The second floor is where the family lived and is still filled with four generations of beautifully preserved family heirlooms & antique furniture.
We then went to visit
St Catherine's Church which is the second oldest church in Cebu. According to the internet. This church, built in 1859 took 6 years to build. It is known for its byzantine architecture, Greco-Roman altar and twin bell towers. A church service was happening during our visit so sadly I wasn't able to take a very good look inside or take any pictures. Also because it was a public holiday that day, the local museum was closed.
The food & The shoes
Of course, our visit to Carcar couldn't be finished without trying some of the local delicacies. Whenever we stopped the car, vendors along the road would try to sell us some 'Ampao' (Sweet Crispy Rice) and 'chicharon' (Deep fried pork skin). We drove into the centre of the town and found
Balay na Tisa
The first floor Mat-Mat's chicharon shop (reputed to be the best chicharon maker in Cebu) to stock up on some supplies for the ride home.
Carcar is also known as the shoe capital of Cebu.
How could I resist?. We stopped off at the 'shoe centre' which essentially were a series of different stalls by different shoe makers selling their wares. All I could think about was 'excess baggage' - so I was able to walk away relatively unscathed... That is except for the knock off handbag that I managed to pick up for the princely sum of $7. Ahhh - well worth it!
The journey
The ride home was pretty hair raising as we faced a torrential downpour when the heavens opened up. Within minutes of it starting to rain, huge puddles of water caused mini floods along the roads and reduced our driving speed to a crawl. Out of nowhere children appeared everywhere as they started to play in the pools of water appearing by the roadside. Parents were handing out soap and washing babies down to make the most out of the rain, while others were taking the time to do some laundry or huddled together in
an attempt to stay dry.
As we drove back into Cebu City we tried to make a short cut home and ended up in the middle of shanty town. The roads were lined with crater sized pot holes that by now were filled with brown mucky water and dozens of screaming naked children playing in the rain. There were children everywhere, playing in the drains or on the roads. As we tried to make a U-turn to get back to the main road, we had to stop the van so many times just to ensure that there were no babies or very young children behind us.
As I sat there astounded at the fact that they were playing in such a dirty environment, I could help but notice that they were oblivious to this and only cared about how much fun they were having whilst waving at us and smiling.
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