Stories of Places, People and Photography in the Philippines and Beyond
Misa de Gallo or Simbang Gabi is one of the treasured Filipino Christmas Tradition. Even all over the world, Filipinos Communities stll practice this tradition. Misa de Gallo is a Spanish word call Midnight Mass or Rooster’s Mass and is typically practiced in Spanish Speaking countries as a Midnight Mass at the eve of Christmas. But for us Filipinos, Simbang Gabi starts 9 days before Christmas.
Waking up early and taking pictures during the break of light at Gaspar Island made us famished. Hunger beckoned around 7am that we no longer explored the other 2 islands nearby and decided to head back for our much awaited breakfast. Food at the resort was so-so. After resting a bit we headed north. Had a short stop at Amoingan for an errand and then headed further up north to the island capital of Boac.
Kawa-Kawa Falls Cascade in Sta Cruz, Marinduque It took us almost an hour to reach the town of Sta Cruz coming from Torrijos. We headed into the market area where we also passed by the main Jac Liner station there. We saw the bus we rode already parked. We had a hearty lunch of sinigang with fresh fish and good ol’ home-cooked pork chop and calamares at one of the carinderias there. Followed by a serving of ice cream nearby. With the afternoon closing midway, we moved on to explore some of the town’s attractions.
Shot with red eyes from so little sleep while in transit to Marindque, we were dead sleepy when the bus rolled off from the Cawit Port and we overslept at our drop-off point in Boac. Fairly waking at a road sign saying Boac is 7km behind us now we realized our bus is heading down south already. It was actually fortunate that it will pass by our destination in Gasan. A lady who was going home back there after 5 years was noting the town they were passing through with her companion. We chatted with her a bit and told …
Our 4:55am flight from NAIA Terminal 3 to Bacolod were fairly in time, arriving a little past 6am in the morning at the relatively new Airport in Silay. We were welcomed by a few taxi drivers and companies offering their shuttle services heading to Bacolod Town proper which is around 45minutes away. There were Taxi shuttles which they fill in costning 150 Php per pax. There is also a taxi-van for 450 Php. We chose the latter since it has the same price for the 3 of us for the taxi, plus we have the van only for the 3 of us.
This would be a quick post on one of my favorite looking church in Batanes, the San Jose de Ivana Church. Although built in 1814 with foundation dating back as far as 1795, it is one of the well preserved structures in the island. Right now, it still looks new. I like this church since it looks a bit different from the other churches as it looks more like a fortress at first.
One of the must-see places when you visit Iloilo province in Panay Island is the Santo Tomas de Villanueva Church or most commonly known as the Miagao Church. This church is one of the four Baroque churches in the Philippines inscribe in UNESCO‘s list of World Heritage Sites. On our first day in Iloilo City, the coastal town of Miagao is our first top where we stayed with out kind host Tita Linda.
