I wasn't sure what to expect when I booked our trip for Cebu. I knew very little about the Philippines but the resort websites made it look pretty outstanding. Pictures of white beaches and descriptions of diving in marine sanctuaries and staying at resorts that cater to every whim made Cebu seem like it would be a heavenly place.

The view from the taxi window as we pulled out of the airport showed a completely different picture however. Dilapidated wooden shacks covered with graffiti and coca-cola signs lined the road. Bare-footed kids ran alongside the busy street, darting in and out of abandoned fields and over piles of trash. Goats and dogs wandered into the street and the speeding motorcycles and jeepneys swerved to avoid them. It was chaotic and dirty - extremely poor.


I'm not usually a resort kind of traveler. I'd rather get out and see the places I'm visiting - eat local food, talk to people, see what the city has to offer - than lay by a pool and get a massage (which I can easily do at home) but as we hurled through the narrow streets, the city didn't look too inviting. I started to think that maybe this trip would just be a resort type of vacation - a disappointing prospect to me.

We set up a city tour with a guide for Saturday so we could see Cebu. What we were hoping for was a person that would show us the real Cebu, maybe take us to some local places and share some insight on what it's like to be Filipino. Unfortunately our "guide" turned out to just be a driver that took us to all the canned tourist spots and barely spoke.

The "tour" started with a stop at Magellan's cross. Magellan, the Portugese explorer and adventurer, died in battle in Cebu. Several markers and memorials about Magellan can be found around Cebu and Mactan Island, the island adjacent to Cebu. They are mostly crosses, but some have fierce looking statues of the warrior Lapu Lapu who killed Magellan.

Lapu Lapu

A shrine commemorating Magellan's death

After this we headed into Cebu proper, to see the Basilica del Sto. Niño and another shrine to Magellan. This was where the poverty really hit me. As we stepped out of the car, swarms of stick thin men tried to sell us  cheap trinkets and kids, some not wearing much more than underwear, pulled at us begging us for money. People all around tried to sell us candles and shells.


Inside was a beautiful old church housing a religious relic that people from all over come to visit.


In the courtyard hundreds of people gathered to light small red candles and place them into one of thousands of holders and pray. When Magellan came to the island he brought with him Catholicism and it took hold quickly. 93% of Filipinos are Christian, most being Catholic.


After the Basilica we visited Fort San Pedro, built sometime in the 1600s and used by the Spanish and later the Americans. It was really peaceful inside, with a big grassy area and plants all around. An old man sat in the corner and played guitar and it was easy to forget about the crazy streets just outside these gates.



After we left we visited some really bad museums, which basically charged us a lot of money to look at a few plaques and pieces of paper. I don't think I'd really recommend any of the museums in the area. One more quick visit to a monument, called the Heritage of Cebu rounded out our "tour".


In some ways I guess I did get a bit of a feeling for the real Cebu. As we drove through the streets I saw people getting together at tiny tables set outside shacks to eat. I saw a few men jostling with a whole roasted pig on a spit (lechon) trying to get it up onto a counter by the side of the road. I saw kids playing and women washing clothes outside their homes.

 I also got to see where Cebuanos worship and how important a part religion plays in their lives. I saw young teenage boys praying by their lighted candles. I saw old women standing in a line that had to be at least an hour long to visit the relic.


Overall I got a picture of Cebu that was very different from what the resort and tourist websites represented. There is so much more to Cebu than beaches, scuba, and massages. It doesn't seem like a particularly safe place, and many people are definitely lacking what I would consider to be necessities. It's hard to see the poverty and not feel guilty when you know you have a high end luxurious resort to go back to right down the road.

This is only one face of Cebu however. We decided we would give the other side a chance so we booked an island hopping tour for Sunday and planned on resting and relaxing - doing the resort thing - to see if the place really deserves the title of "third best island in Asia" In my next post I'll talk about our experiences as island-hopping resorters.

A jeepney - the top transportation choice in Cebu

2 comments

1. Christian on September 7, 2010 at 2:09 AM

   Hi,
   
   I've only been to the Philippines once. Had an amazing time, but did struggle to find amazing food, so will be interested to hear what a food writer made of it (future post?)

    
2. Nova Walsh on September 8, 2010 at 9:14 PM

   Hi Christian - we did have a really hard time with the food as well. I'm getting ready to post my second day experience where I talk a little about the food. Thanks for the suggestion! Let me know how your experiences differ - I'd love to hear other impressions of the islands.