(Travel Diary) Quick Cebu Getaway (Part 1)

Last July, my officemate Thea informed our office gang (which consists of me, Io, Shei, Sab, Thea, and Nico) that Cebu Pacific has promo flights going to Cebu. She booked herself a round trip and then asked us if we wanted to join her in Cebu. Of course we readily said yes! Php 1,200 for a roundtrip fare? Yeah baby. Yeah.

A memory worth relieving for.

Day 1

 After almost two months of waiting, September 24 finally came! Our flight for Cebu was at 6:30 PM so we were supposed to leave the office at 4:00 PM. I had to report for work at 7:01 AM so that I don’t have to commit an undertime! We arrived at the airport just on time and apart from the change in the departure gate and minor delay in the runway, our travel was very smooth.

We arrived at Mactan International Airport at around 8 PM and then proceeded to Sugbutel to check in. Thea’s BF, Lukas, was also waiting there for us.  Sadly, since we didn’t have a reservation and we were too tired to go to another hotel, we settled for a room with two single beds for Php 1,600 and just added PhP 250 per extra person. Quite pricey.

We then headed off to Ayala since we were already very hungry. Thea and Lukas introduced us to Moon Café, a Mexican restaurant whose customers are largely Korean. Some of us didn’t like the chicken casserole they served but I really loved my grilled pork chop.

Gastronomic.

Hungry kids.

After eating, we proceeded back to Sugbutel and called it night since we have to be early the following day for Lukas and Thea will be fetching us at 7 am.

Day 2

Thea, Lukas and Sir Nardo(the driver of the van we rented) arrived at exactly 7 am but we didn’t leave until around 7:40 AM because we waited for Thea’s twin sister Tena and their high school friend Sanch.  When they arrived, we immediately proceeded to Jollibee for a quick breakfast and then off we went to tour the southern part of the Cebu province.

Our first stop was the San Fernando Church which is located in San Fernando, Cebu. Apparently, old churches are a frequent sight in the southern part of the province.  There was mass wedding held when we visited the church. How was cool was the timing?

The beautiful San Fernando Church.

New friends! 🙂

From San Fernando Church, we dropped by Gaisano at Carcar City to purchase stuff such as food and drinks we would need for our overnight at the World Big 4 resort. We then proceeded to visit the St. Catherine Church which is situated also in the same city. Sadly, I didn’t have the chance to fully appreciate the altar for there was a mass going on and the doors were closed. The design of the church was very interesting since according to Tena, the structure was originally intended for Muslim use.

Picturesque.

Just beside the church is the Carcar City museum. It offers a quick look on some of the significant items which were part of the city’s history. I was quite surprised that some of the household items that were displayed were still very much used by some Bicol households.

Familiar stuff.

At the back of the museum is an old hospital with a remnant of what seemed to be a very deep swimming pool. The old rooms were being renovated. I wish they would just preserve the old rooms to retain the mystery of the place.From the old hospital, we dropped by Carcar’s public market to buy lechon and puso (rice) for lunch. It was almost 11 am by then and the resort was another two-hour drive but we decided to just eat our lunch there to avoid further delay.

We arrived at the World Big 4 resort at past 1 pm. It is part of another bigger exclusive property, the Cebu International Gold and Resort Club. I heard that an overnight is pricey but thanks to Lukas’ dad, we got a very good discount.

Sweeeeet.

The resort proper is not that big. There were probably no more than 10 suites and only two pools. The beach front is also small since the area is a cliff but the view is very, very, very breathtaking. The suite was also grand. It is not something the measly me could afford if I had been on a regular trip.

Awesome view of the room.

After a quick survey of the resort, we ate our lunch. Boy, the lechon was so darn good. No wonder Cebu lechon is listed as one if not the best in the world.

We don’t love eating.

We couldn’t wait to take a dip in the pool so we finished our lunch immediately. At around 3:30 PM, we went to back to the suite in the hope that we could watch the UAAP cheer dance competition but sadly Sir Nardo was so engaged in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. We just decided to go down (literally) to the beachand take pictures.

The monsoon winds were quite strong so we were not able to swim due the big waves. Thankfully, the resort had this sort of walkway and shed from the shore to the middle part of the sea. It had two of those structures and I found it perfect for a photographer’s eye.

Goofs.

I call this love at first sight.

Wish you were with us.

When we got back to the suite at around 4:30 PM, no one was watching TV! We were still able to watch the recap of the performances and watch out sweet UP get the Samsung Stunner award, the Stunts Competition  Championship and of course, our 8^th Cheerdance Competition title. Now, that’s what I call sweeeeep. Afterwards, we prepared and ate dinner which consisted of sumptuous pork and hotdog barbeque, lettuce and puso!

We planned to take a dip and have some tequila after dinner but unfortunately Shei had a minor accident which took us 2 hours to resolve. Thankfully, everything  went just fine though I think I had the heart attack of a life time. We were all tired because of the incident so we retired already at around 10 pm.

Summary

It was a jampacked Day 1 and 2! We had to see so many things as much as possible because we barely had time in Cebu. Nevertheless, it was fun! Food was superb, Lukas, Tena and Sanch were super cool and Cebu was so welcoming. This has been milaiski and please look forward to the part two of my Cebu travel diary!

Credits to Lukas Veloso and Shei Grijaldo for some of the pictures.