Cebu

Last weekend we took a trip to the Philippine province of Cebu.

Cebu Island is a long narrow island stretching 225 km from north to south, surrounded by 167 neighboring smaller islands, that includes Mactan Island, Bantayan, Malapascua, Olango and the Camotes Islands.

We stayed at Shangri-La's Mactan Resort & Spa on Mactan Island. Yes, this trip was for a little R&R but we got to see some sights as well. First for the R&R:



Most R&R begins with a plane ride. Since we were traveling to Cebu it made perfect sense to fly Cebu Pacific Airlines! Cebu Pacific is known for playing various trivia games with its passengers. During the flight we played 'Name That Tune' badly sung by one of the flight attendants. Needless to say I didn't win any prizes since I had a hard time understanding the songs he was singing.



Once we arrived at the resort I took this picture from our hotel room. Pretty nice huh?



From the hotel you have access to a white sands beach. As you can tell it was a windy day. Behind Aimee is a small landmass the resort calls "The Paradise". We spent several hours relaxing and drinking various beers and fruity drinks at The Paradise. You see that floating pier behind the The Paradise? After my third beer I thought to myself, "wow, it would be so fun to swim to that pier" ... so I did.



Here I am after my swim. Do I look relaxed? Well, no, no I wasn't. You see after three beers your mind starts making up these impossible challenges. Swimming to something far in the distance seems like an awesome idea at the time but once you start your journey you realize what a stupid idea it was. What you see in this picture is me thinking to myself between heavy out of shape breaths, "That was dumb, I could have died". After 20 minutes of resting I swam back only to discover the water was mostly shallow and I could have walked more than halfway there. Damn Filipino beers playing tricks on your mind!

After a day of relaxing and almost drowning at the resort we hopped into a taxi and ventured off to see some of the Cebu city sites. Obviously what I write below is very summerized version of the history.



This is MAGELLAN’S CROSS. Or at least a replica of the wooden cross Ferdinand Magellan and his men planted in Cebu on 14 April 1521 to mark the beginning of the Christianization of the island. The original was destroyed when Cebuanos turned against the Spaniards 17 days later. There is no record as to when the present cross was erected though there are allusions that this was done around 1565.

BASILICA MINOR DEL SANTO NIÑO – This church was built by Miguel Lopez de Legaspi and Fr. Andres Urdaneta on the site where the image of Santo Niño was found in 1565. The first structure of the church was, however, destroyed by fire on November 1, 1568. It was rebuilt in 1602 under the administration of Juan Albaran and was rehabilitated in 1740. On May 1965, the church was conferred the title of Basilica Minor del Santo Niño Antonuitte, Papal Legate during the Fourth Centennial celebration of the Christianization of Cebu.

Santo Nino, is with Magellan’s Cross, the most popular symbol of Cebu. Expressive of the pleasing oppositions in Cebuano culture, it is at once both foreign and native. In history, it was made by Flemish artisans, brought to the island by Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. In local tradition, it is a miraculous piece of wood, cast out of the Visayan sea, worshipped from “times immemorial”.

On the other hand, it is a powerful deity that, in the colonial period, was called Capitan General and honored with a 21-gun salute when taken out from the church for a procession. On the other hand, it is an icon that “disappears” to become a playful and innocent child cavorting with peasants and fishermen. Invoked by rulers and subjects to the present day, enshrined in business suites and cardboard shanties, it is metaphor for Cebuanos as a people and for what they desire.

To a non-Catholic like myself I just looked at this little guy and thought, "what a great God action figure".

I'm going to end this blog with a direct 'copy and paste' of the 'A Tale Of The Santo Nino'. I thought this story was amusing the first time I read it:

It is told that when, in the days of Legaspi, the capital was moved from Cebu to Manila, the authorities decreed that the image of the Sto. Nino should also be moved to the new capital.

So, the Santo Nino was crated and shipped to Manila, but the crate arrived there empty. It miraculously disappeared, reappearing in its shrine in Cebu. It was recrated, and the crate placed inside another box, and then shipped to Manila. Again, the boxes arrived in Manila empty. The Santo Nino was crated a third time, and the crate placed not in one but in two boxes - but in vain. The Santo Nino was back in Cebu.

Eventually, the shippers sent the Santo Nino out in a series of Chinese boxes, one inside another, with the seventh and inner-most box containing it. In this manner, it arrived in Manila and was enthroned in the Augustinian church of the capital city. The Santo Nino, however, kept disappearing from the Augustinian church and reappearing in its shrine in Cebu. And so, it is told, the Manila Augustinians decided to cut off one of the Holy Child’s legs to stop it from escaping and returning to Cebu. This proved of no avail. The Santo Nino still kept on returning to Cebu

Manila finally gave up and Cebu kept its little Lord. Today, it is said, one can still notice how unevenly the Santo Nino stands. It is a sign of how, at one time, it had been amputated to keep it from returning to its beloved home.

In other versions of this story, the image was shipped not to Manila but to Spain. Whatever the version, however, it is a story told to show how intimately wedded to each other Cebu and the Santo Nino have become.