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We finally made it out of Manila. We're enjoying the change,
although we do miss the pollution, heat, traffic, insane taxi drivers,
and the booming karaoke machine next door. We'd given up writing for a
few weeks, because we were in Manila and depressed enough to not be at
the beach without writing about it. But Tony has now successfully
finished his study and we're free to take a much-needed vacation from
our vacation. Sarah enjoys writing these missives so much that Tony
and Axa have deferred, but Tony chooses and edits the pictures, and
Axa helps out by rendering it impossible for pictures and letter to be
worked on simultaneously. Tony is still deciding whether he wants to
keep his goatee or graduate when we return to BYU.
Rather than flying to Cebu, we decided to take the Superferry. It was
a 24-hour mini-cruise, which we enjoyed immensely. We booked Suiteroom
#1, where we drifted off to sleep, rocked by the gentle movement of
the waves. We spent our time watching the little islands of the
Visayas drift by and dreaming of white-sand beaches.
We arrived in the port at Cebu City on Wednesday and stayed the night
at ACE, the Academy for Creating Enterprise (a school that teaches
filipino returned missionaries basic business skills). In the morning,
Tony gave a presentation about his research to the students. We spent
the afternoon visiting historical sites in Cebu City. Our first stop
was the Basilica Minore of the Santo Nino, the oldest Catholic
artifact in the Philippines. He is a royally dressed little statue
(duplicated in miniature in hundreds of taxis throughout the city) in
an ancient stone church that has burned three times in its five
hundred year history (it is currently undergoing another renovation).
Right down the street from the Santo Nino is Magellan's Cross, planted
when he first set foot in the Philippines and claimed it for Spain. He
had later difficulties in the area,
culminating in his plan to impress the local tribal leader, Lapu-Lapu.
Magellan hired a thousand Cebuano mercenaries and set off to attack
Lapu-Lapu with some sixty of his own troops. He underestimated his foe
and told the thousand Cebuanos to stand back and watch as he stood
against Lapu-Lapu with only his own men. When Lapu-Lapu failed to
flee, the Spanish beat a hasty retreated to the boat. Ponderously
backing away in his heavy armor, Magellan was wounded in the foot by a
well-placed poisoned spear. He had to be unceremoniously carried back
to the boat, where he died of several wounds, the largest having been
inflicted on his pride. Lapu-Lapu became a national hero, and had the
national fish named after him.
Our last stop yesterday was Fort San Pedro, a nicely-preserved bastion
of Spanish rule in Cebu. Originally erected of wooden spikes in the
1500's, it is now a massive 18th century stone structure, but houses
only a lovely garden and some well-fed pigeons. We arrived too late to
see the museum that houses booty from a sunken Spanish galleon, but
hope to see it sometime later when we return to Cebu.
We started off today with a tour of the Butterfly Sanctuary, actually
housed in the residence of the late Professor Julian Jumalan. His
passion was butterflies, and he collected them, both in intact and
fragmentary form. The latter he turned into fabulous mosaics
completely composed of butterfly wings. We've enclosed a potrait-
mosaic of Lapu-Lapu with a detail shot so you
can see the unique texture. Each mosaic has a matching
watercolor painting, since the professor was also an accomplished
painter. He collected butterflies and various oddments from around the
world, and his collections (ranging from insects to coins to musical
instruments to cheap tacky souvenirs) reside in a charming little
house with, of course, a beautiful and fairly extensive tropical
garden inhabited by a community of butterflies. We arrived on a fairly
wet day (the rainy season has begun in force), so only a few
butterflies were out, but we did see representatives of each stage in
the life-cycle, including a female butterfly flitting from leaf to
leaf and laying an egg on each one. Our companions on the butterfly
tour were a nice Australian couple who came to have dental work done
in the Philippines and were kind enough to drop us off downtown after
the tour.
Cebu has a number of beautiful Chinese temples, representative of the
many Chinese-Filipinos. We took a snazzy purple jeepney up to the
Philippine-Chinese Religious Center, a charming little place with cheerful
murals on every wall and lovely tiered gardens watched over by a dozen
or more dragons. Another jeepney ride and a nice, uphill walk through
"Beverly Hills" of Cebu brought us to the hilltop Taoist Temple, a
dramatic affair overlooking the city and the bay. From the top, we
could see what looks like another ornate religious edifice, but is
actually the Casino Filipino, which could compete with the most garish
offerings in Las Vegas.
Tomorrow we leave for Bohol so another letter should be shortly
forthcoming. Take care everyone. We are excited to see you again when
we come home.
Love,
Tony, Sarah and Axa
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Super Ferry |
Tony presenting at ACE. |
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Magellan's Cross. |
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butterly mosiac of Lapu-Lapu (with detail) |
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Fort San Pedro |
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