The heightened religious fervor, the devotion and the age old practices just come together and intertwine to produce one of the spectacular Semana Santa (Holy Week) observance that I have seen. Lucban in Quezon is one of the must go to places to witness such events.
The hazy yellow green sea of palms sway in all directions blanketing the plaza at the church grounds as the faithful is gathered while a priest blesses.

Lucban in Quezon is rich in tradition, culture and heritage be it from the annual harvest festival called the Pahiyas, its potent lambanog (coconut vodka), lively people, religious fervor and cool climate being located at the foothills of Mt. Banahaw. During the Holy Week, the town is transformed into one great catholic community where age old ritual observance springs to life.

On the morning of Saturday before Palm Sunday,

This post kicks off my Semana Santa series where I feature rituals and traditions observed in certain places during this most solemn week in the Catholic calendar. Click on the image at the right to check the rest of the articles.

For purposes of travel for the visita iglesia, I have compiled a series of churches primarily found in Central and Southeast Cebu and Bulacan at simbahan.net.

Ormoc at last! Despite not having made it to the midnight boat for Cebu, I was just glad that I finally reached this city at around 0400H from Tacloban. Its been a year since I’ve last visited this place while I was in transit to Guiuan in Eastern Samar to shoot the church there for the book. But back when I was still based in Cebu, Eastern Visayas was part of my area of responsibility and have constantly been here for work as well as leisure.

See the photo above? That’s me at the extreme left with only my left ear visible still taking this shot. If you noticed, thank you, the row I’m at is already full while I was given the kiddie seat just beside the sliding door of the van. It was small for my 5′10″ frame. Really. To give me a semblance of comfort and spare me less of a sore butt, they had these wooden stool, around 4 inches in width propped up beside the kiddie seat that is removed whenever the door is opened as it might fall.

The San Bernardino Strait or better known during the Spanish colonial era as the Embocadero de San Bernardino is a narrow waterway separating the islands of Luzon and Samar.

Eons ago: worldwide waterlevels were so low that the islands of Luzon and Samar were connected by a land bridge that made it possible for species to cross and disperse both ways.

1300H and I was just at the nick of time that I arrived at the pier after a long journey. I was still able to catch the roro ferry in Matnog, Sorsogon bound for Allen, Samar and was thankful enough since I was spared of waiting another two hours for the next trip.

What I like about the Matnog – Allen route is that its just short.

I was already tired and sleepless when I arrived in Daraga, Albay at around 0700H. And God, it was a rather drab morning and wet with the slow but constant drizzle. Nevertheless, I dragged myself to a waiting tricycle before catching a jeepney to Legazpi City where I had a quick breakfast.
This was not the first time that I have been in the city in this kind of weather. But when it’s like this, not seeing Mt. Mayon is depressing.

It was CHAOS as I excitedly wound my way to the lounge area of the Philtranco bus terminal in Pasay City on the evening of my trip. But what greeted me was the throng of people in various states and disposition as they were awaiting for their bus to arrive. Unfortunately, because it was 30 December and the height of the passenger season, all buses were late for as much as 2 hours.

I am updating my travel map as there are new destinations that I have visited. When I did the Luzon – Visayas loop via land and sea, I was able to visit for the first time the Panay provinces of Capiz and Aklan. I’m not a beach person but, thank God, due to some roro schedule foul ups, I forayed in Boracay for just an hour, another first. From Caticlan, I then docked at Roxas in Mindoro Oriental

Call it madness, call it a masochist’s trip but, after much ruminations, I finally made it…

A stunning beauty. That is what I can say of Tinuy-an Falls in Bislig, located in the interior of the vast Picop concession in the province of Surigao del Sur. Dubbed the Little Niagara of the Philippines (why do we always have this penchant in naming places, I don’t know) because it is considered to be the widest waterfall in the country at 95 meters in width.