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Negros

Backyard cockfight in Valladolid


    An impromptu game by the roadside.

    The Cuyo Loop In October of 2006, I visited the remote islands of Cuyo and Culion in Palawan for a photography assignment and passed Negros and Iloilo in transit. This is my account of that journey.

    This is the 3rd of a series. While wandering around Valladolid in Negros Occidental, a stone’s throw away from the colonial era church, I chanced upon two men in their backyard holding their fighting cocks readying these for a short game to test their birds’ ferociousness. Well, it was just a fun sport and I think with my camera on-hand, they were more than happy to “show off”.

    Read More »Backyard cockfight in Valladolid

    A short detour in Negros


      A typical jeepney in Bacolod City

      The Cuyo Loop In October of 2006, I visited the remote islands of Cuyo and Culion in Palawan for a photography assignment and passed Negros and Iloilo in transit. This is my account of that journey.

      2nd post of a series The reason I made a detour in Negros was to check out the Masskara. Of course, I was able to get an access pass so that I can enter the dance grounds as well as see it for myself. It was really fun, very colorful but after a few hours, the constant loop of one music used by the performers was just driving me crazy! I was able to take around 4 gigabytes of photos in RAW but unfortunately, a few days later, a technical glitch I made with my Epson P-2000 erased it totally! Unrecoverable! Darn! It was one of my major blunders as a photographer. But fortunately, it was not an assignment. Anyway, I still was able to save some of what I have.


      A fisherman trawling the shore in Valladolid, Negros Occidental.

      Read More »A short detour in Negros

      The Cuyo Loop

        For many years, I have set my eyes on the remote island of Cuyo, borne out of curiosity and fascination to this sprinkling of terra firma, located at the northern edge of the Sulu Sea basin between north Palawan in the east and Panay in the west. When the book project Philippine Church Facades by Pedro Galende, OSA, materialized, the fortress churches of Cuyo and Culion were included in the list to be photographed and so, I requested and got the assignment to travel to these places.

        SM City Bacolod

          Believe it or not, with only few hours in Bacolod, I opted to visit Henry Sy’s new pilgrimage center, SM City Bacolod, instead. Yeah, I passed by San Sebastian Cathedral, that beautiful old colonial era edifice but didn’t bring with me my camera. Not that I’m a big fan of malls, where I just find the offerings generic and nothing special, I was more intrigued by its architecture. From the shoe box style of which these brand of malls started with, it has been liberated and updated with light, airy and spacious designs.

          Along the north Negros highway


            Trucks loaded with sugarcane is a common sight across the north Negros highway.

            theLOOP north negros route This is the 10th installment of the Luzon – Visayas – Luzon Loop series. Click the image on the right to check out the rest of the posts.

            “The.. highway is indeed one of the scenic arteries that one can travel through in the country”Four hours across the north Negros highway and I was reliving memories of more than a decade ago passing this very artery going back and forth Cebu and Bacolod during vacations at my best friends place. I can vividly remember the ancestral houses of Silay with its imposing 1930s church along the road. Or how I am always captivated with the massive Mt. Mandalagan, a pemament fixture in the Negros landscape, lording it over the land. The same feeling of awe that you experience with the Malindang Range in Misamis Occidental or Mt. Mayon in Legazpi or even the Daguma Range in West Mindanao. One is humbled.

            Or how can I forget a midnight trip from Bacolod on a VHire (van for hire) sandwiched between the driver and a passenger, ill seated for the duration of the trip to San Carlos without being able to sleep? It was the first time that I have experienced such inconveniences as a traveler that I swore never to do again.

            Read More »Along the north Negros highway

            Brief stop in San Carlos, Negros


              At the city center of San Carlos City, Negros

              theLOOP san carlos map This is the 9th installment of the Luzon – Visayas – Luzon Loop series. Click the image on the right to check out the rest of the posts.

              “San Carlos is not as progressive. But what I like about it is its old charm.”After three weeks vacation at my home province in Cebu, I was again on the road for the trip back to Makati. I’ve been looking forward to make this trip not only because I will finally be able to visit the provinces beyond Iloilo as well as pass by Mindoro but also to come back, albeit briefly, San Carlos City in Negros.

              San Carlos City is just across Toledo in Cebu. I have very vague recollections of this former town when I passed by here over a decade ago during my trips to and from Bacolod. But what I cannot forget, when naively, at a distance during the approach of the roro what I thought were golf courses (!) were in fact sugarcane fields. Ha!


              A hawker at the Cebu South Terminal

              Read More »Brief stop in San Carlos, Negros

              Ruing on my supposed Negros/Iloilo sojourn, 3

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                map_iloilo_negros.gif While I have been to this island sporadically, it is still not enough to familiarize me with the many wonderful things that the province has to offer. Below are additional photos from La Carlota and Villadolid, Negros Occidental. These are towns south of Bacolod.

                The imposing late 19th century church in La Carlota (above). Its massiveness is really impressive. Like the churches in Bago City and Villadolid, it seems that the belfries doesn’t last as either these are gone or, as in the case of this church, its not original.

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                A fisherman trawling the shallows late in the afternoon in Villadolid. Just along the highway, this is a common scene just before the sun sets.Read More »Ruing on my supposed Negros/Iloilo sojourn, 3