i decided to take a long weekend last weekend, and it was a good one! i hopped on a $30 flight from tacloban, and 45 minutes later was in cebu city. the city is the second largest in the philippines, and is on the island of cebu, right in the middle of the country. it is considered one of the philippine’s most culturally rich cities, hosting some famous festivals and is known as a mecca for having a good time. there are ferries from cebu to pretty much every corner of the philippines, making it a melting pot of the country’s various people groups. the island’s native population have their own language called cebuano, as well as an independent streak with some resentment at being under the hegmony of the big northern island of luzon.
i went downtown and explored santo nino church, the oldest church in the philippines. it has been destroyed numerous times by fire, but a mannequin of the baby jesus has survived each time; the object is deemed to be miraculous. close by is magellan’s cross, a cross believed to be carried by magellan in his exploration of the philippines. cebu is famous for being the place where magellan was killed, with a spear and poison dart compliments of a local king named lapu-lapu. lapu-lapu is considered a filipno hero for his resistance. there is also a nice little spanish-built fort called san pedro in downtown cebu, and two massive modern shopping malls that i spent some quality time perusing.
at the southern tip of cebu island, 4 hours south of the city in a town called oslob, is a new tourist attraction that involves swimming in the sea with whale sharks! it is best to be there first thing in the morning. the experience starts with a preteen providing a memorized briefing in monotone and with a classic filipino flair for placing emphaaaasis on unexpected sylaaaaables, warning you not to get within 4 meters of the sharks and offering assurance that the operation is being constantly monitored by a marine biologist (which, of course, is not the case). then, you jump on a little rowboat with a few other tourists, and head about 50 meters offshore, where the boat guys are throwing plankton to the whale sharks, who come back to the area every morning for their breakfast! whale sharks are the largest fish in the world, measuring up to 40 feet in length. you jump out and snorkel with them, and it is truly awe-inspiring. you basically get as close as you wish, and can touch them and get swiped by their tails as they swim by. they feed by opening their mouth and sucking in hundreds of liters of water, which is then strained for plankton before being ejected from their gills. apparently at least once a day a tourist gets inadvertently sucked in to a whale shark mouth. they let you swim with them for 30 minutes, and i must say it was one of more exhilarating things i have ever done. after that and a long run along the coast, i was lucky enough to randomly chance upon a pumpboat which was heading straight across the sea to the island of bohol, my next destination!
