February 2019 (click on the gallery images to open the full-size photo) It's finally summer here in Iloilo. I say "summer" with a big LOL after the word because it's ALWAYS summer here for somebody like me, a former denizen of the Bitter North in the USA. My relatives are currently under a foot of snow and freezing their tushes off. Half an hour ago I walked to the mall in short sleeves. Yeehaw. [...]
October 2018 During a recent trip to Cebu I revisited my favorite tourist spot there, the Fuerza de San Pedro (Wikipedia page here). With a few more photos now in the gallery, I'm ready to do a post on it. To be honest, Cebu is not chock-a-block with historical sites despite having been squarely in the picture when the Spanish first arrived lo these many years ago. Ferdinand Magellan met his end in 1521 [...]
May 2018 Miagao Facade There it is in all its glory, the UNESCO World Heritage Site church in Miagao. For those of you not in the know, Miagao is a small town 47 km (29 miles) west of Iloilo city on the island of Panay. Miagao is the only historical church in all the Philippines outside Luzon to carry the UNESCO site designation, so it is arguably and justifiably a Big Deal. [...]
May 2018 The islands of the Philippines offer such diversity of topography and landscape that travel within the country can keep your bucket list filled up for quite a while. The large islands such as Luzon and Mindanao are like small countries in themselves, with all the diversity of landscape and culture one could wish for. Even the smaller main islands such as Panay and Negros have that same variety on offer, although they accomplish [...]
April 2018 Landscape, Damires Hills, Janijuay You may think I'm having another of my senior moments when you read the title for this piece, but I swear, if you go there you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Don't ask me how someplace in the boondocks of Panay Island in the Philippines calls up such strong associations with the Cotswolds, I have no answers for you. I'm just reporting the facts, Bridget, so [...]
April 2018 Mountains near Bucari I will own it: there may be a degree of hyperbole in the title for this post. There are no Matterhorns on display, no eternal snows (thank heavens!), nothing that a hiker with a good pair of boots and a few hours to spare can't conquer, so yes, "Alps" may be overstating the case a bit. But if like me you spend most of your time in [...]
March 2018 One of the great pleasures of travel is coming across something unexpected that brings a frisson of pleasure at the discovery. The usual Western approach, of course, is to plan one's delights carefully so they occur in measured progression over the allotted period of travel. When you're spending a king's ransom on a trip, such methods are perfectly justifiable. It would hardly do to leave things to chance because chance is notoriously disinterested [...]