Cebu City - last days in the Philippines (and conclusions)

At the end of our stay on Panglao, we were quite fed up with a slow island lifestyle and were craving  for some action. So, when the time came to leave, we were happy to do so. 

Considering that the ferry connection between Panglao and Cebu City is not the most reliable one and in case of the storm, you can easily get stuck on the island, we decided to go to Cebu City 1 day earlier than necessary. Just in case there will be a typhoon again :-) Besides, the change of scenery was very welcome.

Our last night on the island we met Sergey and Tatyana, a couple from Voronezh, Russia that had the same plans as we did. We decided to travel together and merge our efforts arranging the taxi for next day.  

The guesthouse owner agreed to give us a lift to town for a reasonable price and half an hour later the four of us arrived to Tagbilaran city port. The weather was great and our boat departed as scheduled, without any delays.

Once arrived to the same terminal in Cebu City that we left from 10 days earlier, we went outside to get a taxi. A couple of locals were "managing" the people getting taxis. At first we thought that they were doing it for a fee, but we were wrong. They did helped us get a car with a meter instead of fix price and the four if us went to the hotel that Dima and I booked in advance. Sergey and Ira didn't have a hotel yet, so we wanted to see if ours would still have rooms available, otherwise we would find a hotel for them nearby.  

Our turned out to be fully booked, but the one around the corner had plenty if rooms and we arranged for Sergey and Ira stay there. 

Because of the morning flight to Manila the next day, we only had the afternoon and the evening to see Cebu City. 

There are 3 famous things in Cebu that are considered as "must see": Santo Niño de Cebú, the Magellan's cross and the old fort. We decided to start with the fort, and walk our way up to the city center. 

The remains of Fort San Pedro didn't make an impression, they are just as most of the forts we saw in the Philippines. 

However, it was interesting to see the story of the place depicted on it's walls and to learn about the role it played in the history of the island and of the Philippines. 

Apparently, when the fort was built the first time around, in the mid 16th century, it was made of wood. Two centuries later it was re-built using stones, but kept it's unusual triangular shape. Judging by the photos, the wooden version was quite impressive.  

Just a couple of hundred meters from the fort, in the middle of the small square, another relic from the middle ages can be found - the Magellan's Cross. It's a Christian cross planted by Ferdinand Magellan, back in 16th century, when he first came to the Philippines. 

The cross is housed in a chapel and the sign below says that it is the original cross, encased inside the wooden case to protect it from the damage.

Don't know if that is true, but many people here believe that it is and that it has some magical powers. We saw some of them praying inside and walking circles around it.

We saw a couple of statues outside of (I am guessing) some Philippine leaders, and we had to laugh because they reminded us of the Lenin statues we had in USSR, when it still existed. The statues could have been twins, with the hand and all :-))) Very communist.

Another 100 meters from the cross is the Basilica del Santo Niño, a huge grey-stoned cathedral, with a vast crowd trying to get in. Apparently, the entrance to the cathedral is a paradise for pickpockets, as there are signs everywhere warning that you can very easy loose your wallets and other valuables. 

The cathedral is huge and very beautiful inside. 

At some point you inevitably run into a long line of slow moving people. They are waiting to see the Santo Niño - oldest religious relic in the Philippines. You can easily lose 30-40 minutes waiting. I decided not to, and wanted to skip the whole line all together by going around and somehow ended up at the statue anyway, only from the other side, where people usually exit... 

It's almost 500 years old and is a symbol of the beginning of Christianity in the Philippines. 

Inside the cathedral there is also a very nice garden with lot's of statues depicting historical figures.

Outside, in front of the cathedral, there is big square with an altar, where the masses are being held. Apparently the cathedral can't fit all the people willing to go to a mass, so they had to find a solution.    

When we walked out, the mass was just starting. 

I read somewhere that during religious holidays this square gets so full that it becomes a sea of people and looks like this (pic by Wordpress.

When we left the cathedral it was already dark outside and we decided to slowly start walking back towards the hotel. 

Cebu city center is not a very interesting place to be. It's mostly office buildings, usual larger and smaller shops, street vendors and a night markets.

The traffic is quite intense but the police is doing it's best to keep it organized. 

This intersection is the start of the night market, the street get's closed off for all traffic and within 10-15 minutes it gets filled in with stalls, selling all kinds of stuff.

Once at the hotel, we said good bye to Sergey and Ira, as from here we were going our separate ways. They were catching a plane to Thailand and further to Koh Samui and we were starting our way back: first to Manila, then to Shanghai. The plan was to stay in Shanghai for 2.5 days before going back home to Amsterdam.

Conclusion on the Philippines:
Manila is a city that can and should be avoided, absolutely nothing will be missed if you decide to skip it altogether.  
We loved travelling through the mountains and hills of the North Luzon; hiking to the crater of volcano on Mt. Pinatubo, as well as the trek around Sagada and gorgeous Banaue/Batad Rice Terraces. We did made a small mistake staying in Baguio for 2 nights, but on the other hand it gave us the opportunity to re-charge between the treks.  
In general we enjoyed the Island Hopping experience. 
Despite the rainy start, Boracay was everything we expected - sun, sea and lot's off cocktails, it's definitely a place worth coming to and staying for a couple of days. 
Our stay on Panglao and Bohol was too long, we should have made it a shorter. A total of 4-5 days would have been more than enough. Unfortunately the weather and the absence of flights made our stay longer than anticipated. On the positive note, we did have a great "first time in our life" New Year celebration on the beach, so it wasn't bad at all, just got a bit boring at the end. 
We very much regret the fact that because of the circumstances we didn't get the chance to see Palawan Island and El Nido, but this is something to do next time we will be in the Philippines.

Next: Controversies of Shanghai