What started as a desire to watch the whale sharks in Oslob, Cebu, turned out to be an educational and fascinating road trip through six towns in South Cebu – Sibonga, Argao, Dalaguete, Alcoy, Boljoon and Oslob. We had the opportunity to explore four of these towns.
Together with my daughter and my cousin, we first went to Marian Hills, Lindogon, Simala, Sibonga, where we visited the Monastery of the Holy Eucharist, locally known as Birhen Sa Simala Church.
The church’s altar.
“We love Mama Mary.”
The view from the entrance.
From the walkway to the church.
The sculpture of the Miraculous Mother Mary
It was a good thing we did not under-dress, because the monastery had a dress code: no wearing of tube & short blouses/dresses, fitting & transparent pants, spaghetti straps/sleeveless dress, mini skirts, shorts. Since it was Maundy Thursday, the start of the long Holy Week break, there were a lot of people. We decided to skip the long queue of people who wanted to kiss the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Argao, known for its “torta” (native sponge cake) and “tableya” (native chocolate), gave us an opportunity to see its “cabecera” or town center, which was a church-rectory-municipal hall-plaza-complex, said to have been fortified against Moro attacks by a massive rectangular wall fashioned from cut coral stones in the early 1800s.
The town plaza.
The municipal building.
The bell-tower.
The church was full, so we decided to skip getting inside.
In Boljoon town, we got to see two heritage structures – the Escuela Catolica and the El Gran Baluarte.
The El Gran Baluarte is the biggest watchtower built in Cebu and played a crucial role in the defense system of fortresses to deter Moro raids during the early 1800s.
On the other hand, the Escuela Catolica was built in 1940 as a dormitory for children taking their first communion who were required to stay at the Escuela the night before taking the Holy Communion. It was used as a school for religious teachings and for a time was a primary school. It is now serves as meeting place for the Parish’s various religious groups.
Since we had accommodations in Oslob, we took time out to see what the town’s center had to offer. We stumbled across three structures – the Parish Church of Immaculate Conception, the Baluarte watchtower, and the Cuartel.
It is said that the Parish Church of Immaculate Conception has suffered and survived fire damages during the Japanese occupation in 1942, and two other incidents in 1955 and 2008.
The Baluarte watchtower is the only survivor of seven fortified watchtowers installed along the coastline of Oslob as a defensive stratagem against Moro attacks in the early 1800s serves as a historic centerpiece on a lovely bayside park.
The bayside park looks like a place where many townspeople go to in the evenings. One thing I noticed though was the low intensity of the lights in the park.
What caught our interest was the unfinished Cuartel, which was intended to house Spanish troops assigned in Oslob during World War I. However, when the Americans came to the Philippines, the Spaniards left, and construction of the Cuartel was terminated – forever. Nonetheless, the unfinished barracks, which is made up of thick coral blocks, remained intact after enduring another war, and withstood earthquakes and frequent typhoons.
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We originally planned of watching the whale sharks on Good Friday, but we discovered that there was no whale shark watching that day. Therefore, to pass away the time, we decided to go to Sumilon Island, off the coast of Oslob.
Since the island is a private property, home to the Bluewater Sumilon Island Resort, to which we had no reservation, we stayed at the Sumilon Sandbar, which was teeming with people that day. Nevertheless, we enjoyed swimming, topped off with lunch which was delivered to us by pumpboat by the lady we contracted out to cook for us.
It was only on Black Saturday that we were finally able to accomplish what we went there for. Promptly at 6 am, we took off for Barangay Tan-awan, together with our tour guide. We had to register first, and were assigned #178 on the long list of groups that wanted to watch the whale sharks. Then, while we were listening to the orientation on the rules for whale shark watching, our tour guide bought us our tickets, which made us group #48. As a result, we were able to go whale shark watching by 8:25 am.
We waited for it to happen another day. By waiting, there were small bits of surprises that greeted us, making us appreciate the historical side of the towns along the southeastern coast of Cebu.
But the wait was all worth it, for in the end, we saw not just one, but two whale sharks!
A South Cebu Road Trip What started as a desire to watch the whale sharks in Oslob, Cebu, turned out to be an educational and fascinating road trip through six towns in South Cebu - Sibonga, Argao, Dalaguete, Alcoy, Boljoon and Oslob.