One Beat, One Love, One World

While we left Kalibo feeling unfulfilled by the portion of the Ati-Atihan Festival that we attended, our next Philippine stop in Cebu delivered the goods with the wind-up of the Sinulog Festival. Both festivals celebrated Santo Nino (baby Jesus)......reflecting a "miracle inducing" Santo Nino gift that Ferdinand Magellan presented to the King and his wife when he arrived in 1521......but Cebu City took it to another level. We were around for the final 5 days of Sinulog and there were events scheduled every day and night, usually capped off with fireworks. The 2020 theme, "One Beat, One Love, One World" is a vision we should all strive for. Sunday was the final day of the festival, featuring the Grand Parade and it started at 9 am and didn't finish until 10 pm.....13 hours! It was supposed to finish at 7 pm but the Philippines president, Duterte, flew in this year for the parade, causing a 3 hour delay when his plane was late arriving but not before the roadway security had already been established for him, which halted the parade as well. No one seemed that disturbed with the delay but perhaps that is why he decided on arrival to announce that he would find the money to fund a much needed metro train system for the bumper to bumper traffic. Fortunately for us, we paid for shaded seats at the grandstand so that we could watch both the parade and the 24 dance groups from many Philippine islands who put on a colourful, costumed dance performance that was being judged for prize money. We lasted until 4 pm, catching 21 of the dance groups, and fortuitously missed the 3 hour delay which started shortly after.......which we found out about the next day! We weren't as lucky however, finding a quick route back to our hotel, 2 km's away. We tried many different streets away from the parade route but they were all congested with festival street parties and people trying to get  to the parade or away from it. Apparently there were over 2 million people in the streets on Sunday, almost 3 times the actual population. We not only had to weave our way through the massive crowds but also to be on the lookout for the face and arm paint that was freely being shared amongst the party participants. It was all fun though and we managed to escape with only a few minor 'tattoos', even though we received a few playful looks along the way.

The festival turned out to be the highlight of our time in the Philippines. "Lechon", roasted suckling pig, became a favourite dinner order for us as well. We decided to skip our final planned stop in Manila and head directly to Taiwan instead. Tagatay and a visit to the Taal Volcano were on our to-do list but with the forecast that an additional eruption was imminent we thought it best to stay away from the area completely since even parts of Manila were affected by the initial ash fall. We are now safe and sound in Taipei........at least for the time being........Chinese New Year celebrations are under way and Jan. 25th will bring us into the Year of the Rat.

After arriving in Cebu City, I wandered around trying to get my legs moving again and came across this Taoist temple at the top of  a hill overlooking the city. The Caretaker told me it was called the Heavenly Temple of Charity. It was equally beautiful inside.

On my way back from the Heavenly Temple along a different route, I stumbled over La Vie Parisienne. It looked interesting so I decided to pop in and purchase some French pastry to take back to my sweetheart. When I discovered their wine cellar inside I also purchased a couple of nice bottles of French wine, some camembert cheese and a baguette which became our meal for the evening.

The finalists for the Sinulog Idol contest were performing one evening so we took in the show. The  evening started with them showing off their dance moves as a group. The judges were tougher than we expected on the individual performances when they were singing but everyone was on-side for the eventual winner.

Sinulog events were held every night in several locations, including this one. The Fuente Osmena Circle was in the centre of a very large traffic circle not far from our hotel. The Idol contest was held on the stage here and there were lots of food and drink stalls there as well. Traffic was re-routed in the evenings so that people could get off the island safely.

This is a Jeepney, the most common form of public transportation in Cebu, with the route listed on the side. Pocahontas wanted no part of it so one day while out on my own I decided to give it a go. With traffic moving very slowly at many points it was pretty much a jump in, jump off experience at a cost of 8 pesos (20 cents) which got passed through the crowd to the driver. The one I was on was crowded like this one but at least I found a seat and didn't have to stand on the rear bumper or sit on the roof like I observed a few other times.

Several hundred thousand worshippers participated in the mid-week foot procession of the 'original' Santo Nino statue that Ferdinand Magellan presented as a gift to the King's wife when she was baptized into the Catholic religion (which he had introduced shortly after his arrival in Cebu). The artifact, recognized for its miraculous healing powers, was encased in bulletproof glass and protected by tight security.

The puppeteers came up on stage together to show off their moves in front of the judges and the large grandstand crowd. They were quite entertaining with well designed costumes.

We were quite surprised to see this float come through, especially when we only saw one other country outside the Philippines (Australia) participating. Niagara College sponsored the float so they must do some student recruiting over here.

One of the many colourful dance contingents we watched. Several professional photographers attempted to climb up on the makeshift platform at the front of the grandstand to get the perfect shot but every time they tried the grandstand observers behind them vocally let them know they were not welcome to stay there.

The festival also recognizes the indigenous groups that inhabited the island before the Spanish arrived. Many of the dance performances involved some of the tribe becoming very ill or dying, only to be brought back to life with the appearance of the Queen holding the Santo Nino statue over their bodies.

This float's message was all about saving our oceans. The floats and other parade groups were ushered through in between the stage performances by the dance groups, who also walked the entire parade route.

One of the final dance groups we saw perform and really enjoyed. We learned later that this contingent won several awards for their efforts. The monetary awards were not large enough to make their participation a sound financial investment, it was purely for their love of the festival and its meaning.