Cebu 2014: Part 1

On the last weekend of March, I joined my parents on a short trip to Cebu to hit the beautiful beaches of Mactan! It was one of those large group trips once again because my dad's friend was quite infamous for arranging them.

Anyways, we arrived at around 7 in the morning. Quite sleepy, if I may add. Early morning flights are the hardest, actually. Our tour guide was already waiting when we arrived.

Our first stop was the Lapu-Lapu monument. The heat was intense because summer had already set at that time. :(

There was no way of nicely taking a photo of this painting depicting the battle at Mactan of Lapu-Lapu against the Spaniards. It's really large and there were so many people taking their pictures with everything they could see. Haha!

Seeing the iconic Lapu-Lapu statue that has graced countless travel guides and advertisements everywhere. I love how well-maintained it was. Definitely worth seeing.

Next was the city square. As you can see, it was really hot. :(

From here, you can already visit some of Cebu's most historical attractions! One of these is Magellan's Cross. Not much to explain except that it's a memorial for him.

There was a lot of reinforcing going on, given the huge earthquake not too long ago. Thank goodness there wasn't much damage to Magellan's Cross! Look at those paintings on the ceiling!

Unfortunately, the Basilica del Santo Nino sustained a bit more damage in the earthquake and there scaffoldings everywhere because there was a lot of maintenance to be done.

A lot of people were having mass. It was my first time to hear mass in Bisaya! I didn't stay though because we were already being called back on the bus.

Kryz Uy on the windows of Island Souvenirs. I love that there's a store like Island Souvenirs because it promotes tourism really well, and they have good quality souvenir shirts that you can take home and use for a long time. I actually wanted to pick up the #BangonSugbohol shirts but it was already sold out. :(

Our next stop was the Chinese Temple. I'm not really sure about the significance of it because it was hard to understand the guide's Chinese through his thick accent. #ChineseKidProblems Haha! From what I gather, it's famous for the steps that lead to the temple itself. Which is a LOT.

The view from the terraces.

Afterwards, we finally settled into our hotel, the Shangri-La in Mactan! I have a totally separate post for that just because there are so many photos and I really loved it there! :)

The very next day was dedicated to island-hopping. Again, the heat was almost too much, but the impossibly beautiful waters made it a bit more bearable. Seriously speaking, Mactan has the cleanest seas I have ever seen in my life! It's just so pretty and clear!

We boarded from Shangri-La's docks because it's just better to go island-hopping without having to ride the bus to another dock. You'd be soaking wet and it won't be fun for anyone. This way, you can just go straight to your room in the resort to clean up and you won't have to dampen car seats. Haha!

The captain's son. (I think) This little fella was so quiet but that was until he saw me watching TV Shows on my phone then he started watching it with me. Haha! O diba galing niya mag-smize.

It's roughly a 30-40 minute ride to our first stop, Nalusuan Island. There, you can do a lot of snorkeling on the front area where you get off. But if you want to try going to their beach, you go the back part of the resort!

 

Once you get off, you can literally just jump off the bridge if you wish! Haha! That's why they make you wear life vests before you alight the boat. It looked like a lot of fun but I just went ahead to the beach part. Thinking about it now, I should've gone snorkeling instead!

The resort itself is pretty straightforward. You go there to swim and that's it. To be honest the beaches of Mactan Shangri-La were a lot more beautiful and a lot more fun to swim in, but I enjoyed Nalusuan a lot as well!

What I noticed was that there were so many Korean and Japanese tourists in Cebu/Mactan! They were literally almost everywhere and they looked like they were having so much fun. I guess it's understandable since going to the beach for most of them is impossible given their climate.

The rear part of the beach was pretty cool because they made it so that a huge area of the beach is really shallow so you can do a bunch of water sports without worrying about suddenly falling into the deeper part of the water. This is also nice if you have kids with you! I know how uneasy I was when I was a lot younger because I didn't know how to swim! Haha!

As you can see, the water is absolutely breathtaking. I cannot stress it enough how beautiful the beaches here are.

It was a rather quick swim here in Nalusuan and soon enough, we were on our way to the next island which I'll show you guys in Part 2 of my Cebu travel diaries! :)

'Til next time!