Cafe Lawis

Cafe Lawis is easily becoming the favorite hangout of the Metro Tagbilaran culturati. Located in the Dauis church’s old stone Convento, the Cafe sits in between the church gallery/exhibition space and the Handumanan soveinir shop and extends to a wooden deck/verandah canopied by century-old acacia trees, with a stunning, stunning view of the Tagbilaran straight. And yes, the food is delectable as well.

Just Hanging Around

They all talked about how this was just a small challenge, something only for newbies and hardly anything to get nervous over as by the time one had barely begun it would soon be finished. It was just some twenty meters down and less than half the distance one had to rappel in Antequera, they assured me. But here I was, walking to and fro across the bailey bridge of Makapiko River, trying to come up with enough nerve to get it up and done with.

Down the river: Bend!

“Don’t let go!” Soaked through but in high spirits, this was our war cry for forty-five minutes or so. Each one sitting on a salbabida, linked only by hands and feet, our fate on the rushing river dependent on this unsevered link and by how much we have learned of the wisdom of the bamboo that grows abundant in the area. This is a water sport made for groups: family, friends and, we find amusingly appropriate, for companies wanting of team building.

Escape into Paradiso, Pandanon

“Looking for the perfect beach?
Pandanon Island is the place to go. White sand and warm turquoise waters await the visitor for a day of fun in the sun.”

Google Pandanon Island and you’ll be greeted with more than five hundred search results. I found the ‘quote’ above in one of them. Ask a fellow Boholano where Pandanon Island is and you’ll most likely get a shrug. Meanwhile, other literatures list this beach as Pandanon Island, Cebu, Philippines.

Tagbilaran Twilight

Life in Tagbilaran is as slow as one could let it be.

By slow we mean, deliberate, unhurried. It is a city, but it isn’t bustling with urbanity.

Goin’ Nuts Over Nuts Huts

Impossible connecting road from the highway. The steepest staircase, from the entrance down to the reception area and restaurant, then down to the huts by the river. Very basic amenities. The restaurant closes at 10pm. You can’t bring food in your room/hut. That’s Nuts Huts for you.

The House of the (Creative) Spirits

I clambered up the steps of Casa Rocha-Suarez to catch up with my friends who were already up on the caida of the house-cum-heritage-center during the tour component of the 1st International Conference on Heritage Houses and Vernacular Architecture. But as I was about to step onto the stairway myself, my feet freely trod on nimbly as though the very soul of the house came whispering into my ear: ssllohhww-lhy.

Castaway in Cawasihan

On our back, looms a deep blue open sea that groans of sharks and barracudas. On our fore, a many-pronged giant mass of green on green-black crouches shrewdly, as though the wild creatures its lushness forebodes of, will come leaping at us any second. We are cast away in mid-sea and we are not about to cry SOS!

GO EAST! Chronicles of a Road Trip East of Bohol and Back

We were going to Anda, the late morning of Holy Thursday – fourteen of us, the twelve, crammed in a Starex van, me and Terence on a Honda motorbike – traveling through the still-even East-bound coastal road, dreaming of powdery-white beaches, sea tides, and adventures in transit, as the almost-urban landscape of Tagbilaran quickly [...]

Sun-kissed!

Summer 1990. The whole family would pile up in a tricycle and head towards Kainggit Beach. As soon as we’d enter the Kainggit Drive, and then the glistening blue waters would come into view, all the kids would point at it giddily: Ang dagat! Naa na ang dagat!