SANDUGO SAILING
2010 July
Breathing Bohol beauty
• • • • • Last 22nd found me in transit again, this time to the nearest neighboring island, Bohol. Standing on the shores of Eastern Cebu, looking out across the sea is the outline of this quaint provence, whose characteristic industry and openness precedes them. Several of my office staff hail from various suburbs of Bohol, and if Negros has its bucolic ease and old-world charm, Bohol keeps about her a natural splendor, warm congeniality. This IS the island of the famed Chocolate Hills and Loboc River, after all!
The Sandugo memorial, supposedly where the historical act took place.
It was also the site of the country’s Sandugo, the historic blood compact between Datu Sikatuna [»] of Bohol, and the Spanish explorer Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. In Visayan, it means “One Blood”. This was an important event on many levels, but most significantly, it was symbolic of the union between world-trekking West, and the esoteric East. Some say it was the first instance of Philippine globalisation, and I agree!
It was very apt time, given this, for the industrious and craft-savvy to be a part of the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry)’s sponsored Sandugo Trade Fair event [»], held in the Island City Mall in Tagbilaran, Bohol’s main city. I am a believer of expanding horizons, and that everyone has a lesson to teach, so with a couple of friends, we took the boat across the blue to be a part of the trade fair.
These beautifully handcrafted rolls of weaving for placemats and chargers!
I have learned early on that the key to success is cooperation and being the best at what you do. The Bohol artisans can surely call themselves so!
Sandugo’s Trade Fair lineup
Business with pleasure: B. Montenegro of Pacific Traders, May Te, c’est moi, and Ina Gaston of Hacienda Crafts outside the trade tent.
• • • • • My friend Maybelline Te [»] of fabulous FrouLaLa [»] made the excellent suggestion to have lunch at the Bee Farm Resort [»], an Eco-conscious, organic bee farm which has since expanded to become a beachside resort, with cottages and rooms and alfresco dining areas. We were famished by then (the Bee Farm is a little bit secluded from the main city), and we ordered a feast!
Charming welcome at the Resort’s entrance
We ladies particularly liked this… work is ‘sweet’, like what we were doing, exactly!
We had pandan, ube, kalamunggay and ginger-spice ice cream—and ate them BEFORE the main courses!
What I particularly enjoyed were the iced creams… I highly recommend the ginger-spice and kalamunggay flavours!
Ceiling of the lovely church. We do have our own versions of the Sistine Chapel! And, if you look closely, there is a story waiting to be unraveled…
• • • • • A rendezvous with fellow CFIF members brought us to the ancient Dauis church [»], also known as the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, which has been the subject of many a photographer’s whim, as well as the restoration project of Bea Zobel.
This lovely alfresco multiactivity space is PERFECT for any major occasion, and I am imagining le grande weddings, birthday parties and soirees under the dreamy dome of the acacia! It is fronted by the long, long, sandy coastline.
It’s truly remarkable how sensitive Bohol is to its roots. Historical monuments like the church, festivals like Sandugo, the progressive instinct to preserve nature yet make it accessible to an ever-curious eco-tourist market, speaks of a people who understand balance. One would benefit greatly from understanding this balance, this friendly outlook to all that is new, without necessarily uprooting one’s own traditions, and applying it to an everyday scenario.
Photos by K Batiquin »
