Showing posts with label Bantayan. Show all posts
Bantayan's Sts. Peter and Paul Church
On our search for Bantayan's famous buwad or the dried fish, we had the chance to visit Bantayan's historical church, Sts. Peter and Paul Church or locally known as Bantayan Church. It is one of the first and oldest parish established in Cebu, built in the 15th century. The walls of the said church is built of coral stones and the roof is made of Tisa Clay before it broke and now is made of stainless steel instead. Some of us went inside and prayed too!
An old tricycle carried all the ten of us in front of the old church. It took us approximately 15 minutes to reach the heart of Bantayan municipality from Budyong beach. In front of the church is the town park where some statues are also situated. The park has two basketball courts and a small playground. We took some time to take photos of the area.
Where to Dine in Bantayan
Sta. Fe in Bantayan Island has a lot of food houses; they vary from continental, American, Brazilian & Australian Steaks, Fresh Seafood, Pastas & Swedish Favorites or Filipino cuisines and are just a few walks away from your resort. You can easily find them as they are just located in the heart of the Sta. Fe and are lined up so on a few steps you can get to the next resto. Some of them are the following:
CouCou Bar & Restaurant
Contact numbers:
Landline: +63-32-438-9385
Mobile: 0918-454-1960 (+63-918-454-1960)
How to get to Bantayan Island
From downtown Cebu, one can take a jeep with route code O1K to North Bus Terminal or take a taxi for your convenience. Jeep fare costs you Php 8 per person while a metered taxi will get you over the terminal at approximately Php 70-90 but in a shorter time.
From North Bus Terminal, one can take any bus which will get you to Hagnaya port in approximately three hours. For bus schedules, there are two bus lines that have routes to Hagnaya, the trip starts at two in the early morning with an interval of 20 minutes. There are no air conditioned buses in the early morning schedule, last trip at two in the afternoon.
Bantayan's Famous Buwad is the Best
There's no better way of preserving fish than drying it out by the heat of the great star. Dried fish or Buwad as what we call it in Cebuano language. Now Bantayan Island is not just famous with its white and long sand beaches; they also boast their dried fish. I had been a lover of it since I was young, when I was in my secondary years, my mother used to sell these boneless buwad danggit at a high price. I really can't recall the exact amount but i am pretty sure it was pricely. One of my mother's friends who used to live in Bantayan delivers the bags full of those before but eventually he stopped and my mother stopped selling them which was kind of sad but recently, I’m glad to finally see the market where those tasty buwad came from, Bantayan Public Market.
During our second day at Bantayan Island, we managed to visit Bantayan town for some pasalubongs which are of course the buwad. It is not because the Cebu market doesn't sell them but the main reason was because it is sold pretty cheap compared to the price in the city. I managed to buy three varieties of their buwad, the famous boneless danggit, buwad tapa and buwad pusit or nukus. The danggit is sold for Php 55 per 1/4 kilo, buwad tapa for Php 75 per 1/4 kilo and the buwad pusit / nukus for 150 per 1/4 kilo. You have the option to either buy those packed ones or get some from a container and let the seller weigh it for you.
Budyong Beach Resort Doesn't Know Customer Service
When we travelled to Bantayan Island last weekend, March 25, 2012 with my colleagues and friends, we opt to stay in Budyong Beach Resort. That was my first in Bantayan, I have no idea why my supervisor asked me to handle the itinerary while we have team mates who had been to this place before.
Anyhow, here's my experience with the resort. A month before, I researched about it and found their landline as well as mobile number. I sent out some messages asking if it is indeed their number, they responded immediately and figured it was Margie, the secretary whom I had been conversing with. I reserved one room good for 15 persons; she said it is an air conditioned room with its own refrigerator. She also asked me to make a down payment to finalize the reservation. They will not make the reservation official unless there's no money guarantee, so I deposited 50% of the amount. Everything seemed to be going accordingly.
After a week, I inquired if they also cater island hopping and if they can prepare a lechon (roasted pig) for us. Margie said yes for both and we agreed for Php 5000 including Php 500 worth of hanging rice which was intended for lunch and Php 2500 for the island hopping.
Halo-Halo in a Plate at Le Petit Bonheur
Exhausted from the exposure of the heat of the great star, from Virgin Island the team immediately went out for some cold halo-halo ice cream at the marketplace. The place where we stayed during the Bantayan Island Team Building, Budyong Beach Resort is just a walk away from Sta. Fe's public market so it is very easy to find goods or food if one didn't bring any goodies to the island.
We gone to Le Petit Bonheur Bar and Restaurant for their special Halo-halo ice cream worth Php 95.
The place was cool because of the beautifully designed covered tables and unique seats. And while waiting for our halo-halo, we took the chance to have some pictures taken in the area.
Virgin Island's Cool Clear Blue Waters
Part of our itinerary during our visit to Bantayan Island was to visit some islets around, it's called island hopping. The deal was worth Php 2500 for the boat which has been settled a few weeks from the said date.
After we had our breakfast at one of the carenderias (eateries) in the market place, we went right away to the boat with our lunch composed of Lechon prepared by the resort worth Php 4500 and puso (hanging rice) worth Php 500.
Virgin Island is 20-30 minute ride from Budyong Beach, the boat was kind of slow though but we enjoyed the kingfishers flying around the boat and fetching some fish at the same time.
Open Summer at Bantayan Island
I had recently opened my summer too with my colleagues at Bantayan Island. This was my last team building event with my colleagues since we will be transferring to another account support by April this year.
This is a challenging summer because my supervisor assigned me to lead the getaway. I personally searched through the web on where to stay, whom to contact and where to go for the itinerary. This is my first time though to lead a big group since my travels would only include myself and James. Well, I am glad my supervisor is just nice enough to be assisting me on this endeavor.
Team Building Day 1
May 8, 2010 - Team Building day, each of us was really excited for the beach. I already told you that instead of going to Bantayan, we changed it to Alcoy, Cebu.
At exactly six in the morning, everyone was already out of the office, there were assigned committees and each had corresponding responsibilities with the said event. We were 14 as a team but there were outsiders who came, so we were all in all 23. We had agreed to meet at the South Bus Terminal at 9:30 in the morning. James and I were the first to come at the terminal, followed by Loreto and Reggy who brought the big box which contained our drinks. And the others also arrived a couple of minutes then. Unfortunately, we were not able to percieve the weight of the people who were also going home in the province, knowing Election day is on monday. Well, anyway, we were able to ride on the Ceres Bus at 11:00 in the morning, imagine that? We were at the bus terminal for three hours waiting for an available bus. It was not the only frustrating thing that happened, when we went out of the terminal, the bus routed to their garage to get more fuel and it took almost 30 minutes for us to get out of the place.
We were able to arrive first at the Tingko Resort at 2:00 in the afternoon. The resort was kinda not that beautiful and the facilities were not so appealing. The beach had a lot of dead seaweeds in the shore, I don't know why they didn't clean that out. Well, in fairness, there were a couple of people there ahead of us. We looked for some other resorts in the neighborhood since all of us did not like that resort. So we moved to El Paradiso, a walking distance from the Tinko resort and we ate our lunch there.
We had a very yummy dinner, we had shrimps, squid, lechon kawali and grilled fish. That was a tasty dinner really. Thanks to the cook committee. Then most of us went to sleep then, including me. As you can see, I wrote this in the morning of May 9. I will be updating you tomorrow then for the other activities and other more photos.
