Puerto Princesa City may look vibrant today but like many cities in the Philippines, it also has a dark history. This is most evident in a small park in Barangay Liwanag called Plaza Cuartel. Plaza Cuartel looks like your ordinary city park with concrete pavements, towering trees and benches. The ruins of an old garrison and tunnels are proof of [...]
The Baclayon Church, formally known as the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Baclayon, is one of the oldest churches in the country. It is usually the second stop in the Bohol Countryside Tour. (The first stop from the airport is usually the Sandugo Monument.) We initially wanted to follow the usual itinerary and visit this immediately [...]
After visiting Prony the Python and the cute tarsiers, the Poor Traveler’s group decided that it was time for lunch as we all felt a little hungry already. We waited a good 20 minutes for our turn to ride the raft. But it was alright; it gave enough time for us to shop around. There were several souvenir shops around [...]
Next in our itinerary was the Paoay Church. I must say, I had very high expectations. It was one of the places that I was really looking forward to visiting in this trip. I’d seen hundreds of pictures of this UNESCO World Heritage Site and each one of them blew me away. But boy, none of those pictures did justice [...]
When the Poor Traveler and his poor friends were planning a cheap trip to the Ilocandia, we weren’t expecting much. We just wanted to see three things — Vigan, Pagudpud and the Bangui Windmills. We hired a budget travel agency to take us on a road trip to Ilocos for only P3,300 per person and we had no idea what [...]
After our two-day tour in Iloilo and Guimaras, the Poor Traveler and his poor friend decided that it was time to head home. But the flight tickets that we got would have a connecting flight in Cebu City. Our plane would land at Mactan International Airport at 4pm and would depart for Manila at 6am the next morning. But we [...]
“Crowded.” That was the first word that came to the Poor Traveler’s mind upon first step on the church grounds. Perhaps because it was Sunday. Wherever we look we could see many people — lighting candles on one side, attending the mass on another, or simply taking a walk around the church premises. Viewed 6241 times by 2633 viewers
When The Poor Traveler was in Iloilo, one of the sites we visited was The Church of St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Iloilo, more commonly known as the Jaro Cathedral. It was beautiful and old. There was an ongoing mass and since we didn’t want to get attention taking pictures, we decided to not whip out our camera inside. The [...]
The Poor Traveler’s trip to Guimaras, as narrated in this post, was plagued with a series of unfortunate events primarily because of poor planning. However, because of the beauty of the place, we were able to enjoy our stay in this fabulous island province. But there was more. The kindness of our tricycle driver also gave us a little bit [...]
At one point in the Poor Traveler’s Bicol trip, we dropped by the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Porteria (Our Lady of the Gate, more commonly knows as Daraga Church. This awesome 18th century baroque structure stands on top of a hill, overlooking the sea and the majestic Mayon Volcano. The National Historical Institute declared this site a National [...]
