Discover Boracay

Boracay Island is located off the northwest corner of Panay Island, and belongs to the Western Visayas island-group, or Region VI, of the Philippines. The island is approximately seven kilometers long, dog-bone shaped with the narrowest spot being less than one kilometer wide, and has a total land area of 10.32 square kilometers.

South-facing Cagban Beach is located across a small strait from the jetty port at Caticlan on Panay island, and the Cagban jetty port serves as Boracay's main entry and exit point during most of the year. When wind and sea conditions dictate, east-facing Tambisaan Beach serves as an alternative entry and exit point.




Boracay's two primary tourism beaches, White Beach and Bulabog Beach, are located on opposite sides of the island's narrow central area. White Beach faces westward and Bulabog Beach faces eastward. The island also has several other beaches.

White Beach is the main tourism beach. It is about four kilometers long and is lined with resorts, hotels, lodging houses, restaurants, and other tourism-related businesses. In the central portion, for about two kilometers, there is a footpath known as the Beachfront Path separating the beach itself from the establishments located along it. North and south of the Beachfront Path, beachfront establishments do literally front along the beach itself. Several roads and paths connect the Beachfront Path with Boracay's Main Road, a vehicular road which runs the length of the island. At the extreme northern end of White Beach, a footpath runs around the headland there and connects White Beach with Diniwid Beach.

Bulabog Beach, across the island from White Beach, is a secondary tourism beach and Boracay's main windsurfing and kiteboarding area.

Boracay is divided, for land use and conservation purposes, into 400 hectares of preserved forestland and 628.96 hectares of agricultural Land.

I visited Boracay once and that was an opportunity. I really enjoyed the crystal clear water and the white sands of this place. =)

Giant Lantern Festival

The Giant Lantern Festival of San Fernando is the event that the province of Pampanga is most known for. No doubt that is the reason why San Fernando, Pampanga has been dubbed as the Christmas Capital of the Philippines.

The most spectacular exihibition and parade of Parol is held every year in San Fernando Pampanga, famous for the most unique star lanterns in shapes, colors and sizes made from all kinds of material.

The town becomes the center of Christmas activities, every year spectators get to marvel the amazing lights of the giant lanterns. These lanterns were made by the skillful parol makers from Pampanga. It was in the year 1931 that electricity was introduced to the San Fernando lantern, thus sparking the birth of the first Giant Lantern Festival. The added illusion of dancing lights highlighted the bright colors and intricate designs of these Giant Lanterns.

At this time, the lights were controlled by individual switches that were turned on and off following the beat of the music. The barangays of Del Pilar, Sta. Lucia and San Jose were among the first barangays to participate in the festival.

Subterranean River National Park

The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park features a spectacular limestone karst landscape with its underground river. A distinguishing feature of the river is that it flows directly into the sea, and the lower portion of the river is subject to tidal influences. The area also represents a significant habitat for biodiversity conservation. The site contains a full mountain to the sea ecosystem and protects forests, which are among the most significant in Asia.

The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park features a spectacular limestone karst landscape with its underground river. A distinguishing feature of the river is that it flows directly into the sea, and the lower portion of the river is subject to tidal influences. The area also represents a significant habitat for biodiversity conservation. The site contains a full mountain to the sea ecosystem and protects forests, which are among the most significant in Asia.

Masskara Festival

Bacolod City is well known all for its Masskara Festival during the month of October. The Masskara Festival is hosted by Bacolod City during the first two weeks of October. A horde of visitors, both local and foreign, enjoys twenty days of beer drinking, dining, and street dancing at the Masskara Festival. Talk about serious Filipino partying.

The Masskara Festival was originally instituted to commemorate the hardships of the people of Negros Province. The original idea behind the Masskara Festival was to promote a time of happiness to a down trodden people.

Masskara Festival has gone a long way since its humble beginnings and is now able to generate revenues for big businesses due to tourism. It has taken its festive spirit through a path that leads to progress for the locals of Bacolod City.

The term Masskara is coined from two words — mass, meaning a crowd and the Spanish cara, the word for face. Masskara has a double meaning, first is “mask” and the second one is “many faces”. Cultural artist, painter, and cartoonist Ely Santiago coined the term in 1980.

The symbol of the Masskara Festival is a smiling mask, which was envisioned to show that the people Negros Province manifests a happy spirit in spite of all the crisis they have gone through.

Throughout the two weeks of the Masskara Festival, the people from other neighboring provinces flock to Bacolod City for the celebrations. Everyone joins in on the round the clock feasts. Colorful and lively parades abound in people wearing masks and costumes representing various organizations from the government and private groups.

Artistic Diving Resort

ARTISTIC DIVING RESORT is located at the beach front of Punta Ballo, Sipalay City Philippines.


The City of Sipalay established a new concrete road to beach's facilities. It is now a very pleasant access to this Beach Resort. A new restaurant and modern kitchen offers delicious local and international cuisines, even a la carte. Now, they offer an excellent Mongolian Barbecue Buffet for you. Their nice swimming pool invites you for any kind of pleasure and is a great start to learn diving. Apart from diving, snorkeling, eating and relaxing, you can also try beach volleyball, table tennis, or billiard.

Amazing Chocolate Hills

The Chocolate Hills are probably Bohol's most famous tourist attraction. They look like giant mole hills, or as some say, women's breasts, and remind us of the hills in a small child's drawing. Most people who first see pictures of this landscape can hardly believe that these hills are not a man-made artifact. However, this idea is quickly abandoned, as the effort would surely surpass the construction of the pyramids in Egypt. The chocolate hills consist of are no less than 1268 hills (some claim this to be the exact number). They are very uniform in shape and mostly between 30 and 50 meters high. They are covered with grass, which, at the end of the dry season, turns chocolate brown. From this color, the hills derive their name. At other times, the hills are green, and the association may be a bit difficult to make.


Legend has it that the hills came into existence when two giants threw stones and sand at each other in a fight that lasted for days. When they were finally exhausted, they made friends and left the island, but left behind the mess they made. For the more romantically inclined is the tale of Arogo, a young and very strong giant who fell in love with an ordinary mortal girl called Aloya. After she died, the giant Arogo cried bitterly. His tears then turned into hills, as a lasting proof of his grief.

SuluSunset Beach Resort

Sulusunset Beach Resort is one of the finest beaches that can be found in the City of Sipalay. This place has 9 Cottages, all are roofed with nipa palm leaves, to have a light any room - perfect for tropical clima.

Getting There

From Manila to Negros:

Sevaral airlines like Cebupacific, Air Philippines and Philippine Airlines have daily flights from Manila to Bacolod and Dumaguete. Take a *Ceres Bus Liner – nonaircon service starts at 2.30am, then every 45 minutes until 8pm and travel time is five hours. Ceres Bus Liner air con service starts at 8am, last trip at 4pm. Travel time is about four hours.


*The schedules are subject to change without prior notice.

Pasaway Festival

Pasaway Festival. Sipalay City has been the copper belt of southern Philippines for more than five decades. The first industrial mining of copper transformed Sipalay into a booming town and eventually into a city. Pasaway Festival is a copper worship celebrated every March 31. Participants depict the tribes in ethnic costumes with copper ornaments dancing to the beat of Pasaway music.

It features street dancing and merry making by performers from seventeen barangays of the city attired in mardigras and exotic costumes in the semblance of copper minerals.

Discover Cebu

Cebu City is a significant cultural centre in the Philippines. The city's most famous landmark is Magellan's Cross. This cross, now housed in a chapel, was supposedly planted by Ferdinand Magellan when he arrived in the Philippines in 1521. It was encased in hollow tindalo wood in 1835 upon the order of the Augustinian Bishop Santos Gómez Marañon to prevent devotees from taking it home chip by chip. The same bishop restored the present template or kiosk, located at the present Magallanes street between the City Hall and Colegio del Santo Niño. Revered by Filipinos, the Magellan's Cross is a symbol of Christianity in the Philippines.


A few steps away from the Magellan's Cross is the Basilica Minore del Santo Niño (Church of the Holy Child), an Augustinian church which was elevated to the rank of Basilica in 1965 during the 400th year celebrations of Christianity in the Philippines, held in Cebu. The church, which was the first to be established in the islands. It is built of hewn stone and features the country's oldest relic, the figure of the Santo Niño de Cebu (Holy Child of Cebu).




This religious event is celebrated on the islands cultural festivities known as the Sinulog festival, held every third Sunday of January which celebrates the festival of the Santo Niño, the patron saint of Cebu. The Sinulog is a dance ritual of pre-Hispanic indigenous origin. The dancer moves two steps forward and one step backward to the rhythmic sound of drums. This movement resembles somewhat the current (sulog) of the river. Thus, the Cebuanos called it Sinulog.

Discover Sipalay

Location

The City of Sipalay is the second to the southernmost town in the province of Negros Occidental . It is bounded by the municipalities of Cauayan in the north, Hinobaan in the south, and Candoni in the east. To its west is the Sulu Sea. The city lies approximately 178 kilometers from the provincial capital of Bacolod City and can be reached via the national road from Bacolod to Hinobaan within 3 to 4 hours.


The City's total land area is 42,770 hectares or 427.7 square kilometers, with a coastline stretching some 45 kilometers long along its western side. Sipalay is politically subdivided into 17 barangays, five of which comprise the poblacion area or the urban core of the City (Barangays 1 to 5). Surrounding the poblacion are the barangays of Nauhang, Gil Montilla, Mambaroto and Maricalum while the barangays of Cabadiangan, Camindangan, Manlucahoc and Nabulao form the hilly to mountainous outskirts. At the northwestern side of the City are the barangays of Cartagena and Canturay, which are traversed by the national road leading to Bacolod . The last barangay at the southwestern portion is Cayhagan, which is linked to the southernmost municipality of Hinobaan via the national road. Barangay San Jose, commonly referred to as the mining town, lies at the upper portion of Gil Montilla east of Canturay and Cartagena.




I love Sipalay!