My weekend was a blast!
Featuring these bracelets from Vito Church, Sagay City.
My friends and I went to our close friend’s hometown, Sagay City. It is in Northern Negros, Visayas and it is a 2 hour bus drive.
This is our North terminal, always a crowded place where people long to be in another place for work or home.
Seeing this before we set foot on the Bacolod to Sagay trip makes me wonder how people consider this place their loneliness and excitement. People become anxious to be working in another place, without friends and family but only themselves. They are at the same time excited for they can be themselves, exploring another page outside the comfort zone. I might join the club soon, but this time, I said yes to a weekend trip, so here goes a weekend story.
My friends and I decided to spend our weekend at Sagay City, and our plan came true after centuries!
First stop is at Enting’s. Our stomach growled and we ate nothing aside from some chips for 2 and a half hours. So we ordered some good old soul food for our lunch. Can you see the garlic rice?
Here is a close up picture of a staple Filipino rice. Yummy!
It smelled so good! Along with other dishes such as Sinigang, battered chicken and more. A foodie like me cannot say no to a well done garlic rice!
After some time of “chika”, a Filipino term that means friendship talks, we went to our main reason and that is to visit the Vito church.
Vito church is well known to have many visitors all throughout the Philippines with their patron, Saint Vincent Ferrer. The church has many devotees praying for different cases but more especially for healing and board exam passing. We came to give thanks for passing our board exams.
I am not Catholic, but where my friends are, is where I am. I learned many traditions and practices from them. I learned a practice that before taking the board exam, you should go to Vito church, light a candle, say your prayers or intentions and when you passed the said exams, you should go back, light a candle and give thanks.
So we did! Here is my friend Eddie, after saying his prayers and gratitude.
In every church, there are kiosks at the sides which sell bracelets, necklaces, charms and other holy accessories. Tourists buy them for personal use or as gifts for their loved ones.
Each color of these bracelets has a meaning, one for healing, prosperity, protection, good luck, and more. The sellers are very kind too! They explained which is which and what meanings each bracelet represents.
Along with these are the colorful rosaries and amulets as well. These are then taken by the people on Sunday masses to be blessed and sanctified.
Next stop, we went to a local mangrove cafe called RV’s Mangrove Cafe to chill and drink.
This is a beautiful cafe in the morning and even more so at night, but we did not stay long here to witness the night beauty because it is a little bit of a long drive. I loved the wooden tables and chairs, imagine sitting under that umbrella having your afternoon coffee.
This is our view from the balcony. Lush green mangrove forests, with local boats passing by. It was so relaxing and the cool wind touched our skin every now and then.
Wait, where’s the food? Here you go!
Locally made cheesy nachos and fries. You can see some ice cream wrapper on the side too! I was on cloud nine with this ice cream when I realized I forgot to take a photo. It was not a typical ice cream in a wooden popsicle but 3 small bite sized ice creams.
They had picture worthy spots too!
This is me barely standing on their hanging bridge.
Yes I looked cute, thank you.
This wooden hanging bridge continues at the back but we did not go in there because of the people in the queue.
And yes, we always respect people in line. Their time too is precious and some came from very far places as well.
I will definitely be going back here very soon, hopefully!
Here we are, from left to right , Rhiz, Me, Ten, Eddie and Bea. Wacky!
It was already dark when we drove home to my friend’s house, and guess what is for dinner?
Tiyong’s barbecue!
It was marvelous as well. Their barbecue is so good, people go back at least 4 times a week. It is smokey while waiting but that is what barbecues are for, aroma in the air, savory at taste.
A little drink for the night!
Can you see the black Ipad leaning on the purple tumbler?
We were in a video chat with our friend, Jelyn in Manila and it was her birthday. She was alone at a bigger place and she misses Bacolod so much. We sang her happy birthday, clapped our hands and laughed in our simple celebration of Jelyn’s birthday, board exam passing and just our friendship in general.
Did I mention that Rhiz has a chonky cat? Meet Mimi, he’s a he. Pure tummy, less cat.
Our hands literally worship Mimi. We love you Mimi, I miss you already!
Their house is also near a local beach. A 10 minute tricycle ride and you can enjoy the clean Sagay local beach.
My friend Eddie enjoyed his strolls, with cool water in every step, you cannot say no to swimming! This was early in the morning and the heat of the sun is not painful yet.
We walked a little bit, just enough that we were away from boats to be safe. The water is so clean and it is very sandy and refreshing. One way to be closer to your friends is to go swimming!
This is us barely dry from the salty beach. We did our DIY oathtaking here and the ocean is our witness. It was really fun when you do it with your friends. Be bold and be silly!
We had to go after lunch so we did not swim that long. We have to wash up and prepare to go home.
This is us in Rhiz’s room. We are packing our clothes and preparing to go home. We did have lunch at a cool cafe but I will feature it soon in my next write up.
This is me at Sagay terminal going for my bags.
As normal as it is, I still feel a little sad after the trip. I might have separation anxiety too. I don’t know when the next trip will be, for I know that we will be busy again with our separate lives. Needless to say, I am glad that we have 24 hours with each other. A time so little but another a core memory for me to remember.
Well that’s it for this weekend my beautiful people, thank you so much for reading.
With all the love, Jani.
Note: All the photos above are mine unless stated otherwise.