Chicharon delight from Carcar, Cebu

Perhaps among the preferred or popular pasalubong (souvenir) from Cebu is chicharon. The town of Carcar has many stores lined up along the National Road selling chicharon. It helps of course that Carcar is also well known for its lechon. Our driver/guide tells us we can actually visit a chicharon "factory". The mention of "factory" brough back memories of field trips when I was a child when we visited several actual factories that produced stuff like ice cream and soft drinks. Later when I was in college, the field trips were of construction sites, treatment plants and hydro power plants. Back to chicharon, which is basically deep fried and popped pork skin, here are a few photos taken in Carcar when we bought pasalubong.

Chicaron stores along the national road in Carcar, Cebu

Among the bestsellers are regular chicharon (right) and spicy chicharon (left). There are also variants of the regular chicharon depending on whether you like some meat to go with the pork skin.

The spicy chicharon looks like cheetos. It is more sinful, or perhaps unhealthy.

We ended up buying a few bags of chicharon each to bring home and to our office as pasalubong. The pasalubong were received well and didn't take long for people to enjoy and consume.

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10,000 roses, Cordova, Cebu

Before I start posting about the recent trip to Panglao, Bohol, I wanted to finish writing and posting some articles about our trips to Cebu last May. Among those I started writing was on this 'manufactured' tourist attraction located in the town of Cordova in Mactan Island.

Sign in front of the attraction

The roses are actually plastic and powered by LED bulbs (literally rose shaped LED bulbs). They are an impressive sight from a certain angle and when lighted.

The lights for the stems change in color - here are the stems in blue.

Here they are in red.

Stems in purple/violet.

Stems in pink

Stems in orange

Here they are in green again

Transition from red to violet

Pinkish white

The view from the deck level of the cafe.

We were there during the night when the roses were lit. I can only imagine how ordinary these look like during the day. The man-made attraction requires much maintenance work as we saw at least 3 or 4 of their staff working to replace or repair busted bulbs. So it is inevitable to have dark patches in the sea of plastic roses. While I found this place amusing, I thought once is enough for places like this. Nothing really special about it. We weren't able to eat at the cafe so I can't give an assessment of the food and drinks there. They do have a souvenir shop for those who probably want something to state they've been there.

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Back in Panglao to recharge

We're back at one of our happy places. We've been to Bohol 4 times before including twice with our daughter. This is the fifth time and third straight at our favorite place in Panglao. I have been in Bohol five times before including the first time when I went to Bohol to promote a graduate scholarship sponsored by the Japanese. That was in 1996 when The Bohol Beach Club was its original size and when the cottages were still quite basic. The place was so rural including Balicasag Island, which at the time was already a snorkeling and diving attraction.

Panorama of the beach in Panglao

It's always a good getaway and change in environment when we come here. We make the most of these short vacations and end up re-energized or recharged for the challenges ahead.

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