Alcoy Annual Fiesta Celebration

Ciao to our fellow "scappatellers" we hope that you are doing well in your everyday lives , because we are indeed doing very well in capturing some memorable places and events during our trip for our first blog travel entry which took place last August 29-30, 2014. For our first blog travel we headed to the southern part of Cebu---Alcoy, my mother's birthplace and my hometown. We've decided to pick the place, because it is a place I know well and has a special mark in my heart. Since the whole town of Alcoy is celebrating its annual fiesta it also means a triple treat for us "javamay" travelers (fiesta, relaxation, bonding, and wandering).

The annual celebration is celebrated in honor of Sta. Rosa de Lima, patroness of Latin America and the Philippines and the first saint born in the Americas, was so remarkably and perfectly beautiful she would cause people to stop what they were doing and stare at her. Afraid that her beauty might be a temptation to someone, she constantly rubbed her face with pepper and lye so her complexion would not be so attractive.

Notwithstanding the shooting incident between a town councilor and the town's chief of police that happened a week before the fiesta and which resulted to the chief's sudden death, the celebration still continued on how it should be celebrated though more security was being enforced after the said incident to ensure the people's safety and to make sure that the line of activities will run smoothly.
Some of the featured activities include Ms. Alcoy tourism pageant, live band disco from invited guest, field demonstration of the students from different school barangays, carnival, boxing contest, horse racing contest and many more.

The Reo Brothers

The Reo Brothers' Performance

Carnival featuring "Perya"

Alcoy Tourism Pageant

Boxing Contest

Horse Racing

As a prelude for this brief journey of ours we left the city on Friday evening from Cebu South Bus Terminal at 9:00 pm on board by Air Conditioned Ceres Bus, with a sign board heading Bato/Oslob then begun our 2 hours voyage to our destination. Throughout the trip we took some pictures of ourselves for the sake of blogging (just don't mind the our haggard faces...hehehe). We had some girly chats while eating our snacks though we forgot to bring water due to our excitement tsk tsk. While we were on the road Vanessa experienced motion sickness, because she's not used to riding air-conditioned bus in travelling (gotta take note of that huh) and what made it worst was the fact that we were seated at the last seat of the bus which gave us a bumpy ride and the up-and-down motion. She tried to get rid of it by taking a nap, but moments later she end up throwing up surreptitiously to make it discreet though most of the passengers are sleeping. Then after 2 hours we finally arrive..aaaahhhhhhh..Thank heavens!

Janine & May

Vanessa & Janine

Janine & May

Vanessa taking a nap

We arrived at my grandmother's house at exactly 11:30 pm. We rest for a while and took some bites because we felt hungry suddenly. Then we prepared ourselves to sleep for tomorrow's mass. We've planned a lot of things to do for the whole day of Saturday, so we woke up 7:30 am and prepared ourselves for the 9:00 am mass officiated by Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma.

After the mass we took a rest for a while in our makeshift seat under the tree, then we took some pictures while waiting for lunch time. May, Vanessa and I agreed to wear dresses for the first time..hehehe...We don't really know what came into our minds, but I guess we just want to bring out our girly personality.

Oh wait this should not be missed! That was just the part 1 of our after mass picture taking because we still had a part 2, but now it is now focused on the 3 of us.

Vanessa and May

Vanessa and Janine

May and Janine

May, Vanessa, Janine

A little waiting and right after the clock strikes 12 noon the food got served and ready to be eaten (yummey..lol). When I looked at the prepared foods at the table I felt my "DIEt Project" died all of a sudden without any warning it just disappeared and is replaced by "HAPPY FIESTA!" and "EAT ALL YOU CAN!" (haha). Well that explains that Filipino foods are hard to get over with no matter how simple the recipe is, it will always have an extraordinary taste. It is like a drug that once you taste it you can't get enough of it because it will haunt your taste buds FOREVER.

A fiesta is not complete without serving "lechon" (roasted pig) like I mean who can resist the crispy and tasty skin of "lechon" (hahaha), but may I just remind you guys to eat moderately it is like a cigarette too much is not good for the health because "lechon" contains high cholesterol.

Lechon, Pancit, Fish, Fruits and Chocolate Cake

Spaghetti and Escabeche

Escabeche

After the mouthwatering and delectable lunch we took a break for a while in the room, in the kitchen and in our little makeshift seat under the tree. As you can see I am the one who is in-charge of the monopod it's not very obvious that I am their official usie photographer, but to be honest I really love taking pictures because for me every moment in a person's life is special.

While waiting for our hired service transportation to arrive that will bring us to our destination we decided to watch the events happening at the plaza. We took a short walk by passing through a fleeting forest.

The activity that took place in the plaza at the moment was the field demonstration of the grade-school and high-school students from different barangays of Alcoy, Cebu. Alcoy is composed of

9 barangays namely Atabay, Daan-Lungsod, Datag, Guiwang, Nug-as, Pasol, Poblacion, Pugalo and San Agustin. The field demonstration theme is about "Changing of Colors" the participants showed lively and creative performance.