WANDERLUST ft. OSLOB, CEBU

                It’s good to be back on writing and guess what? It’s my first post for the year 2019! I am so happy to welcome 2019 happy and positive. I really missed writing blogs and sharing with you my experiences and insights in life. Anyway, it’s already 2019 and I’m so happy we’ve been together until now and you’re still reading my blogs. Thank you for taking time to read my entries last year and hoping that you’ll still follow and read my blogs. I hope you had a wonderful holiday celebration and looking forward to the new chapters this year.

            Apart from that, I’m back with new stories to tell and wisdom to share. For all you know, we’ve been to Oslob, Cebu last December 2018.  This is a planned 7-day vacation in Oslob since Ninong Alex & Ninang Baby is celebrating their 25 years of marriage and this is the reason why we go on a trip to Cebu.  Also, this is a perfect time to reunite with my family out of town. Too sad, we’re not complete but still, it’s one unforgettable vacation. Way back then, I was hoping and praying that one day, we’ll travel together with the whole family and I am so happy that finally it happened. It came true! This Cebu Getaway will be one of the best memories not just today, it will remain in our minds forever. Hope you guys can feel how grateful I am when I first know the details of the wedding and our first ever Holiday Getaway in Cebu.

            Seeing my family happy and smiling for their first-time ride on a plane makes me the happiest woman in the world. You guys don’t know how I prayed for this; how I imagined them sitting on the window seat of the plane, taking pictures inside and watching them as they enjoy the flight. Hay! I am so thankful for this! The plane landed on Mactan-Cebu International Airport early in the morning of December 20, 2018. Though we’re tired and sleepy, we still smile from a tough flight.

Supposedly, our first day should be to rest but since Oslob is far from the Cebu City, we decided to do all the things we need in the City before going to Oslob. What I love with our first day is that we tend to ate breakfast near at Magellan’s Cross and Basilica Minor del Santo Nino and we were able to see Plaza Independencia and Fort San Pedro. Unluckily, we didn’t have the chance to took some photos but we still enjoy the moment. It was a dream come true, after all! After breakfast and a small tour around the City, we went straight to fit for the gown and tuxedos. We ate lunch at SM Seaside Cebu. I never thought of going to Cebu as good as it is. We’re all tired, drained and exhausted but we still enjoyed our first day. I can still see them smiling and embracing the moment. From Cebu City, we travelled three hours going to Oslob, Cebu. Yeah, it was long but I love long drives. And I’ve been dreaming to go to Oslob since I was a child.

            Oslob is known for the whale sharks and falls but I never imagined it was more than that. As this blog goes along, you’ll see how beautiful this place is. You might be wondering how I’d say this but I really love how Oslob takes care of their place; how Oslobanon are doing their best to take care of the ocean, the surroundings and even the tourists spot located here. I love the ocean; they are very clean and nice.

We spend our Day 2 hanging out on the beach house, taking a long rest because the next day is the much-awaited wedding. We started our first morning breathing the ocean breeze from the beautiful beach house of my Ninong & Ninang. After some time, we decided to go to the beach side and prepare to swim. We also enjoyed the beautiful ocean view until the sun heats up. 

 

            After lunch, while others are preparing for the wedding, we took a nap while waiting for the sun to set.  It was pretty uncomfortable for all us since we always spend our day doing household chores and other errands. However, when the sun finally sets, we enjoyed the night staying at the beach house and taking some good photos but needed to sleep early. We also prepare our things for tomorrow’s big event.

            My favorite part of staying here in Oslob is the 25^th Wedding Celebration of my Ninong & Ninang. Actually, this is the reason why we went to Oslob but this day is the most unforgettable one. I’ll make you smile right after reading this part. Why do I say so? I seldomly experience a romantic and meaningful wedding ceremony filled with so much love and happiness and this gives me more than that. From the time, I went to the makeup room up to the pictorial, it was indeed a very nice experience. The weather is doing nice, all of the visitors are shining brightly, while Ninang is walking down the aisle everyone is teary-eyed and emotional. It feels like the church is captivated by the 25 years of love and happiness of the celebrants. I remember one of my cousins said, he wanted also a 25 years wedding celebration for his parents. This is beyond perfect; I am so amazed and grateful. I will never forget this day!

I was really shocked especially when I saw the reception area. It was surreal! The reception is just the around the church. The wedding was held at Immaculate Conception Parish Church and reception follows at Cuartel Heritage Park (beside the beautiful ocean.) OMG! I can still recall the captivating view I saw when I was there. It was a night filled with different emotions; we did a dance number. I can say it was a memorable one and I’m so happy how my family enjoyed it and aside from that, I can feel the love and happiness of my Ninong & Ninang. I’m sure they will not forget their astonishing 25^th Wedding Anniversary Celebration. I am so proud and happy that they reached 25 years as husband and wife. Not everyone is given a chance to celebrate like that.

        We spend half of our Day 4 taking a rest then decided to went back to Cuartel Heritage Park and The Ruins for some picture taking. What a nice view to see! To give you a detailed information about this, I'll be uploading a separate blog about this.

      It’s Day 5 and time for Whale Shark and Swimming!!!!! This is the moment I’ve been waiting for. Beach day at Oslob! We woke up early in the morning to prepare for our whale shark watching and Sumilon Island. Our first stop is the Oslob Whaleshark watching at Brgy. Tan-awan, Oslob,  Cebu. This is really is it! Time to see the whale sharks! Before getting in to the boat, we need to have the briefing first to know the do’s and don’ts while watching the sharks. And also, you should be really careful since they were very sensitive. People shouldn’t do anything to them; they might get hurt.  We are all excited to see the whale sharks. After few minutes, it’s time to ride on a boat (it’s not a motorized banca); it is just a small boat but you’ll be safe since there is a life vest. OMG! This is really is it!

       We were able to see the whale sharks for 30 minutes and I can’t explain the first time I saw it. OMG! It is really incredible. I was so amazed. I can’t believe it, they were really true and very big. Together with my Tita’s we were able to go snorkeling to see the whale sharks underwater. Okay, I dive into the water but…. I really can’t. I am so afraid! It’s so big! I saw it for two times and ended up going back to the boat. HAHAHA! I’m shocked; it was so big! I couldn’t even swim into the water. But it was so amazing. I saw them underwater, swimming. They were really a gift from God who brought many people to life.

      After watching the whale sharks, we dropped by at the souvenir shop then ate breakfast at beach house. It’s now time to go to the beach! Sumilon Island, here we come! We rode again to the jeepney to get in to the port area and wait for the pump boat. We needed to rode on a pump boat to reach Sumilon Island. It took few minutes away to go to the island. I’ve never seen an island such like this. It is so beautiful and relaxing. Sumilon Island is a white-sand beach. Sobrang perfect naman. Sobrang linaw ng tubig and you can see the view. I really can’t help but taking so many photos from here. This is where we also ate lunch and did so much fun in the water. We even leave our phones on cottages just to enjoy the place. Some kind of new, actually. So, here you go, our pictures:

       It is some kind of new celebrating Christmas in a beach and spending the whole holidays with the family plus new-found friends here in Oslob. We had a short yet unforgettable pre-Christmas celebration at Sumilon Island. If I could just tell you the whole story we did, I would love to. But the pictures below are even more perfect while reading the story.

       Celebrating Christmas this 2018 is different from what we always do every year. We are celebrating our Christmas in Oslob, Cebu with the whole family. We celebrated a pre-Christmas celebration at Sumilon Island. We did a whole day at the beach, swimming, eating and taking photos. The island is so beautiful and this is such a white-sand beach. It isn’t that far from Oslob, it takes 10-15 minutes boat ride from the land. We spend the whole December 24 diving into the white sand beach of Sumilon.

      Afterwards, we need to go back to the house to prepare for the Noche Buena. It was quite short but were all tanned. Sunblock is not enough, though. We drive home safe and then got changed but after an hour or two everyone is sleeping. We already feel tired and sleepy and that is the reason why Christmas party didn’t happen. We are all tired and the kids were already sleeping at the rooms. They didn’t even eat dinner and woke up the next day.

        However, we will able to celebrate Christmas on that day. This is one that I can’t really forget: celebrating Christmas together. Why? Celebrating Christmas every year with our immediate family is a tradition however did you just imagine you would wake up on a Christmas Day seeing the smile of one another and saying, “We’re celebrating Christmas together!” as a whole family. Wait, before anything else, here’s the trivia: We’ve been doing Christmas Party in Batangas years ago but we were not complete always. Some are far away and working abroad. It’s quite not that happy. This time, it’s different since we’ve been celebrating almost complete, going to church, greeting one another and we really feel the spirit of Christmas. My Tito’s are here and yes, Ninong & Ninang is with us also. What a moment to share! This is really a Notable Christmas.  So, to make this Christmas even more complete, we decided to visit Simala Church or what they call Sanctuary of Mama Mary in Lindogon, Sibonga, Cebu. We traveled an hour to Simala. It was one of the beautiful churches, I’ve ever seen. It was really so beautiful, very solemn, a quiet place and I am so happy with the structures and everything that I saw.  The place is supervised by the monks and we ended up attending a healing mass on Christmas Day. It was quite different but we really feel God’s presence. I remember what I’m always saying in that place, “ang ganda, grabe! Sobrang ganda!”

After picture taking and eating lunch, we headed going to Carcar, Cebu to buy some delicacies located only in Carcar. It was also a long drive but worth the travel since chicharron and torta in Carcar is so delicious. After that, we went to Gaisano also in Carcar, Cebu to buy some ingredients for our dinner. After all the stuffs we did, we finally decided to went back to the house to rest.

         We ended our Christmas Day singing at karaoke, drinking some liquors, chatting with each other, laughing at certain jokes while others were already sleeping. I can say that we enjoyed celebrating Christmas in Oslob. Like what I’ve said awhile ago, this is worth to share because it’s not the presents, the food you have or the gifts you receive but the presence of each other… it makes the Christmas completes. In tagalog, “magkakasama lang kayo sa araw ng pasko, okay na. Masaya na kasi minsan lang mangyari ito.”

       Our Day 6 is also a good day! Boys, girls and kids are separated. Boys went to Cebu City to buy delicacies and did some hangouts. It’s been that long since they did that the last time. While us, going out also to do, “Girls’ day-out.” We went also to different places, to hangout, had some small talks and laugh. We went to my Ninong & Ninang’s house in Poblacion then went to the monkeys and to buy also other delicacies from Oslob. It was a day filled with so much fun also! I’ll be sharing our photos here.

This is the saddest day ever! We need to leave  Oslob for a while and say good bye to the beautiful place. I never thought I could enjoy this moment as joyful as it is. We might be leaving this place but we can still go back and mark happy moments again while in Cebu. We went back to Batangas on December 27, 2018. Our flight is 12:10 pm but we leave Oslob early in the morning to refrain from experiencing heavy traffic in Cebu City. I hate giving good byes but the memories we had in Oslob is unforgettable. It was one for the books. Arriving at Manila, we dropped by at Shell – SLEX since we still not eating our lunch and breakfast for that day. We are already drained and tired. But still, despite of the challenges faced on travelling, we can still smile and share the stories we can’t forget while were in Cebu. We arrived safely in our home, 8:00 pm in the evening.

           Ending 2018 with an unforgettable experience is not just a nice momentum but an everlasting story that can pass to the next generation. Bringing the story to Batangas is one of our favorite things to do. You can still recall the laugh, the jokes, the experiences but you cannot change the grateful hearts of everyone who had been part of this getaway. Each day filled with smile on faces, everyone’s are amazed by the beauty of the place and hoping that we can go back to that place. It might be short and quite tiring but it brings so much fun and happiness to everyone. What I really love about this trip is that it brings the whole family: to travel together, laugh, eat and swim together. It makes me feel really complete; it gives me so much happiness on my heart. I never thought I could feel this way. I am so happy with what we had in Cebu. That’s why I want to thank the people behind this amazing trip.

   For my Ninong Alex & Ninang Baby, I want to thank you wholeheartedly for inviting and bringing us in your place. You are the reason why we experienced this. Without you, we can never go to a place like Oslob. Your place is one of a kind; it might be just a week but the bonding we had is really, really unforgettable. But that’s not just it, thank you for guiding us in every way; for helping us in our needs and for all the things that you did for our family. You might be far from Batangas but the love we had for us will remain in our hearts forever.  I hope that from the simple presents we gave, you feel happy and loved. I finally realized that presence is the best gift you can give and we’re so happy that we made you two very happy! Till our next getaway, Ninong & Ninang! Your Batangas Family will always be there for you no matter what and Congratulations for celebrating 25 years of Marriage! We Love You! #FamilyisLove

Family is all that matters that’s why I am so lucky I have a family like this. From my Ninong & Ninang, to my Tito & Tita’s, to my lovely parents, nieces and nephews and all part of my family, thank you for giving such a nice family like this. This isn’t about the trip but the everyday life we had. Good times and bad times, you’re here. Traveling or not, you’re here. We’re the luckiest because we had a close-tight family relationship. I hope the tradition we had, the bonding we have will still remain to more and more years! I am looking forward to more adventures together as a family. From the bottom of heart, thank you so much and I am always proud that I have a family like you. C’est la vie! #FamilyisLove

And also, I am happy to meet new colleagues here. I’ve met Cebuano’s who were very hospitable and friendly. Thank you, guys, for sharing your place to us. You are so blessed to live in a nice and beautiful place like Oslob. I might come back, soon! I’ll promise that I will learn few Cebuano words. Hehehe!

DAGHANG SALAMAT!

P.S.

Sharing you also the video clip I did uploaded on my youtube. Here’s the link: 

***Photos are taken from our personal phones.

Xoxo,

Vanessa

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