Our honeymoon days Part I

A day after our wedding back in 2003, we went directly to Bohol Island, Philippines where we spent our honeymoon. On our first night of staying there, my husband surprised me by "Harana" ( group of people sang for us with our favorite love songs using a guitar) while we were eating our dinner and I was really shock and surprised, I felt that time how lucky I was to have him and of course until now, I am the luckiest person on earth to have such a loving husband. On the right side, is the picture of Panglao island resort where we stayed for 5 days and it costs us at least $150.00 a night. It is quite expensive but it was worthy because we were celebrating the happiest moment of being together. I love the resort and the white sands, and they also have a man made island where you can enjoy.

The next picture on the right is also one of the reason why we went to Bohol, to visit old churches since my husband is very fascinated with any historic building specially churches. This is the Baclayon Church of Bohol.

Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Baclayon
The Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in Baclayon is considered to be one of the oldest churches in the Philippines. It is one of the best preserved Jesuit build churches in the region, although in the 19th century, the Augustinian Recollects added a modern facade and a number of stone buildings that now surround the church. The first Spanish missionaries or doctrines in the region, Fr. Juan de Torres and Fr. Gabriel Sanchez, first settled in Baclayon in 1595. Shortly after their arrival, a visit was erected on the spot.
Although Baclayon was the first seat of the Spanish Jesuit missionaries, fear of Moro marauders soon forced them to move their headquarters more inland, to Loboc. Only in 1717, Baclayon became a parish, and construction of a new church commenced. Some 200 native forced laborers constructed the church from coral stones, which they took from the sea, cut into square blocks, and piled on to each other. They used bamboo to move and lift the stones in position, and used the white of a million eggs as to cement them together. The current building was completed in 1727. The church obtained a large bell in 1835. In the Baclayon church is a dungeon, which was used to punish natives who violated the rules of the Roman Catholic church.

On our trip back to the Philippines this May, we will still be going back to Bohol to visit again this old church and other beautiful places. In this Church where Cesar Montano and Sunshine Cruz got married a famous actor and actress in the Philippines and in my dreams, how I wish we could be having our wedding again here too.