NEGROS ROADTRIP: Dumaguete City

NEGROS ROADTRIP: Dumaguete City (October 24-25, 2010)

After three days of going around the lower half of Negros island, our nature-hungry selves were more than satisfied. And what better way to cap off the trip than to spend a lazy day strolling around Dumaguete, a city we all love for its gentleness and laid-back nature, a city we all keep coming back to.

B U G L A S A N

We inadvertently scheduled this Negros roadtrip during the last few days of the Buglasan Festival, and while we weren’t able to see the parade because we were on the other side of the island, we were able to catch the last day of fireworks and bands.

Fireworks for the Buglasan Festival

Casablanca menu

The Buglasan Festival is an annual event wherein the different municipalities of Negros Oriental get to showcase their various tourist destinations, delicacies, and handicrafts – in the form of a presentation and by decorating their respective booths in the Sidlakang Negros Village. We were able to catch the fireworks in Dumaguete’s famous Rizal Boulevard, which was packed. This is also where we ate our dinner. There are so many charming and quirky restaurants in Dumaguete City, and Casablanca is just one of them.

One of the booths in the Sidlakang Negros Village

After dinner we made our way to the Sidlakang Negros Village where we viewed the various booths and where we watched Bulay’s band. It was truly a treat that we got to catch the Buglasan Festival, even during its last few days, and we even took pictures with the respective hometowns of our ancestors. It just so happened that we all had respective roots in the different municipalities of Negros.

R A Q S A M  C O T T A G E

Zinnias everywhere

Just before leaving for Cebu, we dropped by my great-aunt and great-uncle’s home in Silliman Heights. Christened as the “RaqSam Cottage,” Lola Raquel and Lolo Sam’s home was the coziest, most welcoming, most beautiful home I’ve been to. It was full of artsy stuff (both of them being artists), and each piece of art had a story and a significance attached to it. It was also full of zinnias, their special flower. They shared the beautiful story behind the zinnia over lunch, and it was my first time to hear the story as well. We could really feel the love between them, and it was the perfect way to end the trip.

H O M E B O U N D

Best cheesecake ever

After a sumptuous lunch at RaqSam Cottage, we went to Handumanan to get a Dumaguete magnet for my collection. For our very last stop we tried the cheesecake at Evada Café. Now I’ve tried a lot of cheesecakes in my life, but this is positively the most sinful.

Soon we rode a barge and bid Negros goodbye. Negros has always been our go-to nature place, and every time we leave it we do so thoroughly satisfied. If nature is the best medicine, consider ourselves cured. Thank you Lord for creating such a BEAUTIFUL world, and thank you for blessing me with the craziest, most amazing friends to explore this beautiful world with. 

‘Til the next great adventure.

The sun was setting as we were on our way to Cebu