incessant rambling

macro or eXtreme close-up photography has always been a fascinating interest for me. a vista of life is nothing more than the sum of its smaller parts. the subjects vary and the themes diverse but it serves one purpose: an invitation to look closer. here are some pictures from a square perspective. (click on read.more for notes and individual shots) badian: butterfly on a fern. these curiously interesting spotted butterflies are attracted to a certain fern growing right outside the resthouse in stuckli beach, badian sri lanka: lotus leaf. outside the temple of ganggarama flower vendors sell incredibly vibrant lotus flowers. bees constantly land to harvest pollen and nectar carcar-barili: stopover from carcar to barili, molave milkstation where this interesting iron cow fixture serve as a door banger to call the attention of the ladies tending the shop fort san pedro / cebu city: these bright yellow orange flowers grow in clusters that are slightly bigger than a thumbnail. jazz n blues...

Panoramic View - Palalong Place, Barili that's the early morning view from my room when i woke up from a restful sleep in Palalong Place (PP). PP is a bed and breakfast along the national highway about two kilometers from barili poblacion. situated on top of a cliff, you get an amazing view of tanon straight and the coastal town settled on a natural cove. under the mid day sun the stunningly clear light blue waters reveal coral formations where fishermen go about their activity. rain clouds over the poblacion as seen from palalong. barili itself is a destination and not just a roadside town on the way to more famous places like moalboal, badian or kawasan. there is something for everyone in this little gem: from antique architecture , to mighty torrential waterfalls (mantayupan), mountain spring resorts (boloc boloc), cliff side picnic groves (palalong place) and arguably, the best vanilla ice cream (molave milk station). if you're a water baby like me, you'll enjoy the peb...

barili is just another sleepy town on the way to moalboal, badian or kawasan that people rarely get to appreciate the potential heritage and cultural richness of the town. roughly 65 kilometers south west of Cebu City or an hour and a half drive, one travels all the way to carcar then cut through the mountain to end up in barili. if there's any frustration on my part it would be the lack of knowledge about filipino design influences specially for old architectures (houses, churches etc). from an uninformed perspective, majority of the houses follow the balay-na-bato (house of stone) design which is a generalization of houses structured like a rectangle with a solid base and a second floor that is usually lined with capiz windows. a typical facade design another typical design with a solid wooden base. first level fortified with hollow blocks the window slats replaced with solid panels a window variation that combine capiz and wooden blinds sadly, the original structures have been ...

okay, pronounce "mall"+"bowl" and you're probably still not going to pronounce that word right he he he. Anyways, this post is a follow up to my previous post where i was carefully debating the merits of going for a marathon or end up on the sandy beaches of mallbowl . tough choice isn't it? yeah right. u-huh, as if i seriously believe that you'll believe that. here's a short video clip showing the sandy coastline of mallbowl . but as they say, the destination is just an ending to a trip. boy, what a looney trip it was. for the visually impaired (click on the image for a bigger pic), err... visually inclined,the map shows moalboal south west of cebu province - that's about two hours drive from Cebu City. while you're on the trail, don't forget to drop by Carcar (the map, click the maaaap) and get some heart clogging, artery busting meaty chicharon (crackling pork rind) - same feeling you get when you fall in love, less the fat. From there...

Barili is a small town Southwest of Cebu City, roughly about 60 kilometers and you can get there in about 45 minutes. That is, if you don't stop over in Carcar to get their artery clogging pork chicharon. Main attraction of the place is Mantayupan falls that contributes to the electrical capacity of Cebu province. There are fantastic roadside places that overlook the tanyon strait and you can see the majestic kanlaon volcano in negros oriental. the place we went to is on top of a cliff and had an amazing view of the barili-cebu shoreline. The town itself is an interesting visit as there are old houses that probably date back to the time spaniards ran around the country. we're not complaining, if not for the horny friars and some mestizos, we wouldn't have interesting castillan malay features. Note, the pictures were taken sometime March 2007