Casa Gorordo Museum, Cebu

Hi everyone! So here's another Cebu heritage that I would like to share with you, the Casa Gorordo Museum. It's one of the oldest houses in Cebu, and is now turned into a museum under the Aboitiz Foundation. It's actually the home of Cebu's first Filipino Bishop, Juan Isidro de Gorordo. It is located along Lopez Jaena Street in Colon.

The structure is kind of similar to Balay na Tisa in Carcar. It is also made of stones but of bituka tabliya (coral stone blocks) instead of tisa (limestones). Too bad it's not allowed to take pictures inside so I'm only gong to be able to show you guys photos of its garden and surrounding area.

So the house was built in 1863. Similar to the Balay na Tisa in Carcar, it is a two-story house, the second floor of which is made of wood and is still furnished with antique furniture and lots of historical collections such as books, paintings and other memorabilia. They even have actual pictures of old Colon street and Plaza Independencia, which I find really cool, mysterious and interesting!

The lower floor, called zaguan, served as a storage place. Right now, part of the zaguan is turned into an office and a small area for painting exhibitions.

As you can see from the photo below, there's a wide balcony called azotea, typical for a 19th century Spanish-inspired houses. The structure of the house is kind of elongated, where on one side are the bedrooms and the other side is the living room and then the balcony. On one end of the house (as you ascend the wide wooden stairs from the landing), is where the bedroom of Bishop Juan Isidro de Gorordo is located. Beside it is a small chapel.

On the other end is a room where they show a prototype of the kitchen. Kitchens of a typical 19th-century Spanish houses were actually separated from the main house, for safety purposes I guess.

In below photo you can see a separate house which serves as a small souvenir shop for tourists and visitors.

A cool thing about the Casa Gorordo Museum is that you can actually hold your parties there such as weddings and other special events. When we went there, a catering service going on and tourists came at lunch time to eat and I guess have a tour around the place.

Across the house is a small resting place, with a built-in brick seating area and trees that provide cool shade. We lounged there for a good 30 minutes before going home :)


I'm not quite sure but I think they're open from Mondays thru Saturdays  at 9:00 am - 12:00 nn and at 2:00 - 5:00 pm.

So that's all for my Casa Gorordo Museum post and I hope you guys like it (even though it's so short and I didn't have much photos ^^). Okay guys I'll talk to you soon!

Karansa: Danao Festival 2009

I have mentioned before in my previous post entitled Danao Mountains that one of my closest friends lives in Danao and every so often during our college days we always hang out in their place and have “sleep-overs” and stuff. When I reminisce over the funny (and of course, happy) memories during our reunion last December 2008, I just can’t believe that it was already almost a year since we’ve last seen each other.

This year, we went back to Danao, not just for another reunion but also to be a part of Danao’s 2009 Festival. And of course, one of the highlights of any festival here in the Philippines is the street dancing In Danao, they name it “Karansa”, which means to dance, be merry, and celebrate! It’s lucky for us that our friend’s place is just by the main road so it was just easy for us to see the Karansa ;)

Nevertheless, I wasn’t able to take many good pictures as I found it very difficult, what with all the “extra” people loitering around, LOL. I managed to take a few good ones though; fortunately it wasn’t too crowded, unlike that of Sinulog ;)

Here's one contingent with a very colorful costume.


And another one with a some kind of a "seashell" theme :)



I like the costume of this group. It's like in "Ati-atihan".


Here's another colorful theme. And if you notice, they are carrying coconuts on their backs. So cute! :)


Yup, another colorful theme, lol! Wait till you see their "Festival Queen"! ;)


And right here you can see another contingent with, um yeah, a colorful costume :P


Here's a contingent with an ancient Filipino costume, adapted during the Spanish colonization.


Here's one thirsty dancer ;)


Okay! So, why don't we take a look at their "Festival Queens".
This one walked so fast! I wasn't able to take a pic of her colorful front.


This is one of my favorites. I like the peacock concept of her head dress :)

A closer look. Never mind the water tank guys, lol!


I didn't take a closer pic of this one. I wanted to emphasize her beautiful background.


Here's a unique one. A silver queen ;)



This one's so cute as well, with some hanging rice (puso) in her wagon (or as what we cebuanos call "karomata").


And here's my most favorite. I think she's the prettiest of them all :) That's why I placed her close-up pic at the beginning of the post ;)


And here are photos of one of my favorites in any street dancing - the props!






Okay, here are some blooper pics, LOL! Told ya it was difficult to take a good shot :D

This would have been picture-perfect, if it weren't for that towel-covered head! LOL!


This guy's forehead almost took up the entire photo! ROFL!


Oh well, this wouldn't be a good picture anyway coz it's kind of like off-balanced but still, the nature-spring-and-tampico-juice-bottles-with-peanuts tray ruined the whole artistry of the picture... :) Hehehe, well, can't blame it though, nor the guy bringing it :)


That's it guys! Till next Karansa!