So I was already in Pilar, now what?! I had to roam the island of course!
I was actually unsure on how to tackle this town, which is also the whole island called Ponson. Yup, that’s part of Camotes Islands. But as I said on the
last paragraph in this previous story, my conversations with the boat captain and the man to his right and the woman to his left proved helpful! Molong, the man beside the captain already alerted his folks via txt msgs that I was around and may be wanting a ride. He told me during that boat ride he has a brother who has a boat that can take me on a round-the-island tour for P200. I thought that was cheap. He also has a cousin who is a habal-habal driver that can tour me around on dry land!
True enough, I was just even at that “watch tower” and there was already a habal-habal driver who asked if I needed a ride around the island! I initially said no as I wanted to walk around. But when I got to the municipal hall, he was still there as if stalking me hehe. So, rates agreed (P400 seem expensive to me), he became officially my driver but I told him to wait by the roadside as I go see the munisipyo and the church!
The municipal building is not that big nor grand. Probably just enough for a little island town with 13 barangays. Aw c’mon… I think the Mactan Barangay Hall looks even more imposing! this one looks like the front building of an elementary school. But clean and well-maintained everywhere. Trees and flowering plants surround this edifice that it’s a bit hard to take a photo of the whole facade. But am not complaining hehe. I think that is why this place has a cool breeze even at midmorning!
Oh, there’s some kinda’ caged fountain at the street intersection going to the multi-purpose hall, the tennis courts and the church. I wonder why it is so amidst the scorching heat of everything concrete. Maybe during the afternoons children come to play by this fountain and somebody at the munisipyo does not like it hehehe. Maybe teens are vandalizing it. Or maybe some other folks are throwing things unto the fountain. I could only guess, but the “cage” seem so weirdly trying to hide that fountain from everyone. I wonder!
The church? Ah well, ah… it looks like made yesterday, and squat and ugly, if you’re looking from the outside. I liked it though that during my visit there was only a bicycle and a cat “parked at the main entrance. But when inside the church, it is actually wide, airy and bright! Modernistic yes, with slab tiles every inch of the floor, but it is cool in there even at midmorning. Probably thanks also to the trees that surround it. I can still say, this is NOT the ugliest of churches in the province of Cebu! I swear hehe!
Alrightie? That was my initial glimpse of this little island-town and I told myself “I think I’m going to like this place”. I was never wrong! I hope (in vain, of course) the island would retain its rurality. But we all know, everything in Cebu is becoming a city fast, right? At least I still caught this town so serenely quiet even on a Friday midmorning! We all know, next month next year or next decade, it won’t anymore be so!
Let us go elsewhere Pilar, shall we?! In my next story, k?
To read the chronology of stories on this Pilar Camotes trip, click the following numbers:
01 02 03 04 05 06
ISSN 2515141.25-0930
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