Cadiz to Manapla to Silay

Last leg of my "Northern Negros tour"! I was running out of time, but not worried. In fact, I liked some unexpected sights and situations encountered. Well, I always say, there'll always be something worth noting to be added to my knowledge about this country, or just about life in general! Oh ha, profound!

So, after the Cadiz Church, my 'special trip' tricycle brought me to the Ceres Bus Terminal, and what a "lucky strike", I caught the last 'ordinary bus' going south, that passes by the town center of Manapla!

Is that an issue? Not really. The conductor himself told me, if I can't catch a bus from inside Manapla, I could take a tricycle ride to the "Welcome Rotunda" near Northland Resort, which is about 3kms out. Less convenient but doable. He added I could also ride the VHires - not a good option for sightseeing!

Somewhere outside Cadiz, in a sugarcane field, I saw an elevated ground with trees and a big house.

The bus was speeding, so I can't definitely say if it's a big old wooden house. I think many parts of it is concrete. But from the general look, I think it's old or very old. Probably the home of an "haciendero" of the past (or present). It gets me curious 'how it is living away from the general populace'. Isn't it eerie?

What if they suddenly discovered walang sabon, walang asin, and so on? Ah, for the present world, no problem, just hop on the vintage or sports car, then zoom to the nearest open store. How about in the early years? "Manuel, ihanda ang caruaje, maglalakbay tayo sa bayan, wala na palang vetsin"! Ganun?

For all we know (and as if we care anyway hehe), situations like those may have caused the business concepts of "wholesale" and "retail", di ba? Or, they may have been the inspiration for inventions such as the "cabinet" and/or the "refrigerator"! Langgam principle ba - save (hoard) today, for the rainy days!

Nakaka-aliw mag-imagine hehehe! O, eto pa...

What if you lived in that house and you were visited by an aswang? Tumili ka man on top of your lungs nobody would hear you. Walang sasaklolo sa iyo! What a precarious situation to be in! Unless nalang, ikaw na mismo ang aswang! Hey, now I am curious, ang aswang ba inaaswang din ng ibang aswang?

Paano sila nag-aaswangan? Magsitigil ka Mariano Jr., I'm sure, ibang aswangan ang nasa isip mo!

A bit seriously now, how about the safety and security of living in such big old houses in the middle of nowhere? Paano kung me robbery o holdup na magaganap? Well, the rich (even just the famous) have security guards nowadays, right? Sometimes they have whole armies of men and women. Sometimes too, guards are "bantay-salakay" di ba? Ah in the past, guards would have been some of the alipin 'no?

By the way, just when I was thinking 'what if there's a medical emergency in that big old house with no neighbors", the bus passed by Cadiz District Hospital heheh! So okay sila today. In the past, aba ewan!

Haay hehe, sometimes it's nice to be poor. We get creative imagining those things about the rich, 'no?!

Then the solar farms came into view. That was a signal for me that we have arrived at Manapla. Yey!

They were of course clearer on my way to Sagay, as it was on a bright mid-morning. But, they still look amazing to me. It somehow feels like traversing the middle of a lake (not of water but glossy mirrors)!

I wonder if those solar companies and/or the local governments that host them considered using the underside of those panels for agricultural crops or anything like that. Aba, lupa pa rin yan di ba? Than just leaving them bare like that, and worry about grass overgrowth, that soil/earth must be useful too.

When the bus was entering the Manapla town proper, I saw this rather profound, poetic, oath...

I smiled at how inspirational it has been worded, yet I frowned at that oath's potential to affect people.

It says:
"I Promise to begin NOW!
To REDUCE what I use,
To REUSE what I have,
To RECYCLE what I can,
and REFUSE what is harmful.
I will do my part to care for MOTHER EARTH".
And at the bottom it says: Municipal Solid Waste Mangement Board.

Okay na sana, di ba? In fact, I really like what it says, and that is the reason why I had to painstakingly transpose it here. Inspiring kumbaga. But look at the surroundings of that board, nagkalat ang basura.

Therefore, the inspiring message is useless. Hindi tumatagos sa puso ng mamamayan nila. Kung ako, I will write: "*utang ina, sige magtapon ka pa! Pag-nahuli ka namin, walang multa pero ikaw at buong pamilya mo ang maglilinis dito". Then install a CCTV. Whoever gets caught, totohanang paglinisin ang buong pamilya nya, with video/media coverage while everyone watches. I-post na rin sa social media!

Ganun! Ewan na lang kung me magtapon pa ng basura dyan hahaha!

Anyway, the bus entered and circled around town, and I saw the Sydney Opera House hehehe...

Eh bakit, maganda naman di ba? Walang basagan ng trip! That is St. Roch Parish Church of Manapla, Negros Occidental. I just shot my pics from the bus, as we passed. I did not anymore get off to visit it.

It was getting late, and I was running out of daylight time. It even looked already closed anyway...

Bus conductor asked if I wanted to get off here, I sad "no". He knew my next target was the municipal hall since I told him earlier. This probably prompted him to suggest, that if that was all I wanted to do (meaning take pictures even from a moving bus), I should not anymore get off his bus, as this was the last trip from downtown Manapla to Silay, and that, we were passing by the municipal hall too anyway.

Excellent advice! True enough, after the church we made several left turns, when we turned right, this:

"Balay Sang Banwa" or Municipal Hall (of Manapla, Negros Occidental)! I must say that is unique. We don't see Manapla in the building's facade! In fact I can't recall if I've seen any other municipal building that doesn't bear the town's name. Maybe because Balay Sang Banwa Sang Manapla seems too long!

By the way, "balay" (the "ay" is pronounced like "ai"; in the speed/accent like when you say "lanai") is a homogeneously Visayan word that may mean a 'house', 'dwelling', 'edifice', 'building', and the likes. Its meaning and pronunciation is the same whether it be in Ilonggo(Hiligaynon), Cebano or Waray-waray.

"Sang" is purely Ilonggo(Hiligaynon) that means the preposition "of". Its Tagalog equivalent is "ng". In Cebuano it is "sa", and in Waray-waray it is "ha", "han", "sa" or "san", depending on the geographic area.

"Banwa" means town or community, which is more of just Ilonggo(Hiligaynon), though the same word and meaning is also used in deeper (older), profound Cebuano and Waray such as in songs or poems. "Town" in daily Cebuano is "lungsod" or "bungto" in Waray. And in daily Waray "banwa" means "grass"!

Note too, that all three Visayan languages use "banwa" to mean "homeland" or "motherland"!

Oh btw, there are two big old wooden houses (not seen, to the right of photo above). They're within the munisipyo compound. I wasn't able to take a picture, and I wonder what they were before and/or now.

To the left is the corner of that street (B Gallo) with E Locsin St., and the exit way out of downtown.

So, out of Manapla I went.., it was getting dark and useless for my phone camera to take pictures of...

But as if in a "last hurrah", I was still able to catch this last photo as I savored the lovely sunset...

And back in Silay I was, to spend the night and be ready for my flight out of Negros, early the following day. Where'd I spend my overnight stay? Definitely not Baldevia Mansion anymore! Somewhere better!

But let that be my next story.

Itutuloy... Abangan...!

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