Kruhay Antique!

Saturday, February 22, 2014 - Is the scheduled day of our two-day fieldtrip in Antique, The Antique Heritage Tour. Because of too much excitement, I came to the rendezvous 30mins early. Ha! :D

At around 7:30 in the morning, we hit the road for Antique and our first stop was Anini-y where the Sira-an Hotspring is located. A staff told us the story behind why the place was named Anini-y. Anini-y may have come from the word anini - meaning small rivers but there is a romantic version, a local legend. I may have enjoyed the story if only I understood Karay-a. :(

After discovering Sinara-an Hotspring, we went to San Juan Nepomuceno Parish Church. The church was built in 1879, it is the only preserved colonial church left in Antique. It survived the massive Lady Caycay earthquake that hit Panay in 1948 which destroyed many churches.

The interiors of this beautiful white coral stone church were left unfinished because of the Philippine revolution that broke out in Antique. (Kinberly Francia, ourist among Tourists Tours)
Anini-y church is a Philippine National Treasure.

Along the highway, on our way to the buri weavers, is this beautiful ocean.

Still along the highway is one of Antique's local cemetery which welcomes the visitors of the dead with the phrase: "Kami karon - kamo dason" which means "It's our turn now, it's yours later". Eerie eh?

This is Jasper, he was the one who first tried to weave buri in our group. :)

Aside from bayi-bayi, this is one of the Panay delicacies that I liked the most. This is called Pekeng. It is made up of grated and sun-dried casava with muscovado sugar. It's just sad because I realized I should have taken a photograph before consuming it. Haha! :D

Next we went to visit some of the local weavers of Patadyong. During this visit, I felt that my energy is running out because I wasn't really enjoying what was happening around me. :( All I was thinking about was "When are we going to rest?"

Here are my Hum1 classmates having fun weaving. :) I wasn't able to interact with the local weavers and I really regret it.

Then, we went to have our snacks by the river. It was very relaxing.

After the river with the awesome sunset experience, I got to try the fish spa. I was really scared at first but when I got the hang of it, yeah. It felt so good! :)

I thought the day was already over but then, we still had our last stop before dinner and that is the OKM (Original Kinaray-a Music) concert where we were warmly welcomed. Dante Beriong, the father of OKM and a total performer, I must add, sang to his audience with much enthusiasm.

Well, we ended the day at around 11pm. I was so exhausted and really eager to sleep since we'll be starting the day tomorrow early. :)

 Day 2 - First activity: Lambaklad fishing. I never thought that I would enjoy the activity that much. :)

It's my first time to hold a live squid! OMG! :D :D

After fishing, we made pots. And there I discovered that what we did in class was not the same with the process that they follow in the pottery. Haha! And I thought I was doing the right thing.

 We had a sumptuous lunch where we ate the fish that we caught. Isn't it amazing? :)

After lunch, we were taught on how to make two of the delicacies in Antique which are the butong-butong and bandi. Well, butong-butong is called as such because it is made by pulling the muscovado sugar concentrate.

This is butong-butong right after it is cooked. It is placed on the banana trunk.

Then, when it is cold enough to be held, it is pulled and pulled until it becomes white then it is molded into whatever figure you like. Usually, the figures are birds and flowers. :)

So that ends my Antique Heritage Tour. Though the place does not have many sights to see, I salute the people who let us experience Antique. :)