Back to Bohol

In light of the Sandugo Festival, a major event held in Bohol every year, the organizers of the said event have created the ‘Creative Industries Trade Fair’ for the very first time-a venue to showcase the beauty and the craftsmanship of each towns of Bohol. My good friend, Bianca, was assigned to design one of the booths. Bianca have invited Marty, also our good friend, and I to help her out with the design of the booth. They flew from Manila, while I took a ferry from Cebu.

This is going to be exciting, I thought to myself while on the ferry to Cebu. It was like being in highschool all over again. In our highschool, cheering competitions are big events so we really plan ahead and designate tasks. Most of the time Bianca and Marty are assigned to handle the design of the bleachers while I’m in-charge to lead our batchmates during cheering practices.

When we attended the first meeting along with the organizers and other ‘artists’, we felt so intimidated as most of them have concrete concepts already and have actually blueprinted their designs, while Bianca, Marty and I were still trying to grasp what the event was really for. Bianca and I kept glancing at each other, asking what we were doing here. And to add to that, we were the only ones in the group who didn’t grow up in Bohol--let alone speak the dialect fluently. There was this meeting once when Marty and I had to represent in behalf of Bianca because she had to do some errands for the resort. First few minutes of the meeting, we understood a word or two since most of them tried to speak in ‘taglish’ but they probably got tired of it and spoke in bisaya. We sat there, smiling and trying to look like we get what they mean. It was hilarious. I was actually nodding most times especially when they looked at me, though I don’t really understand half of what they’re trying to say. Hahaha!

Bianca was assigned to design the booth for Cluster 3. Cluster 3 is composed of 6 towns situated along the Abatan River.We spent the first week going around the towns assigned to us, gathered information we needed and took photos of tourist spots of each towns. We need to highlight each town in our booth, so we needed a lot of information. Thankfully, Bianca and her family had the right connections. We were able to get information from the government officials of some towns that definitely made our research easier. Marty and I felt like we toured around Bohol and took a different route, not the touristy route. It was another great experience for me as I came to know more about Bohol.













The next few days, we spent afternoons frequenting hardware shops buying the materials we needed. And we’d burn hours and hours of sleepless nights working on each of our projects.

You wouldn't believe how fast 'team antiquera' was able to put up our booth.
Finished Product!






Cluster 1- this one is nice too, I liked the underwater theme.
This one is pretty cool, the artist had a diorama of the hanging bridge found in Loboc River.

Marty kept telling us confidently that we’d have the best booth and true to his words, we did have the best booth and the only ones who finished just before the deadline. Our greatest gratitude to the ‘Team Antiquera’, who helped put up our booth. They were the same team who helped build Amarela Resort, so we were rest assured that we’d have a very competent and efficient team. Also, to Bianca’s Dad, Uncle and Auntie who helped us in each way possible. I remembered Tito Doy telling Bianca not to get too stressed as she has a very strong support system- her family and friends are with her to help. And that’s absolutely true, we breezed through the whole project. One day we were brainstorming and the next thing we know it’s all over and done with.

Congratulations to our team! Job well done guys!



Of course, we couldn’t leave Bohol without enjoying the beach of Bohol, especially for Marty who has never been to Bohol. Bianca gave us a treat, a trip to Balicasag Beach for a bit of snorkelling and to the enigmatic Virgin Beach. I’m sure Marty’s happy now since he got the tan he’s been wanting since the day he arrived. We also got to spend time with our other friends, Mila, Bags and Kaye. To cap our 2 weeks stay in Bohol, we celebrated Bianca’s 25th birthday. Marty and I bought Bianca’s favourite chocolate roll from Goldilocks and ate it for lunch on her birthday. At night, Bianca had a simple dinner for her family, friends and staff of Amarela.















The time I’ve spent in Bohol for the 5th time now for me, was again worth while. Thanks Bianx for the nth time!

Til Then,

The Lost Sputnik.