Enzo's Travel Journals

Last week, I featured my incoming flight to Cagayan de Oro, as well as my trip to the largest city in northern Mindanao. After spending a long weekend there, I flew on Cebu Pacific onboard their Airbus A321ceo back to Manila. This review focuses on the CEO  version, not the newer NEO  version. Notes: This is a personal blog on our travel experience and is neither promoted nor endorsed by Cebu Pacific. This is a three-part series of my trip to Cagayan de Oro; this is the third part, click here for Parts 1 (incoming flight) and 2 (main trip) .

Cagayan de Oro is an urbanized city in northern Mindanao, renowned as the “City of Golden Friendship” and the “White Water Rafting Capital of the Philippines”. While being a popular destination for water activities, there are several tourist attractions that you can visit during your trip; here are some attractions that I visited during my Independence Day long weekend trip there and my first trip to Mindanao. Notes:   DISCLAIMER:  This list does NOT feature ALL possible attractions; only the ones that I actually visited are featured here. This is a three-part series of my trip to Cagayan de Oro; this is the second part, click here for Parts 1 (incoming flight) and 3 (return flight) .

Cebu Pacific is a low-cost airline that has long been featured on Enzo's Travel Journals since its inception in June 2024. Now on its 30th year of operation, it has continued to fly millions of passengers affordably from the Philippines to anywhere in the world. And this year, it flew me to Mindanao for the first time, specifically to Cagayan de Oro in the northern part of the country's second-largest airline. How does it feel flying with them again after 1.5 years ? Notes: This is a personal blog on our travel experience and is neither promoted nor endorsed by Cebu Pacific. This is a three-part series of my trip to Cagayan de Oro; this is the first part, click here for Parts 2 (main trip) and 3 (return flight) .

I'm back yet again on AirAsia for a round trip from Manila to Cebu and back. How does it feel to fly with the world's best low-cost carrier again? AirAsia is a Malaysian multinational low-cost airline with subsidiaries in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Cambodia. Founded in 1993 and commencing operations in 1996, it was purchased by Tune Group in 2001. It has been hailed by Skytrax as the world's best low-cost airline for more than a decade running since 2009. We booked our flights with this airline to Cebu, a popular destination in central Philippines. Note: This is a personal blog on our travel experience and is neither promoted nor endorsed by AirAsia.

Before I prepare things up for the new year, let me bring you to a flight down memory lane. It was 2022. COVID-19 travel restrictions were suddenly being loosened one by one. And that meant that people were having their "revenge travel". I was one of the millions of passengers who traveled again that year. But I want to share a story of how our delayed flight turned out to be not only handled properly, but a lucky one for me at the end of it. This is my experience onboard one of our domestic flights on Cebu Pacific  from Iloilo to Manila in July 2022. Notes: This is a personal blog on our travel experience and is neither promoted nor endorsed by Cebu Pacific. Exchange rates between currencies as of July 2022 were: 1 USD = 55.88 Philippine pesos Disclaimer: This blog features an old trip report which I only composed years after this site's inception in July 2024.

Last year, I featured the  Panunulúyan ( or  Panulúyan  in short)  on this blog. This is one of the cherished Filipino traditions during the Christmas season, modeled after Mexican traditions that we Filipinos adopted to the local landscape. But I observed this year a noticeable blend with the realities of our society today while keeping the spirit of hope in the Lord. For this year, I traveled a hundred kilometers south of the capital Metro Manila to  Ibaan , a small town in the province of  Batangas , for our annual holiday visit with our family and some of my friends in the province. The  Archdiocesan Shrine and Parish of St. James the Greater , a Spanish colonial-era church founded in 1832, is the main focus of this blog. Every Christmas Eve, its youth organization, the  Joseph Marello Youth (JMY) , hosts the annual nativity play before the Midnight Mass of Christmas. This was my third time watching this play after gaining interest to do so i...

Every year, pilgrims from Quiapo Church, a popular shrine at the heart of the city of Manila known for the miraculous image of the Black Nazarene ( Jesus Nazareno ), embark on a 24-kilometer walking pilgrimage trip to Antipolo, a city located on the foot of the Sierra Madre mountain range in the province of Rizal. This practice is known as Alay Lakad , a tradition rooted both in the city and the image's history. The images of Jesus Nazareno  (left) and Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage  (right) at Quiapo Church. This is one of two occasions where the "Alay Lakad" is held, the other being every Maundy Thursday and Good Friday of Holy Week. History and overview Nuestra Señora de la Paz y Buen Viaje , known as Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage in English, is a seventeenth-century image of the Blessed Virgin Mary venerated in the Roman Catholic Church. Dating back to 1626, the image is seen to be miraculous, with several instances of its mysterious disappearance (and eventua...

Continuing my Holy Week 2025 travel series is the culmination of the most sacred week in Christianity: Easter Sunday , or Easter in short. This is the day when we Christians rejoice: celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ , the central feast of Christianity. For this year, I traveled a hundred kilometers south of the capital Metro Manila to  Ibaan , a small town in the province of  Batangas , for our annual Holy Week.  The  Archdiocesan Shrine and Parish of St. James the Greater , a Spanish colonial-era church founded in 1832, is the main focus of this blog. Note:  This is a continuation of my  2025 Lenten and Holy Week Pilgrimage  from April 13 to 20, 2025 . This is the last of four parts; see these links for  Part 1 ,  Part 2 , and  Part 3 .

Perhaps Good Friday  is the most solemn and somber day of the year for Christians. On this day, we commemorate the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus Christ . In the Philippines, we have our own tradition of  Senákulo , dramatizing the events of the Passion using traditional scripts. Siete Palabras  is a three-hour service reflecting on the Seven Last Words of Jesus. Finally, the Liturgy of the Lord's Passion  starts at 3:00 p.m. In the evening some parishes conduct a procession, which culminates in the Rite of Burial. The Burial Procession on the evening of Good Friday For this year, I traveled a hundred kilometers south of the capital Metro Manila to  Ibaan , a small town in the province of  Batangas , for our annual Holy Week.  The  Archdiocesan Shrine and Parish of St. James the Greater , a Spanish colonial-era church founded in 1832, is the main focus of this blog. Note: This is a continuation of my 2025 Lenten and Holy Week Pilgrimage  fro...

Visita Iglesia  has been part of my family's tradition since 2012. Every year, during Lent and Holy Week, several pilgrims visit seven churches and recite the fourteen Stations of the Cross (two per church visited). Traditionally done following the Mass of the Lord's Supper on the evening of Maundy Thursday, it can be done on any day during Holy Week. In this blog, I'll take you to 3 churches in the province of Laguna , as well as 4 churches in Batangas . We did this Lenten pilgrimage on Holy Wednesday, April 16, 2025. This features some churches that may be familiar to you, but some might be relatively new or unknown to many. Note:  This is a continuation of my  2025 Lenten and Holy Week Pilgrimage  from April 13 to 20, 2025 . This is the last of four parts; see these links for  Part 1 ,  Part 3 , and  Part 4 .

At the beginning of Holy Week is  Palm Sunday , in which the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem is commemorated. Holy Week is one of the most important and significant events of the Church, along with Easter, which is being commemorated at the end of this sacred and solemn week. During this day, churchgoers buy palm fronds from vendors, which are blessed by priests at various parishes. The Philippines is home to a large population professing the Catholic faith. Holy Week forms part of our centuries-long devotion to the Catholic Church, with many traditions near and far. Around 78 percent of the 100-million populace are Catholics. This 2025, I visited the Manila Cathedral  in Intramuros to attend the first of four Masses that would be celebrated at the "Mother Church of the Philippines". Note:  This is part of my  2025 Lenten and Holy Week Pilgrimage  from April 13 to 20, 2025 . This is the first of four parts; see these links for   Part 2 , Part...

When you're looking for a magical and enchanting evening after shopping at SM Mall of Asia, you have a perfect choice. The Philippine International Pyromusical Competition (PIPC)  has been held there since 2010, except in 2019 (moved to SM City Clark in Pampanga) and from 2020 to 2023 (due to COVID-19 pandemic). It has been my favorite annual fireworks show ever since I first watched it in 2016. For the first time since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, and after missing out the 2019 edition in Pampanga due to its distant location from Metro Manila, I watched it this 2025, my first since 2018. Editor's note: This was updated on March 16, 2025 , to reflect the results of the competition. Overview of the competition The PIPC was initially launched in December 2005 as the  World Pyro Olympics . It was held at an esplanade boardwalk behind the then-unfinished SM Mall of Asia. After the competition's last run in 2008, it was relaunched to its current name in February 2010. T...