Laid back, full of sun and sand, local stories, food

The feeling of being welcomed and the local enthusiasm kept the participants alive all throughout the three-day Suroy-Suroy sa Sugbo Southern Getaway.

Aside from the provincial tourism tour guides, local tour guides, mostly students and teachers hop in the Suroy-Suroy bus as it enters town.

They would then start their spiel – stories that makes their town interesting and unforgettable.

The festive mood — set by the warm welcome of the locals, the native food, the festival dances — in every town greet the guests from town to town.

“It was great. I feel very welcome and it’s very festive. I have traveled a lot and I appreciate this kind of program because we get to know the towns and their culture better. We get to immerse in the towns. The people are very warm,” said Meetal Gandhi, a Filipino-Indian raised in the United States.

The 140 participants traveled from Cebu City last Wednesday to the southern tip of the island – Santander town. The Suroy-Suroy stopped by San Fernando, Argao and Oslob.

On the way back to Cebu City the group went to Samboan, Ginatilan, Malabuyoc, Badian, Moalboal, Ronda and then to Carcar and finally to Talisay City around 6:00 p.m. yesterday.

Tetta Baad, who first conceptualized the Suroy-Suroy sa Sugbo and chairperson of the Balik Cebu committee said the tourism program under Acting Gov. Agnes Magpale, is going back to its original objective to make tourism the catalyst for development in the outskirts of Cebu.

Once the program will be institutionalized as an ordinance, it will be protected despite the changing political administration.

“When we planned for this three-day southern getaway, we wanted to have a leisurely pace rather than the usual eat and go. We wanted the tourists to enjoy the place. The original intention of the program is to trigger the interest of the local government units to start their tourism program,” she said.

Some like Gandhi experienced wind surfing in Badian island resort in Moalboal for an hour.

The schedule was not hectic that tourists have time to leisurely shop for local bread, shoes, banana cue, and ride bicycle around the town plaza or eat dinner and lunch in a slow pace while enjoying the programs prepared by the local government units.

Esperanza Mirafuentes, the provincial tourism tour guide for the media said this is the only tourism package in Cebu where guests are received by the locals and the town officials.

“This is the type of tourism package where we can share our culture of our towns. Although most of the guests in the previous Suroy-Suroy are balikbayans, the local tourists are encouraged to experience this to get to know the towns even better,” Mirafuentes said.

Local tour guides

Aside from the provincial tourism tour guides, there were local tour guides especially the student volunteers who were very enthusiastic in telling stories to the tourists giving a local flavor in tour guiding.

“The people are not interested in statistics, they are interested in the local stories,” Baad said.Among the local tour guides that caught our attention were student tourist guide volunteers Kirsten Pijo in Barili and Rayzien Montejar in Argao who despite their age took time to research and get to know their towns better so they can share it to the tourists.

Montejar, 16 years old told the tourists said it’s her dream to become a tourist guide someday like her father that is why she went to training in their local tourism program. She was very passionate in explaining to the tourists the tourists spots and the narrating historical relevance to each of the spots.

Pijo a fourth year student said he was chosen by his teachers to be one of the tour guides.

“The local tour guides are very helpful that is why right now we are assessing and evaluating the program and launch a training for tour guides and assess the destination,” Baad said.

Last day

The guests had a sumptuous lunch in Ronda park with humba (pork stewed using slow fire) — the town’s specialty, lechon, pansit and shrimps, sweet and sour fish among others.

The Ronda dancers welcome the guests. They later went to Barili for an afternoon snack and tour at the Villa Elliton ancestral house built in 1914.

Ronda showed off their local talents and original song composition while the guests enjoy the banana snacks, buko juice and shopped for locally weaved bags and baskets.

Although it was not part of the original itinerary, the guests dropped by Carcar town to shop for Carcar-made shoes and their famous chicharon for pasalubong.

The last stop was in the city hall of Talisay City. There the guests were serenaded by Talisay City Rondalla while having lechon for dinner.