Cruise tourists visit historic towns of Capul, Limasawa

LIMASAWA, Southern Leyte, May 10  -- The two-day trip to historic island towns in Eastern Visayas was a fascinating experience.

Swiss couple Sylvia and Thomas Fricker described their experience as astonishing and Filipino people they met are nice. “You have a beautiful island and I love it because its green and every island is stunning,” they said.

The couple were among the more or less 100 foreign tourists from United States, Switzerland, Italy, Ukraine, Crotia, and Australia onboard cruise ship Silversea Discoverer who visited the towns of Capul, Northern Samar and Limasawa, Southern Leyte on Tuesday and Wednesday to experience on-shore expedition in the two islands.

“Each island has own identities. You go one island which is very green because there’s a lot of tree then on the other island it’s less green but the corals are beautiful and good for snorkeling,” the couple added.

They shared that the Filipino food is one of the most delicious foods they have ever had in their travels.

Ukrainian national Irina, who joined the cruise with her husband and friends, said the food prepared for them are very tasty and mouth-watering. Her personal favorite was the puso ng saging (banana blossom) steak and water melon salad.

Italian Amedeo Grementerri, who was with his brother and parents on the cruise, also described the places they visited as beautiful and wish to come back to see other sites of the country.

“There are a lot of places to see and I really like this country,” he said.

Grementerri and his brother also tried playing patintero and palosebo traditional games of Filipino children.

They also danced “curacha” and “tinikling” traditional dances from Eastern Visayas while their parents had a henna tattoo similar to ancient tattoo design of Pintado people.

Before leaving Limasawa, the tourists distributed school supplies to about 100 schoolchildren.

On their two-day tour in Eastern Visayas, where they first visited the island town of Capul, the tourists experienced riding the habal-habal (extended single motorcycle), visited the Capul lighthouse or Faro de Isla Capul, one of the remaining operational lighthouse built during the Spanish era.

They also visited the centuries-old Capul Church which is dedicated to St. Ignatius Loyola, built in 1781 and serve as fortress for the residents against raiding Moro.

They also toured the Acapulco beach, located in San Luis village where they witness the local traditions of Capul and their local cuisine.

Capul town is the only place in Eastern Visayas whose residents do not use Winaray or Bisaya as official language but uses Inabaknon, a language that is not classified as part of the Visayan language family, but is rather grouped with the Sama–Bajaw languages.

Capul is rich in history because it is where galleon traders made stop-over after sailing from Mexico before reaching Manila. Remains that will remind tourist of its rich history can still be found and well preserved by locals.

In Limasawa town, tourists visited the Magellan’s Cross erected 450 steps on the top of the mountain, the Magellan Shrine and the long house, a replica of a traditional Limasawa house where they had tattoo session and had their name written in a bamboo bricks using baybayin, the ancient Filipino writing system.

The tourist also enjoyed watching performances featuring the history of Limasawa and traditional dances in Eastern Visayas, which they tried after the performances of dance troupe SamLeYaw.

Silversea Discovery is the third cruise ship that visited the historical island towns after the Department of Tourism included the island in the list of cruise tourism destinations in the country.

Limasawa Island, the smallest town in Southern Leyte province, is believed to be the site of the first Catholic mass in the Asia officiated on Easter Sunday on March 31, 1521 by Father Pedro de Valderrama under the fleet of Ferdinand Magellan. (RTA/PNA)