Narrative from the Holy Week Travellers' Homepage 

April 6, 2004 - Our first stop was the Hurom-Hurom Cold Springs in Nabas. We originally planned to stay there for a few minutes, an hour even, and take a dip in the cold springs. But, coming from a large, picturesque and well-maintained spring in Pandan, we opted to continue our road trip instead. It was not because Hurom-Hurom Cold Springs was not clean or well-maintained, it was actually a small and nice resort, but if we had already been to a great place such as the Malumpati Springs, shouldn't we go to another place that is greater? better? (Naks!) So, after taking one picture, we immediately left Hurom-Hurom Cold Springs. We also dropped off Mastah Venus somewhere at the crossing so she can take a jeepney to Caticlan and be home in Boracay by sunset (may ka-date kasi! :-P )

Next in our itinerary was the legendary 7-basin Jawili Falls in Tangkalan. We were warned by Mastah Venus the night before that since its summertime, waterfalls in Panay Island may not be such a spectacular sight as water level is too low. Because of that, we decided to forego the other waterfalls in our list except the Jawili Falls. We were intrigued with how this 7-basin waterfalls look like.

Before reaching the waterfalls, we passed by an old church, St. John Nepomucene, and decided to stop by for picture taking (What's new?!). After that, we went straight to Jawili Falls.

The waterfalls could have been a spectacular sight. Mastah Venus was right, water level was low so we were not able to see any waterfalls at all, but the basins were filled with water. The basins even, were not that inviting. The water was not clear at all and there were a lot of garbage in the water and around the area. The caretaker of this government-owned resort admitted that this area has been neglected by the government for quite sometime. Still, according to him, the place looks spectacular from July to December when there's enough water for the falls.

Our next stop was the St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Kalibo. Since we had plans of praying the Way of the Cross the next day, we tried looking for the new prayer book in the Cathedral. Sadly, there were none left except for the Akeanon version. They referred us to a store that sells religious materials, about 5- to 10-minute walk from the Cathedral. We went to the Psalm of Life store and was able to buy the new booklet of the Way of the Cross, English version.

After buying the booklet, we dropped by in a grocery store and bought some mango shake and other groceries. It was late when we got back to the Cathedral where Kuya Bong and Jelay were waiting.

We went straight to Kuya Bong's residence to put down our things and rest for awhile. By 8PM, we left the house again to eat dinner at RML Manokan. The rest of the night were spent discussing the next day's itinerary and if we should wear any bathing suits! (He! He! He!)

April 7, 2004 - We were up and running as early as 7AM. We have squeezed ourselves back in the Revo with all of our belongings as we will spent this night over at Roxas City, Capiz.  

Our first stop was the Aklan Freedom Shrine, right in front of the Caspe's residence. (Ang layo!!!)

Next, we went to Sampaguita Gardens in New Washington. Although the place was still closed, all the staff were kind enough to open up The Mansion, Precious Moments Gallery, Jojo's Giftshop and the Butterfly Farm for us. How did we do it? With our charms! ;-) We spent a great deal of time picture taking and souvenir shopping in Sampaguita Gardens. We were also able to have our souvenirs signed by Mr. Samuel J. Butcher, owner of Sampaguita Gardens and creator of Precious Moments. 

Next, we went to Tig-ayon Hill back in Kalibo where stations of the cross were placed on the hillside and culminated in a chapel made of marble atop the hill. There were shallow caves by the base of the hill but we didn't go through these ones anymore. We had bigger caves to explore in Capiz. 

The trek up Tig-ayon Hill served as our warm-up exercise as we found ourselves trekking up an even higher hill, this time, within the compounds of the Aklan Agricultural College in Banga, the Manduyog Hill. There were lifesized 14 stations of the cross winding up the hillside and a chapel and a large cross at the summit with an overview of the municipality of Banga. Here, we prayed the Way of the Cross and went ala-Tarzan when we saw the 'bagings' going down the hill.

45 minutes after, we arrived at the Kalantiaw Shrine in Batan, the seat of government of Rajah Bendahara Kalantiaw, promulgator of the famous Code of Kalantiaw. Unfortunately, we did not see a copy of the original manuscript of the code as the museum was already closed by then (Holy Wednesday na kasi!). :-(