Car To Carcar, Boat To Bohol, Pigs In Between
Our driver is here early and we’re off, leaving Moalboal behind feeling like it’s a little too soon to be making our way back across Cebu Island to our next destination, Carcar. As we drive away from our digs, the driver heads towards White Beach, which we know is a dead end road on a peninsula. He must know a cut through. His Google Maps satnav keeps telling him to do a U-turn, he ignores it every time. He must know a cut through. Eventually when he stops and asks directions, the guys at the roadside point back the way we’ve come.
“Oh”, he chuckles, “wrong way!”. So, it seems we’ve entrusted our trip across the island to a driver who doesn’t know the way out of his own village. You have to laugh. After that false start and a couple more heavy showers we make it to the unusually named city of Carcar.
Carcar is a 2-night stop en route to our next island, Bohol, and has attracted us because of its two very different claims to fame. One is its unique Spanish colonial architecture, obvious from the moment we walk along the main street; the other is lechon, whole roast suckling pig served in a particular way. Before we even leave our own street we are staring up at the captivating architecture. The pigs can wait.
Like Vigan back on Luzon island, Carcar has a wealth of unusual buildings which have survived since the Spanish colonial era, but these are very different from those of Vigan. They are sumptuously designed, ornately decorated and striking in their size and prominence. There is real individuality too – no two houses are the same. It’s noticeable as well that a good number of these fabulous buildings are still private houses, seemingly occupied by the families of Carcar.
Our base here is in a small family hotel built in the gardens of one of those terrific colonial houses, Casa Catalina. The family proudly tell us that this is more than just a home: ancestors of this family built the original house in 1859 and the family have owned and occupied it right up to this day – in 166 years there has never been a change of ownership. Inside the property, the courtyard garden with its beautiful flowers attracts many colourful birds, though the crowing of cockerels and the wor-kack wor-kack machine-like grating of the resident guinea fowl tend to dominate the bird noise scene, usually at a time of day when we don’t need it.
On to the second claim to fame: lechon. Boy do they love their pork in this town. Lechoneries are everywhere, in fact there’s even a specialist lechon market. Those not in favour of meat consumption would probably disapprove of the displays and the method of serving, which works like this. The complete suckling pig lays on the counter having been slow roasted and glazed; as customers arrive, the process of chopping up the meat begins from the rear end and works up towards the head. You order by the kilo (or part kilo) whether you’re eating in or taking your piggy meat home, and get handed your lumps of meat in a plastic bag. With a generous spoonful of the roasting juices tipped in.
Now for the taste. Having been slow roasted, the flesh is succulent and tender, the crackling mostly crisp and juicy, but we can only wonder at how much salt is used in preparation: lechon is unbelievably, incredibly salty, in fact our comment is that it’s more salty than sea water. We try it twice, once in the lechon market and once at Bebie’s, winners of the Cebu Lechonerie Of The Year Award in 2024, and of the two, we can see why they won it.
A half hour tuk tuk ride out of Carcar in the neighbouring town of Simala, is one of the most surprising Roman Catholic sites we’ve encountered on all of our travels, albeit that this is not an ancient site. The Monastery Of The Holy Eucharist, built only recently in 1998, is a gigantic complex more reminiscent in some ways of a temple from other divinities rather than a Catholic monastery. Its sheer size (it’s currently being extended, by the way) and the colours of the statues, the opulent interior and the rolling gardens are…….well, they’re just spellbinding.
This is a pilgrimage destination for Roman Catholics, housing as it does an image of the Virgin Mary which is said to weep tears in times of trouble, most recently in 2016. The image, originally assigned as Our Lady Of Fatima, arrived here from Pampanga on Luzon shortly before the Cebu dengue fever epidemic of 1998 began to wane, its arrival being credited with bringing an end to the outbreak. Now dedicated to “Mama Mary”, the monastery is more widely known as the Simala Shrine, one of a number around the world hosting a similarly weeping image of the Madonna.
Warning: the next paragraph contains some gender stereotyping. I make no apology.
With a trip from Carcar to the ferry point at Cebu City which can take over 2 hours in the heavy traffic, it’s imperative that we find a reliable driver to be at Casa Catalina at 7:30am. The guy we meet in town agrees to pick us up next morning but how can we rely on him…..we have our doubts. Out of nowhere his wife appears, takes over both the conversation and the price negotiation and then says something to him in local tongue, and suddenly my doubts have been dispelled. Now that there’s a woman involved, particularly a wife, I have absolute 100% confidence that he will turn up. And he does. At precisely 7:30.
He gets to the ferry point early enough for us to grab a late breakfast of hot dog and coffee, after which the Supercat catamaran ploughs its way noisily and with the smell of diesel across to the island of Bohol. As it happens we’re not actually staying on Bohol, we’re on the smaller island of Panglao at the foot of, and linked by a short road bridge to, Bohol itself.
The sun comes out. It’s hot. The sea is calling. So is the Max Cow bar with a live band and too many cocktails. Funny how some places immediately make you feel like you’re on holiday. Much black coffee needed next morning.
26 Comments
Helen Devries
What on earth do they do to the lechon to make it so salty?
Phil & Michaela
God only knows, Helen. Leave it in sea water for a week? I mean, it’s tender and tasty but so so salty.
Heyjude
That’s sound buy lots of beer!
Phil & Michaela
Quite possibly!
Heyjude
*So you (darn autocorrect strikes again.)
Phil & Michaela
😂
Lynette d'Arty-Cross
Sounds like you have had quite the visit in Carcar. The overly salty pork sounds very unpleasant to me and the view of the pig, looking like he fell asleep and someone hustled him into the oven is a little unsettling – but to each his own. Looking forward to your next installment. Cheers.
Phil & Michaela
Yep, I imagine quite a number of people would be put off by the piggy display! We had to try it though, it’s such a huge thing on Cebu.
Monkey's Tale
Oh yes, we’ve had that driver, and we’ve met that wife 😊. The monastery is quite the place. The first two pictures I thought, wow! Beautiful! Then the last few I thought, is it really tacky?
All I will say is those poor little baby pigs. Maggie
Phil & Michaela
Absolutely borderline amazing/tacky. The size hits you first, and then the mind starts to say….”really?”…. As regards the lechon, yep we figured that part of the post wouldn’t go down well with everyone…
Heyjude
Actually the sight of that little pig and the thought of the smell of a meat market almost makes me want to be vegetarian again. The architecture is interesting, but the monastery is obscene. The wealth of the Catholic Church should be spent on better things than a monstrous building.
Phil & Michaela
I can think of a lot of people who really wouldn’t want to even walk through the lechon market. The monastery is….hmmm….impressive at first and then you start to think it’s all just a bit too Disney. But as a non-religious person, who am I to judge?
restlessjo
I’d skip the market but the museum in Carcar looks rather beautiful.
Phil & Michaela
I think we know a lot of people who would skip the market, in all honesty. Carcar’s architecture is pretty special though.
ehacarr
Love the look of the Carcar museum, and had heard so much about ‘lechon’ – but was not enchanted by the market . . . the wealth of the Church was not a surprise . . . you really have done your ‘homework’ to see the varieties and complexities of this country . . .
Phil & Michaela
The market seems to be a turn off for everybody!
ehacarr
Methinks the dirty containers under the counters and, unfortunately, the happenstance of the fecund pups in a definitely non-AC area does not lead to much food ‘confidence’ . . .
Phil & Michaela
Nope…but we’ve actually seen worse in other countries (the stench of rotting raw meat in Dar Es Salaam spring immediately to mind!). Anyway, different subject. We met an Aussie lady today who is on holiday here…she kept checking her phone because her home is directly on the current path for Cyclone Alfred. And then we come indoors and I read your post on the subject. We wish you luck and safe passage through the storm. Thinking of you.
ehacarr
Thanks – all things considered I should be fine bar some rain and wind – I am 800kms S and 40km inland! It’s just our cyclones do not usually travel so far south and this time millions will be affected in houses of lesser strength!
Lookoom
The article offers a diverse mix of Spanish architecture, lechon and Catholic monastery. It’s a picture of the Philipines, a complex country full of diversity.
Phil & Michaela
It’s certainly all,of that!
Toonsarah
I see what you mean about the colonial buildings in Carcar, very different to Vigan! And that monastery is amazing 😲
Phil & Michaela
…if a bit OTT! Good to spend a couple if days in Carcar, making friends with the pigs 😂
WanderingCanadians
The Monastery Of The Holy Eucharist complex is beautiful. It’s impressive that it’s being extended given how massive it already is. I couldn’t help but laugh that your confidence level went way up once the driver’s wife got involved. Glad to hear you made it to the ferry with enough time to spare for a coffee (and a hot dog too, ha)!
Phil & Michaela
The monastery is impressive….but just borderline OTT if you know what I mean. Jury’s out, I think!
grandmisadventures
I do love all that beautiful architecture everywhere and the different details throughout the houses. But the monastery is absolutely stunning…almost overwhelming so.