It was my last day in the Province of Capiz. After visiting Kalikasan Falls in Camp Peralta at the break of dawn, the group has now broken company—each one going off to his own destination. Me, I was gonna go back to Kalibo in the province of Aklan, where my flight back to Manila was.

En route, I passed through the sleepy town of Mambusao.

While waiting at a shed across the Mambusao town plaza for the bus, I spied upon a curious-looking church some meters from where I was standing, the St. Catherine of Alexandria Church.

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I’ve seen quite a lot of Catholic churches in the Philippines during my stint as a traveler but I’ve never seen anything quite like Mambusao Church. It’s façade is definitely unique with its spidery curving upper portion. It sort of reminds me of a Tim Burton movie setting.

Still dazed from a night of beerless talk at one of the dugouts of Camp Peralta, we gingerly descended a hand-strewn path towards Kalikasan Falls. Our group holed up at the town of Jamindan in the province of Capiz. It was the first time I spent a night at a military camp and we were unsure if beers were allowed.

The morning shone bright as we boarded a military truck towards one of the five waterfalls that has been discovered inside Camp Macario Peralta. Military camps are not usually jotted down into itineraries by travelers, but this 33,310-hectare camp in Capiz is actually planning to open their gates to eco-tourism.

►ALSO STAYED HERE: MBLT-6 CAMP SULU

Stalactites creep down from the darkened ceiling of Lahab Cave in Dumalag, Capiz like frozen slimy alien tentacles. Our local guide, perched above a crevice overlooking the entrance of the cave looked down, probably checking the trail we were about to endure on our way into the bowels of the Earth.

I looked down to the supposed trail and said to myself, what trail?

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Our fourth day in Capiz didn’t start so strange.

After a pleasant overnight stay at Maribert Inland Resort, we immediately boarded our van and headed to the nearby town of Dumalag—our itinerary for the whole day, nothing but cave exploration.

My first experience spelunking was at Norzagaray’s Pinagrealan Cave. It was a fairly easy cave to conquer but I know my limits when it comes to physically demanding activities. So I can’t help but feel a bit of trepidation as we alighted at the gates of Suhot Cave and Natural Spring Resort.

Cheap hotdogs. Pork barbecues. Chicken heads. Betamax. Isaws. Adidas. Everything covered?

Not by a long shot.

After spending the whole afternoon hopping across gigantic boulders to and from President Roxas’ Liktinon Falls, the gang decided that we should reward ourselves with a little bit of street food before retiring for the night at the Maribert Inland Resort.

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Everyone was familiar with the skewered street fares along the dusky streets of President Roxas. The whole sticky shebang were stuck upright on a banana trunk, as is the case with barbecue stands in the provinces. The familiar smell of roasting meat called to us like music from the pied piper.

Like every traveler worth his backpacking salt, we asked for something different. Something local.

At long last we heard the gush of rushing waters.

We were told that President Roxas’ Liktinon Falls was a mere fifteen minutes away from the Barangay Bayuyan jump-off point. Knees shaking, out of breath and ready to collapse, it took a good hour and a half before we reached one of the hidden waterfalls of Capiz.

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It was the third day of our Capiz trip courtesy of the Roxas City Tourism Office. After munching on local kakanins at the Pontevedra Market, the group headed to the town of President Roxas to chase waterfalls. The jump-off trail looked quite easy and relaxed.

But looks can indeed be deceiving.

I’m not a big fan of crabs when it comes to seafood, preferring the much easier to eat shrimps and squids. It’s just so cumbersome to eat that I usually get tired digging for meat even before the meal ends. But it’s a different story when in Capiz, where super-sized mud crabs abound at the Pontevedra Market. With its size, I’m pretty sure its claws would be more than enough for my whole meal.

It was a fine sunny day, our third one in the province of Capiz, as we alighted from the van provided by the provincial tourism office. We dropped by the Pontevedra Market to check out the big-ass mud crabs that are regularly sold there by locals.

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It’s almost ten in the evening and the dragons inside my stomach were scorching fire.

I was up before the sun rose at the Roxas City Cathedral, was shooting the colors of the Sinadya sa Halaran before a proper breakfast, was walking along the crunchy Baybay Beach come lunchtime, was climbing the biggest bell in Asia as the afternoon wore on, and was rolling with the devotees of the Prosesyon sa Suba as evening overtook the land.

It was one heck of a day and I was terribly hungry.

But we didn’t go straight to dinner. A quick trip to the People’s Park Plaza near Baybay Beach to witness Roxas City’s dancing fountain came first. It looked nice with kids playfully zipping through the waters.

But I was really really hungry now.

►SIMILAR: VIGAN DANCING FOUNTAIN

The crowd moved like the ocean, waves upon waves of people swept by the fervor of moving the image of the Virgin back to the Roxas City Cathedral. It was sweltering hot but I swayed slowly along with the Capiznons—from the historic Roxas Bridge, where the statue of the Immaculate Conception rose, around the now barely seen rotunda fountain, and all the way to the city’s old graceful cathedral.

It was almost evening as we alighted from our van back at Roxas City, our group has just visited the nearby town of Panay to see the largest Catholic bell in Asia. We arrived to a city filled with people. The roads have been closed and swarms of people were milling about the town hall area in anticipation of the fluvial procession that would cap this year’s Sinadya sa Halaran festival.

The day started early at the Roxas City Cathedral, shooting the church with the sun rising in the background. Capiz’s grand festival, the Sinadya sa Halaran soon followed with drumbeats and dancing. Then a breather at Bitoy’s Balay Barbekyuhan near Baybay Beach. And finally a visit at the record-breaking bell of Panay Church.

The group needed another breather. And thankfully there’s San Antonio Resort to the rescue.

San Antonio Resort at Roxas is one of the premier resorts in the city. Located a few minutes from the town center, the seven-hectare relaxation paradise houses a total of fifty rooms and suites, a swimming pool, a boating lagoon, bowling lanes, and four restaurants and bars.

►CHECK DISCOUNTED ROOM RATES & AVAILABILITY

Roxas City is touted as the Seafood Capital of the Philippines. Being a Manila guy, my own personal seafood capital though is at any branch of Aling Tonya’s Dampa—I guess I have to forget about that while in the province of Capiz. But aside from the bountiful seafood harvest from the waters around Roxas City, this place still has another dish up its sleeve, Bitoy’s pork barbecue.

The day was turning into a scorcher as the festivities of Roxas City’s Sinadya sa Halaran came to an end. The sky was emblazoned in deep blues with wisps of slow moving clouds as our van navigated the streets of the city en route to Bitoy’s.

Located at the city’s coastal area, it was the perfect place to have lunch while enjoying the view of the nearby beach.

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Colorful scarves painted in blooming flowers sailed through the scorching air of Capiz Province as contingents of the annual Sinadya sa Halaran showed their flair to the throngs of Capiznons eagerly watching the festivities. Gals dressed in traditional Filipiniana and guys garbed in barongs marched and danced at the avenues of Roxas City, totally unmindful of the sweltering heat of the midmorning sun.

I was taking photographs inside the Roxas City Cathedral when drum beats boomed and horns suddenly blared from bands accompanying the Sinadya sa Halaran Festival. I immediately went out, swam through the gathering crowd and looked for a good vantage for the festival.

I was supposed to eat breakfast first and join my companions, but all plans were thrown out the window as the contingents of the Capiz Festival started to mobilize.

I gazed up at the still dark sky as I hailed a tricycle on the deserted streets of Roxas City. It was my second day in the province of Capiz and after having a cup of coffee at Lawaan Garden Inn, I immediately checked my map for my first itinerary of the day, the Roxas Cathedral.

It was the day of Sinadya sa Halaran Festival and the plaza around the Cathedral in Roxas City was already busy with vendors setting up their wares for the upcoming festivities. A few early risers were also on their way to the church, wanting to hear mass before throngs of faithful flood the church.

Hefting a huge travel-worn backpack, I finally alighted in front of Lawaan Garden Inn Hotel after hours of traveling by air and land. It didn’t help that the tricycle drivers at Roxas City’s bus terminal were sketchy about the location of the hotel. But everything soon melted into the back of my head as I entered the inn’s stylish lobby and was promptly greeted by their beautiful receptionist.

Some months back, the tourism office of Capiz invited me and a couple of travel bloggers to check the sights at Roxas City and the rest of Capiz province. It was a travel-heavy month, swinging from the island province of Catanduanes to Negros Oriental, all the way up to Singapore. All that traveling wore me down to the bones, but I just can’t say no to Capiz.