Parian District was one of the most important spots in Cebu during the Spanish colonial times. Most of the important commercial and cultural activities happened in this place. It also embraced most of the residences of many distinguished personalities then.

The Yap-Sandiego house is one of them. This 18th-century house was built through the efforts of Chinese merchant, Juan Yap and wife Maria Florido. The couple’s eldest of three children, Maria, married Pari-an’s Cabeza de Barangay then, Don Mariano Sandiego. Read the rest…

Busloads of day care pupils were treated to a guided tour at Crocolandia, a park that showcases rare animals, located in Biasong, Talisay Cebu on February 12, 2008.

School children, teachers and parents had a “walk-around-learning experience” inside the park. Read the rest…

by Lyra Fe Serafin
La Salle University-Ozamis Intern

The sugar glider, named after its preference for sweet foods and its ability to glide through the air like a flying squirrel, is a small nocturnal marsupial, commonly found in the forests of Australia and in the neighboring islands of Indonesia. They belong to the same order with that of kangaroos.

Its body usually measures 5-6 inches, similar to the length of its tail. An adult glider weighs 4-6 ounces. Males are larger than the females. It feeds on insects and small vertebrates, sweet sap of certain species of eucalyptus, acacia and gum trees. (www.sugarglider.com)

In the northern municipality of Liloan, an old but beautiful lighthouse stands. Called the Bagacay Point Light (named after its home, the Bagacay sub-village), it towers to a height of 72 feet in an uphill area, overlooking the Mactan Channel. A narrative by Paul Perez at the website waypoint.ph states that “it sits on an elevated 5,000-sq m government property, 22 km from the main road.”

This white and octagonal tower was built in 1904 through an executive order issued on July 28, 1903 by William Howard Taft, who came to the country in 1900 as president of the Philippine Commission and later appointed US governor general. Read the rest…

The brilliantly colored male Scarlet Tanager gleams in the sunlight but is often difficult to see in thick foliage, especially if the bird is motionless or moving slowly from branch to branch high up in the tree canopy. It is conspicuous only when perched on a dead tree limb or when feeding on the ground during a cold, rainy spell.

During late summer or early autumn, some of the males may show a patchwork plumage of red and green as they undergo a molt to olive green, except for their wings and tails, which remain black throughout the winter. (Enature.com)