The C-Spot: A Photography, Travel and Culture Journal

Dahican is a coastal area of Davao Oriental located at the southern end of the Davao peninsula. It is part of Mati, the provincial capital. It has a number of beaches known for their strong winds and big waves which are the very conditions for great water sports such as skim boarding, surf boarding and wind surfing. This is because the beach catches the wind coming from the open Philippine Sea which is also a part of the Pacific Ocean. Dahican in fact is in the world map of water sports and is a site of international skim boarding competitions. It is also one of the top surfing destinations in the country along with Siargao, La Union and Bagasbas in Camarines Norte. In Dahican, we found the Dahican boys (who have become sort of local as well as international celebrities - via the internet) doing their thing, surfing. And they treated us to an exhibition which to them was nothing more than just play. Below are some of the photos I took with my point and shoot camera. In the ev...

the waves are suitable for surf-boarding Mati is the capital town of the least known Davao, i.e. Davao Oriental (the two others are Davao del Sur and Davao del Norte). It is a town which seem to have developed much slower than many other Davao capital towns, e.g. Tagum and Digos. I have been there quite a few times the first ever was in the early 70s. And I can personally say that progress and development has indeed been slow in Mati. Save for a few new buildings, it remains pretty much what it was about three decades ago. One notable development however is that land travel to Mati from Davao has been reduced by half, i.e. from 6 hours in the 70s to about 3 at present. But road conditions remains to be a challenge. It's economy remains largely rooted in coconut and copra produce. The little rice production that they have is not even enough to give the place a self-sufficiency status. This is both good and bad. On the one hand, the people's opportunity for economic wel...

The Davao Pearl Farm was previously known as the Aguinaldo Pearl Farm. It was originally a real aquatic farm where pearls are said to be have been cultured. Not much is known about the pearl farm itself except that the original owner was one named Aguinaldo (not the Katipunan leader), and that the place produced cultured pearls in a much similar fashion as the Japanese pearl farming was done. But there is a story told to us by two of the more senior employees of the resort (one was a boatman and the other a shuttle car driver). A story that no one it seem has bothered to really do a research on, or perhaps has been dismissed as a mere rumor. But the sources of the story are both long-time employees who have stayed on or were kept on inspite of the changes in ownership. Both are at least more than two-decades old in the farm's employ. Their story tells of a man named Aguinaldo who opened the farm and took out a business license to operate a pearl cultivation farm in the ar...

Three-Days-Two-Nights at Pearl Farm. The Davao Pearl Farm is a sea side beach front resort located in an island called Samal which is just about 45-minutes motorised boat ride from Davao City. See http://www.pearlfarmbeachresort-davao.com/ppc/ . One can take a plane from Manila to Davao City and take a cab directly to the Pearl Farm jump-off point and main front office. It could take anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes (depending on the time of day and traffic situation) from the airport towards the direction of the Waterfront Hotel (formerly the Insular Hotel) to the marina where Pearl Farm Resort exclusive boats/ferries carry visitors across to Samal island with four trips (8AM, 1.30PM, 4PM and 6PM). For day-trips, one can take the 8AM ride to the island and the 4PM ride back to Davao City.

These are some of the photos taken during a visit to the Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar located in the town of Bagac, province of Bataan. Driving by car would take you there in about three hours via the connecting roads of North Luzon Expressway or NLEx and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway or SCTEx. For more information about the place, please visit http://www.lascasasfilipinas.com/