After arriving back in Iloilo, we headed back home in Oton to leave our things and change before going to our next destination — the GarinFarm Pilgrimage Resort! The resort, owned by former Iloilo First District Congressman Oscar Garin Sr., is located in the town of San Joaquin, about 60kms to the south of Iloilo City.
There is little to no traffic going to San Joaquin, as this is a provincial route. One can reach the town by Ceres bus (air-conditioned buses cost PhP 68.00, non-AC ones cost PhP 58.00), found in the Molo terminal in Molo district, or by jeep (PhP 50.00) coming from the Mohon Terminal, in Brgy. Mohon, in the city’s Arevalo district. Travel time is about an hour to an hour and a half.
GarinFarm
As the name suggests, GarinFarm is a resort that showcases farm animals (goats, rabbits, chickens, ducks, you name it! However, the main attraction is not our fury or feathery friends! Near the tourist center, there is a… stairway to heaven!!! More specifically, a 480-step stairway to heaven (or, you know, a platform on top of a mountain representing heaven).
At the base of the stairway, there are various depictions of biblical events such as man’s fall at the Garden of Eden, the great deluge and Noah’s ark, the Ten Commandments, among others.
As one could imagine, going up the flight of stairs can be a daunting task, especially for the un-athletic ones. Fret not, as there are plenty of rest stops that double as a pilgrimage area (it *is* a Pilgrimage Resort after all). At each rest stop, there is a depiction of Christ’s suffering prior to his crucifixion, with the final rest stop depicting his Ascension to heaven.
Congratulations! You’ve managed to reach the top! Tourists can then enter a meditation area — a dark tunnel, illuminated only by minuscule light bulbs on the floor. At the end of the tunnel, one can reach the ultimate destination — heaven! I suppose this whole ordeal was supposed to depict one’s journey into the afterlife after death.
It’s a pretty trippy experience, in a good way — after your eyes have adjusted to the dark in the tunnel, one experiences another shock to the optic body part, what with the glare of the sun and the white paint causing an illusion of smoke and mist….. just like in heaven. Probably. Adding to the eye candy is the fact that the Hallelujah Chorus is being played on loop on speakers. Goosebumps, man.
This is a glorious (yes, I said it) photo op experience, and, despite this being my third time going to GarinFarm, it still felt so cool gazing at the surrounding sights in “heaven”. Hey I even got to high five the saints and angels.
After you’ve had your fill of heaven on Earth, there’s a door that says “Back to the real world” and honestly it’s a bummer because the real world right now is coalescing into one giant mess of hate and unrest (yes, that’s a Bring Me The Horizon reference). But despair not, as one can still get a good photo op back in the “real world”, with the mountains and the bay surrounding San Joaquin and Antique serving as backdrop.
We went back to Oton, and after dinner, I showed the Pandays the life in the city on a typical Sunday night. As I’ve said in the first part of this three-part series, Iloilo City is a nice mix of bustling urban metropolis and quaint, small town feelssss.
Atria Iloilo by Ayala is a relatively new spot in the modern hub of the city, with shops, mostly restaurants and coffee shops lined up. Cebu has been my second home for the past 3 years, and I’ve always preferred Ayala over SM, so it’s great that Iloilo has an alternative for when I come home. My suki comic book shop, Critical Hit! Comics and Games, is found here at the Atria.
Of course, when one talks of night life in Iloilo City, Smallville Complex has to come to mind, right? Bars, restaurants, KTV’s and hotels are all found here. Basically whatever nightlife stuff you get in IT Park and Mango Square in Cebu, you can find here. Okay, probably a lot less wilder than Mango, but you get the gist.
It was a fun three-day vacation and it was a privilege to have shown what the City of Love had to brag about. Shame, though, that I didn’t get to bring the Pandays to Madge (arguably Iloilo’s most popular coffee shop that dates back to the early 1900’s, even today they serve coffee the way they did in ye olden times) in La Paz market. Maybe next time.
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