In A Quiet Corner of Cebu, We Welcomed Holy Week With Salt, Sun, And Stories

Holy Week is approaching in our town, and our Holy Week traditions and typical Filipino celebration of it are already manifesting in beaches and churches. This is a special week for us that reflects the religious ideas and beliefs of Filipinos, and it is time for highways and streets to be paraded with commuters and processions. Holy Week makes our country a bit loud in spirit and doctrinal acts, as well as in familial celebrations and gatherings that best commemorate the holidays. As for us here in the north, we are already preparing and celebrating it a bit through going to beaches and processions. In this blog, I'll be sharing with you a trip we took today to a beach here in the north of Cebu, in our town of San Remigio, to best celebrate the day of no classes and unlimited free time as the holidays approach.

In our town in San Remigio, we have a place we call Punta, which I already featured on this platform. I believe I should feature it again, with its stunning and refreshing beach called Dawis, which the local folks have named after the owner of the land. Today was a vibrant and bright day for us, taking a trip and having our seaside lunch together as a family, and preparing seafoods that best complement our experience. In this blog, allow me to tour you around this very little but picturesque beach corner in Punta and be mesmerized by its beauty.

Dawis in Punta, San Remigio is not the kind that is flocked by many tourists every day nor an elegant resort or beach that captures the attention of international tourists. Instead, it is a simple beach corner, squeezed into a small land and bordered by natural rock formations, hit by rolling blue waves, and with a small accommodation in between the land and water. It is not elegant nor expensive, but its beauty is more than what an expensive resort can give.

When we arrived at Dawis, we rented a table and chairs for our food as we ate lunch. It only cost us 90 pesos or $1.5 for the whole stay, and we placed it under a big tree that carried every breeze this beach receives from the ocean. You can see in the photos how refreshing and bright the view was—the vast blue sea, the perfect symmetry of the horizon, and the gentle blow of the wind on our bodies.

We went into the water after our lunch and spent an hour or two in it under the heat of the province's sun. In this part of the beach are rock formations and fine white sand that dominates the scene. The rolling waves are not just waves, but waves that are perfect and a bit bigger. On the farthest front, I can see the Medellin and Daanbantayan towns that also carry a stretch of fine beaches and resorts. I have featured many beaches from these places on Hive, and if you want to read about some of them, feel free to scroll on my blogs.

The scene in Dawis is perfect, and the features are complementary to each other. The rock formations paired with natural grasses and plants, the clear turquoise water paired with the joyous sky, the sea bordered by islands, and the seashore filled with memories we made. We swam for a long time until what we felt was a heated and burnt sensation in our bodies, and then left the water. Tan skin and burnt bodies are some of what we acquired on this beach trip, but the memories are rich and cannot be traded for other things.

Holy Week is fast approaching, and two days from now it will officially commence. I'm excited about what's yet to come, since many of my relatives will go here to the province, the beaches will be flocked with tourists, the churches filled with worshippers, streets filled with processions, and some spots in San Remigio occupied by visitors from other towns. I wonder where we will be this holiday and where we'll spend it. Wherever I go, I promise to share it with you soon after. For now, this was the farthest I can go, and I hope you enjoyed my journey to Dawis Beach in Punta.

And maybe this is what makes moments like this quietly meaningful, when a simple place holds something more than just a view, but a memory that stays, especially as the days ahead begin to slow down and turn sacred.