Our constant tardiness during day 2 warranted a warning from our tour leader--we can not be late today or we will miss the return ferry and will have to spend the night in Iloilo.
At 6:45am we left the hotel for the boat terminal where we caught the 7:30am Sea Angel to Iloilo. The smooth and scenic ride took about an hour. We were met by our guide, Rosmarie Bello.
After
stopping to load up on bottled
water we were on our way north of Iloilo to the first destination--Santa
Barbara. The church has a lovely interior court and large
convento, it is also where General Martin Delgado launched the 1898 Visayan
Revolution. From the church we swung by the Golf &
Country Club, started in 1907 by 10 Britons and Americans, it is the
oldest in the country.
Final
stop in Santa Barbara was WUTHLE (Women
United Through Handcrafted Lace & Embroidery).
Most members were already familiar with this organization, headed by Belgian
nuns who teach women (many are relatives of the local 
leprosarium
patients) embroidery and bobbin lace making. We watched the women at work, took
photos, and then did a considerable amount of shopping. Here we found a
beautiful piece that was to be part of our gift for Sony, a thank you for all
her effort and patience. I left with a few items for gifts (easy to pack) and
for myself a panda I just couldn't leave.
We headed back towards Iloilo, to Villa Beach, where we
had a delicious seafood buffet lunch at Breakthrough. Next was shopping at the Sinamay Dealer,
in Mrs Cecilia Villanueva's century-old house, for reasonably priced products of
piña, jusi (silk), sinamay (blend of soft hemp and silk) and other fabrics.
We then traveled south of Iloilo, to Miagao. The fortress
church of St Thomas of Villanova (b.
1786-1797) is on UNESCO's World Heritage List. The unique sandstone
façade is a 
Philippinized scene of St Christopher with the Christ child on his
shoulders surrounded by tropical foliage. I have heard two different
explanations: one says he is planting a coconut tree; the other says that though
St Christopher was said to be physically one of the strongest saints, he had to
lean on the coconut tree to support the Christ child. Our attention was drawn to
the other images as Consuelo Steley pointed
out that to the left of the entrance is the king of Spain below the crest of
Castilla Leon, and to the right is the Pope under the crest of the Papacy.
Most of us were too busy admiring the church and did not realize that Sony had gone ahead to secure our boarding passes for the ferry back to Bacolod. We boarded the bus, and took a vote on what to do with the remaining time (museum or showroom). Being Museum Volunteers, priority was given to the Museo Iloilo. The museum houses a well-labeled collection of interesting artifacts, fossils, pottery, fabrics, santos, and religious articles. It also exhibits recent works of local artists. Having gone through the museum in 10 minutes, we had 15 minutes to spare for the showroom. Sony had called me and said to make sure that we were at the ferry terminal at quarter to 5:00 (10 to 5:00 at THE latest). We barely made it; had she not gone ahead we probably wouldn't have made it (then again had she not gone ahead we would not have had time for the showroom, but wanting to please everyone she figured it safest to acquire our passes earlier).
Dinner that evening was on our own. A number of us went to Pala-pala--you
buy fresh seafood from the market then have it cooked at any of the neighboring
restaurants. It was extremely hot but it's hard to beat freshly cooked fresh
seafood (inexpensive too--it's just that we over-bought: kilos of Lapu-Lapu,
maya-maya, gindara, blue marlin, prawns, squid, large crabs, scallops, and a
lobster-like shellfish; and could have fed at least 8 more people with the
leftovers). I also learnt a bit of Bacolod trivia: the local version of tinola
is what we consider to be sinigang.
The final day was spent south of Bacolod. Our guide, Ellen
Marie, was from the Government of Negros Tourism Office. First stop
was Hacienda Guadalupe, the plantation of
the Infante family. We were given a tour of
the ancestral home, built in 1929 by the patriarch Don Teodulfo. His son, a
chemical engineer who runs the estate, graciously showed us around rooms full of
impressive pieces. We were also treated to a tasty merienda of local
delicacies and introduced to two of his fighting cocks.
Next was the Central Azucarera de La
Carlota, where the cane from Sony's farm is milled. After
a quick tour of the facilities, we moved on to Sitio Kanman-og to see the
ruins of one of the country's first
mills.
From here we went to the Guintubdan
Visitors Center, on the slopes of Mt Canlaon. At 2,800 ft
above sea-level it was refreshingly cool, a welcome contrast to the heat of
previous days. A number of us followed the 180 steps down to the very 
pretty
waterfall, then struggled our way back up (some of the steps were about 2 feet
high) to lunch. After the leisurely meal we headed back to Bacolod (and hoped
that the bus would make it!). Before getting to the hotel, we stopped at Mrs.
Ledesma's workshop, saw some of the people working on various shell
crafts, and were treated to a viewing of her latest work in progress--another
impressive shell mural for a chapel in Valladolid.
We got back to the hotel with enough time to shower, finish packing or repacking, and settle our bills. At about 5:45pm we went to the airport, checked in luggage and obtained boarding passes, then proceeded to Carlo Ristaurante for a tasty Italian dinner. During dinner Ursula Illner presented Sony with part 1 of our thank you gift (a coffee table book, and a certificate for a much-needed and well-deserved massage followed in Manila). By 7:15pm we were all back at the airport and waiting to board the flight back to Manila.