An Intriguing Town of Lighthouses, Whirlpools, Myths and Legends

Aside from real lighthouses and whirlpools that are present in town, Liloan is a stuff of history, legends and myths. The name “Liloan” itself is an intriguing piece of folklore as it supposedly came from a story of forbidden love.

Once upon a time, there was a couple whose marriage was objected to by their parents. The lovers, defying traditions and daring the perils of the unknown, had to sail to the big sea and flee somewhere else. They came to settle in a place with abundant supply of fish. Later on, they took to fishing and bartered their “catch” in the nearby villages. When asked where they caught the fishes, they would say “sa may lilo” (in the vicinity of the lilo). It is not clear whether the couple had a “happy ever after” but the couple certainly had found a refuge to fulfill their undeniable love for each other. The couple’s refuge is now known as the town of Liloan and “sa may lilo” refers to the presence of whirlpools in Suba River.

My first exposure to the town came three years ago. Fresh from grabbing my college diploma, I went to work in an outsourcing firm based in Liloan. It was thrilling for a first job as it involved a thing I always love to do – writing. But I was intrigued why my first job had to be, of all places, in Liloan. For one, Liloan to me was just one of Cebu’s more than 50 towns with a name. Prior to my first job, I couldn’t recall an instance that my family had actually dropped by at the town. We had trips in some parts of northern Cebu, particularly in Danao and Bogo, but Liloan always came as a passing town. There was nothing extra special about Liloan. It struck to me as a drab-looking, old and sleeping town -- full of vintage memories but had nothing exciting to offer. Or so I thought three years ago.

Hunting in vain for better words to say now, Liloan is such an intriguing place with a myriad of options for the thrill-seekers. Next to my hometown Opon, there is no place else to love than this town which was built by the Spanish conquistadores in 1845. It’s funny how cosmopolitan ways had influenced my wrong notions about Liloan. See, the first reason that endeared Liloan close to my heart was because of its halo-halo (iced mixture of fruits and root crops) sold near the town plaza’s stalls. For a cheap price of 25 bucks, I have never tasted a more delicious halo-halo from anywhere.

But, of course, Liloan is not all about yummy halo-halo. The town can claim a rightful venue for all town adventures which we will little by little show why here.

-Swerver-

The Children and the Whirlpools

Suba is one of the known places in Liloan. It is the place where the first inhabitants of the town of Liloan landed, and it is the place from where the town got its name. However, I will not talk about that in this blog. We'll talk about it later. Right now, I want to share with you my experience of the place known as Suba.

Curiously, "Suba" also means river, but there is a no river there. Instead, there is a channel that is connected a bay known as the Bay of Silot. More about that in a separate blog.

I once passed through this channel at night aboard a friend's car, en route from our trip to the lighthouse in Barangay Catarman. As such, I was not able to take a close look at what the place has to offer because I was in a moving vehicle and it was night. I did, however, get to see the different Coast Guard yachts parked at the mini-harbor.

Now, these are the real treats of Suba: the whirlpools from where Liloan got its name. By whirlpools, you might be expecting something big and nasty swirling in the water but, no, they are far from that. The whirlpools of the channel are small, yet their size masks the strong vacuum and current in the water. What amazed me, however, were not the whirlpools but the children who were bathing in the waters. Children, but yet they are very good at surviving the current and the vacuum (called "suug" in the local dialect) that the waters of the channel have.

Curious, Swerver and I approached these children and asked them what they do about swimming through the vacuum. They probably didn't know what to say, so they just went and gave us a demonstration. I noticed that after hitting the water, they just let the current drift them a bit away before they started treading water. This makes sense, because people end up getting drowned if they try to fight the current. So that's the trick, I thought to myself.

Swerver then asked them how it feels when the vacuum is pulling them. One of them said, "Anad na mi ana kuya." (We're used to it.) Yet another one of them said, "Makuyawan ka." (You'll be scared.)

Another curious thing about the whirlpools is that they don't start forming until after seaward side of the bridge. Swerver and I took a look at the other side of the bridge, and it turned out that the waters there were as calm as the Pope. There must be an explanation for that, but I didn't want to think too much about it lest I ruin the experience.

At the end of the day, Swerver and I bid goodbye and thanked the kids for their support, but not without taking a few more pictures: