bacolod, masskara, inasal, atbp. part 02

october 20. we left the executive almost lunch time. we were so tired from last night's events in lacson. we had a hearty meat at tf, which stand for food trip. ricky ordered beef teriyaki, sizzling squid for james, and pork teriyaki for me. tf is located right next to the bacolod executive inn. their food is satisfactory, but they're surely hot and affordable.
 

after lunch, we went to lacson to find a laundry place where we can drop off all of our dirty clothes. we had a hard time looking for one since it would be the closing of the masskara festival the following day and most establishments would be closed. we were lucky that we found a laundry place along lacson street corner ramos street. we headed right away to the plaza to witness the masskara competition, barangay category.

there were only few spectators when we arrived in the plaza. ricky saw ann, his inspector friend, who later helped us to get a good spot in a restricted area for a better view of the competition. the view was far better than yesterday, where i could hardly see a thing. i shot some videos and took some pictures. i thought the pictures turned out great. there were 28 barangays lined up to perform that day but we thought that the program was too long, so we left right after the 12th group. we had lunch at karen's grill.

mr. masskara bodybuilding contest, bacolod pavilion

viva la masskara

a big bacolod welcome

october 21. james left the executive even before me and ricky woke up. james met a friend along lacson street and also picked up the laundry. ricky left at 6am to get things for our dumaguete and siquijor trip while i was left to prepare my own things. we had to check out the hotel at 12nn and come to araneta street for the street parade again. i got hungry and i haven't had my breakfast yet so i thought i should visit mcdonald's. i had a big mac meal and headed back to the hotel. we decided to leave all of our things at the hotel and would just pick them up at night before leaving for dumaguete.

we came to araneta street before 1pm and waited for the parade to start. the sun was scorching hot and i was sweating so bad. i was afraid that the sunblock lotion i applied earlier on my face and on my head wouldn't work because i remembered wiping my face off before leaving the hotel. the parade started very late, and a mass of people started to thicken on the street of araneta. i was watching all the police that were assigned for the crowd control and i was losing hope that i will be permitted to be on the streets to take pictures. a lady intern saw me with my camera and thought that i was professional photographer. she asked me if i would be taking pictures, i said yes. so she let me cross the yellow rope and go to street. the yellow rope by the way is their way of controling the crowd from moving to the middle of the street. the parade was long and i took hundreds of pictures. my face was full of sweat and i started to smell bad, and yet i felt this great satisfaction.

we went to the plaza not to watch their perfomance again. we went there to take our pictures with the dancers backstage. yesterday's competition was their preliminary and only 10 among the 28 groups were chosen to perform this afternoon at the plaza for masskara street dance challenge finals. backstage, weary dancers who have already performed were sitting on the plaza ground. we asked some of them if it's okay to have their pictures taken, and they were all nice. some of the dancers were selling their masks thinking that they had no chance of winning.

bacolod cathedral at night

that was the last of the masskara for this year. we had dinner again over alice's place in manukan country and took some pictures at the bacolod cathedral. we also went to robinsons place to check out the masskara exhibit and to use the internet. we took out things from the hotel and took a bus to dumaguete city at the ceres terminal bus liner at 11:30pm. it was one of the wisest decision i've made. we would be sleeping in the bus on our way to dumaguete and we'd we saving a night at the hotel.