Kabulakan Festival in Dumaguete

My dad made the trip out to see us one last time before we leave the Philippines. We didn't have a lot of time but we made sure to head out of town for a weekend and get some much needed relaxation in. We drove down the western coast line until Kabankalan and turned east into the island driving to the tops of the mountains headed to Dumaguete. We planned to take him to Siquijor. The drive went perfect. The kids didn't fight once, they sat really well and we had some yummy snacks to keep our mouths busy with. Once we hit Dumaguete we stopped for lunch and headed to the pier to get our boat tickets. We were stunned to find out that there were some festivals happening that weekend and so the next two boats out of Dumaguete were totally sold out and that we might have to wait until the next day to get out of there. Thankfully our resort tipped us off on a different boat leaving late in the evening so we got our tickets for that boat and went out to explore Dumaguete.
It was the weekend of the Kabulakan Festival which celebrates flowers. We found the parade with street dancers setting up near the town plaza and each of the different dance groups was decorated as a different type of flower. Of course, in Philippine style, there were bright colourful costumes, choreographers, loud music. We waited a while for the parade to start but as we got hotter, sweatier and the streets became more crowded we decided to walk back through the parade instead of wait for the parade to walk to us.

It was nice to start moving and walk around the city. We took a detour along the seawall before heading back to the car where Ryan and Madison were napping. We still had a few hours to burn until our boat so off we went to find a place to eat dinner. We found some Mexican place right by the ocean and decided to take a chance with it. It was good, nothing to rave about but good. As we were finishing our dinner the parade made it's way along right in front of the restaurant! We had front row seats. We watched as they threw fire, showed us their street dancing and posed for our camera's.

By the time the parade was over the sun had gone down, the city lights were all on and it was finally time for us to head to the pier and catch the boat. I guess the bonus of taking the boat so late in the evening is that the water is calm and the ride is smooth!