Sugarlandia Tours

Negros Occidental is no doubt the sweetest province in the country today. This is why even our tourism brand is ‘Negros: Sugar and More’. Tourist will find themselves visiting museums, ancestral houses and listening to stories of the sugar industry. Recently, it was a challenge for tour operators SN Travel and Tours and YM Travel and Tours with the Alliance of Tour Guides headed by Maricar Dabao together with the Department of Tourism to come up with itineraries for a technical tour for APEC delegates, a tour which is not offered in other places. Considering that guests were APEC delegates, and security was a priority, a half day twin city tour with three main stops was in store for the participants. 

A three-minute video was prepared as teaser for the sugarlandia tour that  played on flat screens at the SMX lobby for two days. Two busloads joined the tour composed of delegates, national organizing council, national working team from the Department of Tourism and Department of Finance and national media. A run through was conducted twice before the actual tour for proper time coordination and familiarity with the areas to pass through as a standard operating procedure of the organizing committee. 

First stop was the Negros Museum where the delegates listened to the guides in different sections telling us the story of sugar and other Negros Tales within a period of thirty minutes. The guides wore kimona and patadyong costume with their smiles which made the tour more interesting at the museum.

Next stop was the Provincial Capitol Building, Provincial Administrator Enrique S. Pinongan met the group at the steps of the capitol, tour guide Raymond Bayot  welcomed the group at the lobby and talked about the history of the capitol and brought them to the air-conditioned social hall where an exhibit of the Camarin and a sugar laboratory was arranged, a turn table with vinyl record playing oldies music, filled the air as delegates danced at the social hall, some tasted sugar from muscovado, brown, wash and refined. The diorama of the ‘Camarin’ was patterned after the Hda. Pandanon-Silos Muscovado Mill in Murcia which represents how the muscovado sugar is processed during the early 1900’s.  

   

     The 14 kilometer trip to Silay from the capitol was swift, there were only two of us with Mr. Artie Lacson as tour guides, we talked about the sugar industry, the 5^th of November, pointed important spots in the city, legends of the sugarcane, Mt. Kanlaon and socio-economic profiles of Bacolod, Talisay and Silay, before we knew it, we were already at the Balay Negrense.

 It was a festive mood at the Balay Negrense with colorful banderitas, the Kabataang Silay Rondalla performed at the gazebo to the amazement of the guests. They were entertained with an on sight cooking of piaya, native delicacies like suman, kutsinta, chicken drumstick inasal, pita bread, mini burgers, lumpia ubod all these were spread on a buffet table with sugarcane juice. Museum guides were in their kimona and patadyong costume as well. 

The visit to the different places was a showcase of the sweet Negrense lifestyle centered on the influences of the sugar industry, but it is hoped thatbthe tour participants come back to Negros and experience more than just sugar.