YeShei's Adventure: Museo Sugbo, A Glimpse of the Past!

Hello Steemians. How's it going?
Today, allow me to share about the first stop I went to with my bestie @akielle last time. As you can read in my previous post HERE, we went to three various museums in Cebu, Philippines.

For this post I'm going to share our adventure in MUSEO SUGBO.

What and Where is Museo Sugbo?

Museo Sugbo is once a prison. It was called CPDRC or Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center before. It is physically located in MJ cuenco Avenue, Brgy. Tejero, Cebu City, Philippines. According to our tour guide, when the prisoners from CPDRC were transferred to a larger place, the then-prison was also transformed to a museum.

As I read more about this place from WIKI, I discovered that it wasn't just CPDRC before... but it has a history of more than a hundred years. It was the main prison of the Visayan region in the late 1860s. There was also a time in history (early years of the American Period), when this place became a barn for horses.

Now, it is a historical spot in Cebu. It was my first time to go there, so I found it really amazing and educational as well.

Let's Start the Tour

Upon entering the museum, we have to pay an entrance fee. The fee varies actually. If you're a Filipino, adults (Php30.), Student and Senior Citizens (Php 10.). The same rate applies to foreigners who have been residing in the Philippines for a long time... I forgot to take a picture of it, so I'm not so sure about the requirements... As for Foreigners/Foreign tourists; adults (Php75), students (Php50) and also Php10 for senior citizens.

^{This is what will welcome you... aside from the tour guides, of course.}

What I like about the tour was that they provide free tour guides which will show you to the 12 different galleries. I find it very useful and educational. The guides are really knowledgeable not just about the artifacts but also history itself. As a student, I wasn't a lover of history. I have always hated memorizing dates and names of people and historical places. However, if it was in a tour like this... I'd definitely love history!




Here's a photo of our guide. During this time, we were at the first gallery. It was filled mostly with ceramics. They were from China. According to our tour guide, these were from the 1400s or Ming Dynasty. These stuff were discovered from burials in some places in Cebu like Liloan (northern part) and Argao (southern part).





It's a golden statue of a female deity. The ones below are bracelets made from horns and tips of giant tritons or trumpet shells.




Can you guess what this is? Actually, it's a boat-shaped coffin used for secondary burial. According to the guide, pre-colonial Cebuano believed that the soul travels to the heavens on a boat at specific times after their death. That's the reason why this coffin was shaped like a boat.



Here's a picture of when it was discovered in the northern part of Cebu called "Catmon".




I find this piece of cloth really interesting because the golden thread used in its embroidery is made of real 24-carat gold. ohh we can sell this! jk




Not only can we see historical artifacts in this museum, but also historical food. KABOG, as it is called, is the staple food of Cebuanos even before the Spaniards colonized the Philippines.

Weapons and Wars

The Philippines has been colonized by various countries in the past, and in this museum you will also see some of the stuff that will remind us of the war in the past. Of course, everyone has moved on now. I love Spain, Japan and America! (^_^)v




I am always amazed to see weapons! My father @jhunalvarado, used to serve for the Philippine government. He often tells me story of his experiences when he was assigned in the mountainous areas in the Philippines. He used to be in the Regional Special Action Force and as a child, I was already used to seeing guns and other weapons. Of course, my papa taught me that these are not toys and educated me about it. That's the reason, perhaps, why they fascinates me!




This one here is an American rifle called M1 Garand. it was said to be the first semi-automatic rifle which has been issued to the infantry of any nation. (got this from its label)


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These are some souvenirs from the war...





Of course, we were also colonized by the Japanese in the past. Here's a picture of some newspapers and the Japanese flag during that time.

My bestie's and my favorite gallery

Of course, among the galleries, there will always be a favorite... This gallery is so cool and the stuff in it were so amazing!






In the same gallery, they also introduced on of the most famous festivals in the Philippines called "Sinulog". This festival is held every third Sunday of January in honor of the child Jesus, Señor Sto. Niño.

This festival is very fun and colorful. If you're planning to come to Cebu for Sinulog, I suggest you book your flight or hotels months before the event. ^^

Old Something... ^^

As you can see in the photo collage above, these are the old stuff used especially in the media. All of these were found in the Media Gallery. From the upper left, you can see an old TV, old video camera, old typewriters, radio, film viewers, camera, more cameras, printing press and a linotype machine.


Let's take a closer look at the Linotype machine... I find this really interesting among all the old stuff there.

This is what they used to make newspapers and other publications in the past. What fascinated me the most was the use of metal in order to print something. Here's a sample of the metal plate that they used...



What the tour guide told us was that, they insert the metal in the machine first, then type something before it can be printed. And since they have to type it on a metal, no error is allowed. Ohh~ the letters on the "keyboard" were also very interesting.. Here..




Let's get a bit much closer...




In the field of Science and Medicine...




These are old telescope, binoculars, microscope and other stuff.



These are walkie talkie and a dental kit. Aren't they amazing? ^^


There are other interesting old stuff there... But I find these the most interesting.

Gallery for the Philippine Leaders

In another gallery, we can see the portraits of the past Philippine presidents. There are two more presidents whose portraits are not yet in the said gallery. According to the guide, the portraits and the gold-plated signatures are made in the capital and will be then sent to the museum. So, they're currently waiting for them.

This picture also took my attention. This was used in an election campaign for the Nacionalista Party in the past.

Remembering Jovito Abellana

"Who is he?" is what I asked when I went inside this gallery. Ohh! I should've listened to my history class back then. Anyway, it's not too late to learn. So, in another gallery, there were a lot of stuff from Jovito Abellana. He is a writer, an artist, a sculptor, etc. He was imprisoned in the past, too. Actually, as you can see in the picture above, it's his own portrait of when he was released in the prison. And guess what? The University mentioned which used to be his prison cell was my and my bestie's former University. It's sometimes creepy there. tbh.




In this book, he wrote about his experiences in prison during the Japanese colonization. However, even though he experienced a lot of bad things during the Japanese regime, he found a single Japanese friend. It's just so nice to know that amidst the situation, we still cannot generalize everyone.



His Japanese friend gave him this as a gift. <3





In the same room as Jovito Abellana, a display of Philippine dress is seen. The fabric used in making this is from Piña, a kind of fiber made from pineapple leaves.

Architecture

There are 2 galleries which shows stuff related to architecture. The gallery in this picture shows some miniature versions of Philippine bridges and other infrastructure. Our guide said that these are projects made by University students and they donated them in the museum.


In the next gallery, we can see some kind of plans for lighthouses. Currently, there are only a couple lighthouses left in Cebu according to our guide. Here is a picture of the plan..

Painting time!

Aside from the galleries, there are also three separate rooms. One is a cafe, another is a souvenir shop and the last one is the picture above. These three rooms were said to be "bartolina" or "dungeon" as translated in English. These rooms served as a dungeon from prisoners who were to be isolated from others. However, now they are cute and lovely rooms.

Let's get inside the "Crafted Trails" room...



This is where we did some art activity. I was trying to fix my bestie's painting.. hihi.. ^^



And here she is... finalizing her work.. ^^

Bloopers Time!

Here's another one...

We suck at taking videos... T_T We were supposed to take a 360 view of the place... In the museum there's a really big open space. If you're familiar with the "Dancing Inmates", they used to perform in this area... ^^ Anyway, I will never be a vlogger... lol.. xD Let's just have fun!

And that ends our tour for today! I hope you enjoyed it! ^^

Thanks a lot for dropping by!

Love lots, @tegoshei