I Never Thought Cuartel Had Sea Pools!
Last weekend was a fun one for the kids and the adults, In the morning, we went to a new chill eatery in Santander named CARaan Avenue Garage, then we went to visit a local masseuse who does traditional massage or what we call hilot.
After going home, we rested a bit and then we went to Cuartel which is quite a famous area here in town. Most tourists who travel to Oslob for the whale sharks would visit Cuartel too as part of their itinerary. As for us, we had been to Cuartel many times but not with Matti. That day was his first and he had a blast playing, running around. Thankfully, this area behind the ruins has a wide park filled with green bermudagrass.
The photo above is of the Cuartel ruins, it was already 4:30 PM when we went here so the sun was already about to set. This is a perfect time to stroll around the area because the sun isn't too hot anymore.
Just right across the Cuartel ruins is the Museu Oslob, this was however closed temporarily. But we had visited this before unfortunately, they won't allow picture taking inside.
The museum homes antique items local to Oslob. I can't anymore remember the specific items though but I guess there were furniture, kitchen items, and such.
What I like about the building are its rough finish and the classic windows. I guess they used limestone here but the color shows it could be a cement finish instead. I could be wrong but it seemed like the museum has not been maintained, perhaps due to the pandemic and it might have been closed since the start of the lockdown. I hope they'll open soon as we have seen some tourists were back in the whale shark area.
Speaking of the whale sharks, there have been talks around the town that the whale sharks in Oslob have slowly decreased in numbers and my husband told me that there's a town in Bohol where fishermen were also found feeding whale sharks.
Also, the main fisherman who had been the pioneer in feeding these gentle giants had committed suicide after finding out that his wife was cheating on her. There's even a conspiracy that the man has a snake twin, it's kind of funny to think but the locals believe that the whale sharks will not return to Oslob because of the death of this man.
Anyway, that was what we were talking about while looking for a spot to settle on the ground. Here's the view of the back of the museum.
I asked my husband what this area is called, but he said this is just part of Cuartel and now specific name. I checked the maps, it says this is Quartel Beach but the park is indeed part of the ruins, in fact, there's a Baluarte too at the end of this wide area. I'd like to refer to this as Cuartel park because of its lush green bermudagrasses, kids can run around safely. I had no worries for Matti, I let go of him and let him walk and then run unassisted.
I was not surprised to see a lot of locals around the area. It is a great spot for just chilling out. The Catholic church opposite the park is still being constructed and I believe that on Sundays, this area will be filled with churchgoers.
There were kids running around, some were practicing riding their bikes, some teenagers were playing volleyball, some were dancing and filming. Some were just at the side benches observing the rest of the locals and we were busy looking after the kids. We have Matti and he ate Zia who was really carefree they ran towards the sea wall area!
The trees here were spared from the recent typhoon, the buildings too were not affected, only the street lights were destroyed which can be fixed but currently, they are just left there. There were still wide spaces for us to observe social distancing.
I am glad we are able to get here again. I can't remember when was the last time that I had visited Cuartel but before we had Matti, we would always come here, especially in the afternoon. Before there were food stalls but I noticed that there were none right now, perhaps the local government didn't allow anyone to set up a food stall as it can also be a cause of rubbish around the park.
Since all benches were taken, we decided to just settle at the sea wall. I don't know how wide the seawall was but it goes from the Baluarte towards the back of the museum. This is quite long and the height, I guess it's around 10 feet.
Oslob quartel fish feeding point, that's how they refer to the sea area around here. A strict no-fishing policy is imposed, only feeding but there were residents in the neighboring area who were fishing and looking for seashells.
My husband had flown the drone too and here's the wide view of the cuartel area. We look like ants here but I am quite amazed how grasses can grow in this area where the seawater reaches into the park.
They also placed huge blocks of rocks to set as a sign that this area right here is already a no-fishing zone.
Coast guards or local Bantay dagat have been deployed to look after this area. Anyone who will be caught fishing here will be fined or jailed if they will be caught doing the act multiple times. My father-in-law worked as a bantay dagat before and he had caught many who attempts to fish here just because there are many fishes in this part.
With the help of the seawall, we walked towards the end to see the coastal view of the town. The mountains look really nice from afar as the sun was already behind it. The sun was just halfway through the mountain, giving a bit of golden hour.
I spotted some fishing boats in the shallow part, people were swimming too and some were looking for seashells. Some individuals also fish using a simple hook and line. This is a common sight here and I also found through the drone shots that there were pools of deeper waters in the area. So those who were swimming don't have to go further. The pools were just deep enough for kids and I really like how they look from above.
Check out the gallery here below:
When the sun was out, we decided to go home already. The kids need to eat dinner early and it was already six in the evening. Thanks for joining me today! We plan on going back to Cuartel one of these days, perhaps today or tomorrow so we can let Matti run again.
xoxo,
momentswithmatti
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