La Familia Viajera is nominated to the Bloggys 2015!

La Familia Viajera is elated and very honored to have been nominated to the Philippine Blogging Awards, otherwise known as Bloggys 2015! What's this award-giving body all about?

To put it simply, #bloggys2015 is a nationwide blog awarding event in the Philippines. It continues the legacy of recognizing Filipino bloggers through a variety of niches and industries across the nation.

Paul Agabin

CEO, Essays.ph 

Looking at the list of nominees in the Travel and Places category where our blog is included, we'll be up against giants in the local travel blogging scene. Yes, our chances are slim. But we'll still go ahead for the sake of fun. After all, being nominated is already an honor. So if it's OK with you, please vote for us in the said category. To vote, please click here. Our blog URL is lafamiliaviajera2015.blogspot.com.

¡Muchas gracias de antemano!

Of XMLs, dotcom woes, and point ohs

Welcome back to La Familia Viajera!

We haven't been blogging for the past several weeks. The last official blogpost we had was about our impromptu visit to historic Calle Escolta in Binondo, Manila last November 30. (thankfully we did a photo ops in front of the old PNB headquarters before it was mysteriously gutted away by fire just last week). I posted that visit last December 3. Then after that, nothing else followed. Our beloved family travel blog was also gutted away not by fire but clumsiness.

www.lafamiliaviajera.com is no more. =(

It's all my fault. I totally forgot about the one-year deal that I signed up for with our internet domain registrar. I didn't know that they've been sending us several emails reminding us that the deal is about to expire. The problem is I've been too busy taking care of other troubles that I failed to check my emails for weeks on end (learn from my mistake, fellow online being). I just found out about the bad news when one cold day in December, as I was about to blog about a Christmas party we attended in Parañaque, our site's URL led me to nothing but a network error.

More than a year's worth of blogposts... all gone!

However, I was a bit surprised to notice that it was Yeyette who was more disappointed than me. She has learned to love this blog so much. Rightly so because La Familia Viajera is virtually a repository of our family's travel memories. And it's nice to see our kids growing up with each blogpost and at different places.

It was too late to contact and make an appeal to our internet domain registrar, so I just decided to start from scratch. No use crying over spilled milk. Thankfully, we still have all photographs of our travels stored in our Facebook page.

And so that should explain why our URL now is http://lafamiliaviajera2015.blogspot.com. And that should also explain why last Monday's blogpost sounds as if we're starting over again.

Inside the San Agustín Museum in Intramuros last January 11 (click here for the complete photo album).

Good thing I remembered the time when good 'ol buddy Arnaldo taught me how to import and export a blog's XML a few year's ago (he too had experienced a rather similar fiasco with his blog). And last Monday morning, it occurred to me that although "version 1.0" of La Familia Viajera was no longer around, the Gmail account attached to it could still be accessed. And through it, I could still access the blog's dashboard where I could export version 1.0's XML! And that's exactly what I did. After downloading the XML, I logged in to "version 2.0" and imported the whole thing (for fellow bloggers using Blogger, click here for the procedure).

¡Gracias a Dios! Versions 1.0 and 2.0 were merged yesterday!

And thank goodness that technology is siding with us. So grateful are we that is why we insist on using "version-digit-point-ohs" (and it makes me sound techie, hehe!). The downside here is that we no longer own the domain name. But that's OK. Might as well keep things simpler (something I learned from Traveler On Foot). Yeyette is still intent of buying a domain for this site, but it's not one of my priorities. I'll just leave it up to her.

The most important thing is that La Familia Viajera is back to regular programming! BIGGER! BETTER! Simpler! =)

¡Vamos a viajar!

Online travel guide to the Philippines

We would like to reblog this online travel guide to the Philippines for our overseas friends. Because, you know, it's really more fun here. =)

Happy tourists at the world-famous Pagsanján Falls.

Top Destinations

There are many places to go within the Philippines, but here are some of the top destinations:

Metro Manila - the country's capital, known and loved for it's malls, restaurants, museums and more.

Cebú - the country's 2nd largest city, known for shopping, restaurants, and beaches at the beautiful Mactán Island.

Daváo City - the country's 3rd largest city, known for delicious tuna, watermelon and beaches at Samal Island.

Palauan - One of the top tourist destinations in the world, known for its amazing beaches and underground caves.

Borácay - Also a top tourist destination, known for its long beaches, boardwalk, and water sports.

Baguio - A beautiful mountain destination, popular for horseback riding, zip lining, hiking, and strawberries.

We here at La Familia Viajera intend to visit these wonderful sites. But there won't be much traveling this year because Yeyette is heavy with child. Hopefully next year. And in the coming years.

More info at Online Travel Guide to The Philippines. ¡Vamos a viajar!

♥L♥A♥F♥A♥M♥I♥L♥I♥A♥V♥I♥A♥J♥E♥R♥A♥

TRIVIA: It is not really certain if the Philippines has exactly 7, 107 islands, or 7,108 if Charlene Gonzales's high tide/low tide claim has been verified by experts. The truth is that several small islands or islets disappear and emerge from sea level during tidal shifts, not just one. Also, in some old maps, the Philippines was estimated to have 11,000 islands! Nevertheless, the Department of Tourism and other related government institutions maintain the 7, 107 number.

La Familia Viajera

¡Un buen día a todos! A good day to all!

Welcome to LA FAMILIA VIAJERA, our family's online travelogue!

Since this is our very first blogpost, please allow us to introduce ourselves. We are the ALAS Family, a simple and God-fearing familia filipina from the promising and historical province of La Laguna.

My full name is José Mario Alas, the padre de familia and main writer of this blog. Just call me Pepe. Chances are, you have met me before either in my obscure blogs Alas Filipinas or Filipino eScribbles, or perhaps somewhere else on the web (I troll around from time to time, hehehe!). This is the first time that I have created a family-themed travel blog, and this time I will be assisted by my beautiful wife, Jennifer "Yeyette" Perey de Alas, that lovely lass from Mindoro Occidental.

Me and Yeyette have been together for 14 beautiful years and have been blessed with a lovely daughter and three cute sons, namely:

1. Jewel Krystal Rose (Krystal)
2. José Mario Guillermo II (Momay)
3. Jesús Felipe (Jefe)
4. Juan Pablo Benedicto (Juanito)

And just by the name of our blog, it is easy to surmise that we love to travel! We have no car (don't let the photo above fool you), but we do not complain. We love traveling on foot (Hi Glenn!). We love old churches and ancestral houses! We love to savor good food after some nature-tripping! Yes, nature-tripping, because God's masterpiece fascinates us so much! So don't be surprised if you find all of us within deep forests and little-known beaches. We'll also tread upon old roads and bridges, and even in interesting callejones (alleyways) and teeming marketplaces. We just love meeting new people and making new friends! We love Filipino culture and heritage! We love everything Filipino!

Since we also speak in Spanish and Tagalog, we will be using those languages on this blog from time to time. Also, in each blogpost, we will include a TRIVIA! about each place that we have visited.

Join us as we embark on an ambitious journey to travel the whole country! And since we are not as fortunate as other travelers out there, we can only strive to travel together —the six of us— at least once or twice a month.

This blogsite is dedicated to God. Because this is our motto: ¡Enaltecer la familia para la gloria más alta de Dios!

¡Hasta luego, amigos!

21 October 2013
Feast day of San Hilarión

❤L❤A❤F❤A❤M❤I❤L❤I❤A❤V❤I❤A❤J❤E❤R❤A❤

TRIVIA! Many people do not know that the official name of the San Agustín Church in Intramuros is not San Agustín but the Church and Convent of Saint Paul (Iglesia y Convento de San Pablo). It is only popularly referred to as San Agustín because of the fact that it was founded and is still being run by the Augustinian friars (Order of Saint Augustine).