vamos a bailar en la castellana

This is one of the days when you wish you had more time...its the last working day for 2010, everyone comes to the office with smiles, the festive mood of the season shows, most of us had a touch of red...red shoes, red shirt, red clips, red head bands, red  ribbons, red blouses , red cardigans and of course red lips...so many foreign tourist visited the office on  a cool Thursday in December...most of them wants to climb the highest peak in the Visayas- Mount Kanlaon. In fact, the next group of mountaineers just have to wait until the 5th of January to be able to climb - after all this is what they came for.

Negros Occidental is a province which is basically agricultural, known to be the sweetest province in the Philippines. We produce sugar with more than eight sugar mills in the island. For the steam locomotive enthusiast , one can still see or better yet, take a ride on an iron dinosaur at La Carlota Sugar Central  in La Carlota City at the foot of Mount Kanlaon or  Hawaiian Sugar Central in Silay City. The island is so blessed with natural attractions we have the beaches...and the sands'  colors vary just like the types of sugar we produce...there is brown sand , light brown sand like wash sugar, or white sandy beaches as fine as refined sugar, dive sites, waterfalls, caves and springs, heritage houses, sports facilities that cater to national and international  competitions,  bike trails for the adventurous mountain bikers.

The island is also known to celebrate festivals the whole year round. . .sweet loving Negrenses love to dance and off we drove to the town of La Castellana on this cold December night for the Bailes de Luces (festival of lights and dancing) . I practically come to this part of the province every year and the costumes, dance moves, the production of lights just gets better . About ten groups performed with their  muses dancing  on the floats during the parade. Every 5th of January is the arena competition at the plaza, various groups dance playing with lights from head to toe, to the beat of the music as the song goes 'Vamos a bailar en La Castellana'. So beautiful is the play of lights and dancing that many have attempted to copy but never outdone.

So what are you waiting for, lets celebrate Negros Occidentals first festival for 2011 -------------BAILES DE LUCES.