Cebu Destination: Simala Shrine, The Miraculous Mama Mary

The Simala Shrine in Sibonga also known as Cebu's Castle Church is one of the famous destinations for Mama Mary's devotees in the Visayas region. The miraculous Mama Mary was known to grant prayers from devotees who visited and prayed to her.

I've been there once with my family last January but hubby was not there with me to witness how amazing this place was. So when we got the chance to get low fares from Cebu Pacific, hubby and I planned our trip to Simala just in time for our wedding anniversary in August.

We left CDO early to take the first flight to Cebu. 

We brought with us snacks and prepared packed  lunch earlier that day since we'll be heading straight to Simala. We won't have time for any stop overs to take our lunch on the way.

We reached Cebu at 9:50 am and got on a taxi heading to the South Bus Terminal.

The taxi fare from the Mactan International airport to the terminal costs us Php230 and took around 30-45 min of travel (including traffic). We were supposed to look for VHires that will bring us to Simala but to our dismay, VHires were no longer available at the terminal. So we opted for the airconditioned bus going to Oslob located at DOOR 8 of the terminal. The fare costs Php70 per head and the travel took 2 hours. 

Upon reaching the bus stop at Simala's crossing, we took another 15-30 min ride via a habal2x for Php20 each. 

We finally reached the Simala shrine at around 2pm.

Our first stop was to line up for Mama Mary's veil and then to Mama Mary's Miraculous shrine. 

Compared to our visit last January, the line today was pretty fast as there were only a few people.  

Walking to the miraculuos Mama Mary you'd see numerous displays of granted prayers from all walks of life. 

It is amazing to see how Mama Mary have heard and granted a lot of prayers and favors.

Mama Mary's miraculous shrine:

Next, we went inside the church to say our prayers. The church itself is small and really looked amazing with all of its sculptures.

After saying our prayers, we headed next to buy candles and dropped our letter asking  for favor from Mama Mary in the petition boxes. We prepared the letter ahead of time as we anticipated that there could be a lot of people and that we can't stay long. Writing the letter ahead of time gives us more time to reflect on what favor we'd like to ask from Mama Mary.

Hubby bought blue, pink, gold and violet candles while I got pink and green. The candle costs Php35 each and here are the meanings for each colors:

Source: choosephillipines.com

It was raining when we decided to head out to eat. Thus, the following failed photos. 

Nevertheless, we went back after eating our lunch so we could get better photos.

There are a lot of food stalls outside the gates and per serving costs Php50 which is quite pricey. Also outside food is not allowed unless you pay Php50 corkage fee but the owner waived the fee since there were only two of us dining at the moment.

And as I've said, we took better photos after lunch. 

We then called Kuya Ramon to fetch us back wherein he dropped us at the VHire terminal. 

The fare costs Php100 each and has two stops: Sto Nino Church and SM. This was a good thing since the hotel we're staying at is a street across the Sto. Nino church. Saves us the taxi fare from the South Bus terminal to Sampaguita Plaza Garcia.

It was a day well spent even though it took us time to get there. Still, we both feel very fulfilled going back to our hotel. Mission accomplished as they say.

We will definitely be back soon.

xoxo,

Lheyvens <3