With the many places I've visited throughout the country, it seems that every nook and cranny of the Philippine archipelago has a Spanish presence imprinted in its history. One of the reasons that I came up with this observation is probably the attraction of Spaniards to volcanoes. For example, the famous world famous Mayon Volcano in Bicol has a church ruins in Cagsawa. The world famous Taal Volcano has its church ruins in the town of Talisay. Even Mt. Pinatubo ruined the Bacolor church in Pampanga but residents rehabilitated what's left of it. Next photo shown is the Spanish bell tower.
According to the historical marker on Cotta Bato's entrance, this town was once a thriving community until the eruption of the volcano wiped out the town and destroyed its church. It makes you wonder why the Spanish friars didn't restore the church afterwards. There are many theories I came up with. First. the natives have a high reverence for the spirit in the volcano, so the Spanish priest established a church to dissuade the people from worshiping the volcano god and instead convert to Christianity. Having been wiped out by the volcano in front of the natives, the priests lost face and their influence afterwards. Photo below is the church convent.
My second theory is probably related to Spanish colonial and spirit of adventurism. Since Spain was at that time a superpower with expansionist intentions, they fancy places that has a continuing element of danger, for example, the ever-present threat of living near an active volcano. In this way, their level of alertness is always high in anticipation of a possible uprising from the natives. Below is a marker narrating the events that took place in 1871 that wiped out the town.
Of course, my theories are open to argument, but I believe that there is one thing that everyone will agree with me. And that is, people whether native or foreign simply just cannot resist the beauty of nature that volcanoes can create of a place. In the aftermath of destruction and violence, a period of succession begins and the end will always come out beautiful and awesome! So when we arrived in this once devastated place, we took the time to enjoy ourselves in the midst of history.
Despite my size, you can just imagine how small I am beside this humungus, centuries old tree beside the convent. This is a favorite photo site of the many tourists that visited this historical place.
The ruins is perched on the high grounds of the island with a navigational vantage point and this explains why an eye-sore like this modern-day light house was erected in a historical site such as this. The Spaniards did proved that this place has indeed a military purpose.
This is the perimeter wall or what's left of it, where the entrance to Cotta Bato is located. This is the only wall left and the other three walls of the square are no longer around. Beyond this wall, residents constructed a small chapel to retain the reverence of this sacred place.
Before departing the place, we took a posterity group picture along the cliffs overlooking the sea. The view here is spectacular. The visit to this place is quite interesting for me. Don't expect too much when visiting this place. It may be quite simple, but the beauty here is its simplicity. The purpose of this place is give us a small glimpse of history of how the Spaniards live in simple grandeur in an island paradise such as Camiguin and how God took it away from them. Until next adventure, I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoy its history!
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