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Balikbayan Antonio Buagas, a retired chemical engineer, was having a good time.
?Gwapo kaayo ang ilang mga gi prepare nga Visayan songs and dances (The Visayan songs and dances they prepared were great),? he said.
Buagas and his wife were among 200 guests in the Suroy Suroy sa Sugbo Southern Heritage Trail.
The Texas-based retiree said that after living in the US for 32 years, he looked forward to watching these performances.
The three-day countryside caravan tour included balikbayans, foreigners and local tourists.
They bought delicacies and native products like the chicharon of Carcar, woven abaca bags in Dumanjug and torta cakes of Argao.
Lilia Escario, 69, said she came back to Cebu for a reunion with college classmates.
?I heard about the tour and wanted to give it a try because I haven't been to some southern municipalities,? said Escario, a former Cebu City resident.
?It's a very cheap package. And I really enjoyed it.?
The first-time participant paid P7,800 for the tour package. .
She had a complaint though: lack of public comfort rooms.
?This is a very good program of the provincial government because it promotes Cebu pero poblema kaayo ang comfort rooms,? said Escario, a nurse based in Orange County, California.
Escario who joined the tour with a sister said they had difficulty using the comfort rooms along the way.
Aside from waiting in a long line for their turn when they stopped in various towns, they had to endure using comfort rooms whose water tanks don?t work.
Some toilets were also dirty. Most didn?t have tissue paper, which surpised the guests, who are used to full-service restrooms with running water, tissue and soap in their home countries abroad.
In other stops, guests had to use comfort rooms located within municipal structures and the churches visited by the tour.
At least two to four comfort rooms were made available for the guests.
?They (local government units) really need to improve the toilet facilities especially since foreigners are very particular about comfort room facilities,? said Escario.
Escario said she was willing to pay even $1 dollar for use of a clean and functional comfort room.
?I'm sure the other guests would do the same also,? she said.
Balikbayan Jessie Saavedra said that crowd control was also a problem during the caravan.
In Malabuyoc beggars which included women who carried infants followed some guests whiled they toured the San Nicolas de Tolentino church, to ask for money or food.
Beggars and other onlookers were also watching when guests gathered in front of the old municipal hall grounds where refreshments were served.
Some guests started handing ?budbud? to children who were watching while they ate.
In other municipalities, residents and other spectators crowd the area mostly church grounds or plazas, where Cebuano songs and dances were presented.
?Sometimes it feels very awkward to eat because a lot of people are watching,? said Saavedra in Cebuano.
