Cebu - Fort San Pedro

Fort San Pedro was built by the Spanish in 1565 to prevent pirate attacks and to protect the growing settlement. These days, it's a little bit far from the sea, but still has that distinctive colonial look. Inside there were a few small treasures.


The main gateway to the fort looks a hell of a lot like a Mayan pyramid. Perhaps the Spanish were a bit empire crazy and wanted to remake the Orient in the same style as their new American colonies. Maybe they're just interior designers ahead of their time. Either way, it looks a bit odd.

The courtyard inside the fort is a pleasant grassed area with some nice big trees provided some much needed shade from the blistering sun. Surrounding the courtyard on top of the thick walls, is a walk way the entire way around. There's some more nice trees and gardens on top. This makes the fort seem more like an elaborate arboretum than a tough and nasty fort.


On top of the walls, in a few nooks, I saw quite a few local couples getting jiggy with it. What's with parks and nooky? It always seems that whenever you have a pleasant park, you have young boys and girls holding hands and sitting very close to each other and staring at me waiting for me to leave!


Inside, there were also a few rooms containing some historical artifacts. Not very exciting, I'm afraid. I felt a bit sorry for the people who's job it was to sit at the entrance to the museum. They sit there all day and their only excitement is to jump on people who try to take photos. Exciting stuff.

The fort was a nice place to start my tour of Cebu. It's very tourist friendly and quickly made me realise Cebu is fairly laid back place which you can feel safe walking around.