Miyerkules, Oktubre 15, 2014

Our Lemon Tree Is Happier With Other Lemon Trees.

La Pernela Hotel has good news for foodies or food lovers in Bohol. Either you are a visiting tourist or an island resident, you would be happy to know that Bohol is getting to be quite a gourmet place with restaurants that make dining a very pleasurable experience from the moment you sit down before a nicely-set table to that instant you get up with the waiter asking you if you have enjoyed your meal and you would not only say "yes" but imagine yourself going back there again with your friends.
 
After some years of managing our little Bed and Breakfast  establishment,
I couldn't help but notice the gastronomic evolution in the island from just having respectable-looking, decent places for respectable people to dine in to really nice, tastefully- decorated ones with that big bonus of your mouths as greatly satisfied as your eyes. Before I used to recommend restaurants of other hotels to my long-staying guests because they are the ones which look better and surely have dishes with more taste than the fast food-like types around town.  Of course, a few of them are really that good except perhaps a little pricey for the average walk-ins.

Unfortunately, some foreigners have found Filipino cuisine in general too bland and unimaginative in both taste and sight compared to our Asian counterparts such as that of the Thais' or Vietnamese' whose dishes are not only a feast to almost all the senses.  The smell of the coriander is just as tempting as the refreshing sight of green mint leaves seen through the rice wrapper that you couldn't wait to gobble that shrimp spring roll into your mouth.  Now, I am very to inform the island's epicurean community, visitors and residents alike that now we have restaurants now that could start changing not only the image of the Filipino cuisine to our international guests but also the way, the locals perceive of it that everybody in their kitchen would try to prepare and cook food with love and attention to details that not only have to do with the sense of taste but of smelling and seeing.  That's what makes me admire these new favorite restaurants of mine.  Two or three of them are even tripadvisor-rated.

With pride, La Pernela would recommend such restaurants to our guests who would like to discover the best of Filipino cooking.  We like to  have them explore the kitchen of others than our own and have a taste of  their tables' culinary feasts and feats and help promote the image of our local cuisine.

We firmly believe that our lemon tree would be happier with other happy lemon trees.


Linggo, Oktubre 5, 2014

La Pernela Love Nature and Tranquility

The sun is up and shining hot after a week of just clouds and rain though the latter makes everything fresh and green.   It is the way I love Bohol because of all these lush greenery, the roadside with these intermittent spaces of bushes and flowering shrubberies of bougainvillea and gumamela flowers between nipa huts and concrete colorful ly-painted houses and even those skinny cows and timid goats grazing in them so I  hope that ten years from now when we have our new international airport in our beautiful green island, I would still see all these - bush, cows and all still on the wayside of our also new and wide roads.   That every inch of ground space would not all be filled with buildings to go with all this newness of commercial progress.      

As a hotel catering to tourists especially foreigner ones, having a bigger airport would be a help to boost sales.  Everybody's business sales in the island would  shoot up, so to speak, from the icecream vendor to a hardware agent but would this last long if we don't know how to keep too these little things of nature, this rusticity that our western guests love to see.  I believe it is refreshing and exotic for them to behold banana trees, rice paddies and plowing water buffalos on the wayside as much as their seeing the little native fishing  boats that paddle-glide smoothly on the water not far away from the white sandy shores  they are sunbathing on.   Definitely not the sightseeing motor  boat ones.      

We at La Pernela love nature and tranquility and we hope that the people of Bohol would have the courage and wisdom to try to preserve this treasure of nature that we have already that not only make us unique but also worth visiting by tourists from  the far corners of the globe even in our efforts for economic growth.    

We could sell lemons in many ways - in jams, drinks, or shakes and have all kinds of machines to make them come out as such but that lemon tree should always be there and be taken care of.


Do Yoga at La Pernela, Panglao, Bohol, Philippines

Relaxation.  Yogaxation.  That is how we see our early morning sessions of yoga at La Pernela, Bohol, Philippines.  Nothing could beat that moment's feeling of serenity and of being one with nature as when you are in your lotus position in front of that undulating sea, hearing its lapping and swishing waves as you breathe in and out that cool, tangy breeze.  What an invigorating way to start your day even if it would just be spent lazing by the pool with a book instead of snorkeling in the ocean in front or diving at the nearby Balicasag island or going out on a tour to see the Chocolate hills and the tarsiers before cruising on Loboc River!
   
We, at La Pernela welcome yoga enthusiasts of all ages, races and walks of life, amateurs or professionals to lay out their mats on our hotel lawn in front of the ocean and indulge in this exercise of inner peace and force.  For those who haven't tried yoga yet, we would be more than happy to teach and coach you.  It would be a great pleasure for us to know that after your Bohol holidays,  you would continue to practice yoga back home as four of our past guests are doing.
    
For us, there would be no better souvenir we could offer to our guests than one that is not only experienced regularly and hopefully for a long time but also does a lot of good to the body and spirit.  And of course, to the mind too.  Much more unforgettable than an album of vacation pictures. 

Hence, La Pernela invites you warmly to join us in our garden for a Yogaxation.


La Pernela Bohol, Philippines 
Brgy. San Isidro, Dauis, Panglao, 
Bohol, 6339 Panglao 
PHILIPPINES CONTACT INFORMATION: 
+63 917 300 2748 
facebook.com/pages/La-Pernela/132923950119272