29/365: When In Iloilo: Road Trip To Janiuay Iloilo and Three Churches (Part 1 of 2)

Today’s destination is Janiuay Iloilo City!

Janiuay is a first-class municipality in the province of Iloilo, Philippines. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 63,031 people.  The municipality is located 33 kilometres (21 mi) north-west of Iloilo City. It was created in 1769.

Two rivers coming from the north-west cuts in parallel through Janiuay. One is the Suage River and the other is the Magapa River which provide natural irrigation supporting the mainly agricultural town of Janiuay. The Suage river bridge was once witness to fierce fighting between Japanese Imperial forces and the combined Filipino and American troops including the recognized Ilonggo guerrilla fighters. The Magapa river bridge was built after WWII. 

While there is no certainty, there are several legends of how the place got its name. One is that it came from the ruling Datu's sons named "Han" and "Oway". Another is that the words "hani" (whisper) and "oway" (rattan) were combined. (Source: Wikipedia)

Remember the road trip to cemetery post?  This is our real destination – the town of Janniuay!  That cemetery experience was just a side trip or what I call a bonus experience. This is what I like most about road trip.  You will experience more than what you expected and most of them are fun and worth remembering.



Anyway, we did this road trip because a very close family friend and neighbor whom I met in Manila is also at the town for Dinagyang and for his hometown’s town fiesta.  My friend invited me and my in-laws for lunch at their home.  We were laughing about while on the trip because Janiuay is quite far from the city. We were joking about why we need to travel such miles just to eat lunch while in fact we could eat anywhere at the cost of the gasoline that we are going to consume on this road trip ha ha.  But that’s the magic of friendship and adventure- you travel miles just to have special moments with them plus the chance to explore.

The other purpose of this trip apart from meeting my friend’s family is for me to see more churches which my in-laws are aware that I am passionate about.  They are so supportive of me to see as many churches as we can from this trip.

The other challenge is that we need to be back home early for me to have some rest time and also a time to pack my things because the next day is my flight back to Manila on an early morning flight – 4AM!  Whew!  The adventurer in me never wasted any time.

I remember it was a Monday and I’m expecting that the churches that we will be visiting are close.  But nevertheless I am excited.   I know that I will still enjoy the beauty of them from the front façade alone.  There were still be more time to go back and explore the inner structure of the church some other time.

The plan was that there will be no stop over on the way to Janiuay so we will arrive just in time for lunch.  The stop over will be done on the way back.  What we did was that we marked all that places that we will be stopping over. 

We arrived at Janiuay just  around lunch time and we were welcomed by a sumptuous lunch table.  There were lots of food and fresh fruits on the table but I forgot about all of them because of one dish that they call KBL (Kadyos-Baboy-Langka)/(Pigeon Pea/Pork/Unripe Jackfruit). 

I remember how hubby always brags about how Ilonggo cooked the “KBL” dish (OMG!  I failed to include this in my Iloilo must eat food list). Now I know what he meant after tasting it from my friend’s mom recipe.  My friend’s mom is such a good cook.  It was soooo deliciously good that we were still talking about it on our way back home.

The coming Saturday on that week is the town’s fiesta and my friend was insisting for me to extend my stay so that I can experience the fiesta which I kindly begged off because my trip has been over extended from a weekend trip to a two-week trip (LOL).

I was kidding my friend that  we don’t need to wait for the fiesta because the food they prepared for us is like “fiesta” day ha ha. 



My in laws and my friends parents shared stories about how the places in Iloilo changed while we younger ones shared our Dinagyang adventures.  My friend was kidding that he haven’t experienced Iloilo and Dinagyang the way I experienced it while in fact he’s the true-blooded Ilonggo ha ha.

It was a fun and quick but meaningful visit that we enjoyed a lot.  My only regret about this trip was that we were not able to explore the Janiuay church and cemetery which both known for their historical features.  The church was enclosed with temporary safety fences due to the on going urgent repairs that they were trying to finish before the town fiesta.  While the cemetery is located one kilometer further from my friend’s home. We don’t have the time to travel the distance.

View of Janiuay church across the street from our moving vehicle.

Anyway, we headed on our way back home to the city and started our church hopping!