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| The main building at the Nature Sanctuary designed by Joel Lee. Photo by Jabez Flores |
From Alpas Resort in Antique, the team took a flight to Cebu via Iloilo to check out a permaculture design on a scale that's unlike anything we have experienced from the past eight trips. Originally, our intention was to visit just one farm in Carcar City because we only had three days to do our data gathering. But our respondent, Edna Lee, insisted that we also take a look at their projects in Cebu City so that we can understand the full extent of their permaculture design. We agreed to the proposal knowing that permaculture design is more than just farming. We wanted to see the entire system--how things fit in and how each component works...plus we didn't pay for anything! Thank you!
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| The West Gorordo Hotel frontage featuring various plants, vegetables, a pond, and a meandering driveway. Photo by Jabez Flores |
We spent our first night at West Gorordo Hotel--the first of three permaculture-inspired hotels in Cebu City. In the morning, the staff gave us an orientation and a tour of the hotel and its permaculture design features (which we will feature on our YouTube channel soon!). It has a library and an art gallery called the Museum of Naive Art, featuring the works of artist, Paulina Constancia Lee, sister of Edna. Next, we went to the Mayflower Inn--one of the oldest buildings in the city and lastly, to Elicon House where we met Edna for the first time. We had a quick lunch and headed straight to Carcar City with her to visit The Justice German Lee Jr. Nature Sanctuary (or Nature Sanctuary for short. German Lee Jr. is the name of their father).
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| The front desk and the staff of the Mayflower Inn. Photo by Dada Mercado |
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| The bicycle museum at the Elicon House. Photo by Dada Mercado |
It was here where we met Joel Lee, Edna's older brother, a veteran permaculture designer and one of the very first students at Cabiokid along with his sister. The Nature Sanctuary is situated in a dense beach forest with half of the property dedicated to mangrove conservation. We would spend the next two days in this place gathering data and understanding the design philosophy behind the site and its relationship with the three hotels in Cebu City. Edna and Joel definitely shared a lot to us and we're now in the process of analyzing the data that we have. It's a huge project but we're happy to see a design that goes beyond the boundaries of a backyard farm.
The vlog episode for Cebu City will premier on February 7 and Carcar City on February 12.
Special thanks to Edna and Joel for being such gracious hosts! See you soon.
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