With all the sad series of events that engulfed Zamboanga City last month, I am reminded of the first time time that I had the chance to explore the city as well as parts of the Zamboanga Peninsula. The Zamboanga Peninsula, by the way, consists of Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay and its component cities are: Dipolog, Dapitan, Pagadian, Isabela and of course, Zamboanga City.
It was a wedding that first led me to the Zamboanga peninsula in the late 90’s. An office mate who was also a very good friend was getting married. Although several of us at work as well as other friends initially planned to go the wedding together, only 2 of us actually made it there. I traveled together with the groom’s family from Cebu City. The bride was from Kabasalan which was part of Zamboanga del Sur before, it’s now part of Zamboanga Sibugay which was created as a separate province by 2001. 
It was a long trip; we took a boat going to Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte from Cebu City. The boat has a stop-over in Dumaguete for a few hours. From Dapitan, we traveled by van to Kabasalan. We enjoyed the hospitality of the bride’s family, the serenity of the place and of course, the wedding 🙂  During reception, I had the chance to talk with my friend’s aunt and thus a plan was hatched to explore Zamboanga City itself 🙂  The city was still about 2 hours away and yes, we had to pass by Ipil. Just to let you know that Ipil was also attacked previously by some rebel forces then. But well, sometimes travel can also mean taking risks. And I would say that the trip was all worth it 🙂  I enjoyed my time in Zamboanga; I particularly loved the beautiful malong and sarong made by the people there.
And now fast forward to my trip in another part of Zamboanga. I had the chance to explore Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur for the first time, just a couple of years back. While there, I was also able to visit a couple of towns as well. Okay, I have to admit that being in other parts of Zamboanga may not be the safest place to be. But my friends who lived there simply gave me basic reminders such as not stay out so late in certain towns there 🙂  Well, that worked for me 🙂  Below are some of my photos during my trip there:

 

 

There are more photos and travel notes in an older post I have of my first trip to Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur, just click here.