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Hello Hive!

It's been a while since I posted on my own turf. While my posts are usually related to my travels, the last post I had that's officially considered as "travel" content was more than a month ago. I have been posting photography and food lately. There's just a lot of communities to be involved with.

I mentioned this place in my previous post about the flowers of Sirao Garden. I noted that if you're to visit Cebu, Sirao Flower Garden is the most famous of all the flower gardens here, but it's not the most stunning. Besides, comparing entrance fees, Sirao Flower Garden is much more expensive than the others.

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I haven't made a proper post about Sirao Flower Garden yet. I just posted some photos I took while we were there. I'll probably post about the whole experience after this post. Anyway, you can have that post as a reference for now and you can check it through the link below:

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_{Flowers from Sirao Flower Garden}

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And now let me share my experience in Buwakan ni Alejandra and why I think this garden is much better compared to the famous Sirao Flower Garden.

----- BUWAKAN NI ALEJANDRA_{Balamban's Stunning Flower Garden} -----

Buwakan ni Alejandra is located in Transcentral Highway, Sitio Bunga, Brgy. Gaas, Balamban, Cebu. It's just a few meters away from the famous Adventure Cafe. Other notable spots near the area are West 35 and Mt. Manunggal. It's just about 45 minutes drive from the city via the scenic Cebu Transcentral Highway, passing through some famous spots in Busay and Sirao.

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Buwak means flower in English so Buwakan ni Alejandra means Alejandra's Flower Farm or Garden. The flower garden didn't really get much attention after its soft opening in 2017, probably because it was because of Sirao Flower Farm which was a viral tourist spot at that time. Because of irresponsible tourists that flocked to Sirao Flower Farm, it was damaged. Also, since the management lost control over those reckless tourists, they trampled on the flowers just to get the perfect shot. This caused a call for responsible tourism and at the same time, Buwakan ni Alejandra slowly emerged to be a better alternative to Sirao Flower Farm.

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In case you're wondering what's with the name Alejandra, it's the name of the mother-in-law of the owner and landscaper of the flower garden. Spanning 700 square meters, the garden is housing almost 200 varieties of plants and flowers which will really fire your senses. If you're surrounded by blooming flowers and colourful plants, it feels like you're reconnecting with nature, albeit everything in the garden is man-made.

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The reason why I find Buwakan ni Alejandra to be better than Sirao Flower Farm is that the staff are always present within the garden, making sure that people will not trample or pluck the flowers. They are also offering to take your photos. Since the garden is in a sloped terrain, they terraced it in such a way that you can meander throughout the whole garden in a pre-determined path.

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Another reason why I love the whole set up is that it seems the people are an integral part of the garden. I usually hate taking photos of places when there's a lot of people in them, but it feels different in the garden. Taking photos with people makes the garden feel more alive. I felt guilty for visiting the place while we were in the middle of a pandemic, but it would have been very crowded if it was a normal weekend.

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From the entrance, there's an elevated path that runs from the right side of the garden, sloping downwards, to the end of the garden below. At the end of the elevated path, you can enter the garden and have up-close moments with the flowers and plants. Because of the way the garden is landscaped, you can choose wherever you want to be once you passed by the elevated path. If there are people in the part of the garden where you wanted to be, you can just go to the other parts first and then come back later when they're done in that part.

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At the end of the garden, you can also marvel the scenery of the mountains in that area. When you're done with the scenery, you can choose to chill in the resting area to have some snacks or just catch your breath before going to the upper portions of the garden. There are so many varieties of flowers and colourful plants to enjoy. At the center of the garden is a series of arcs made of plants where most tourists take their photos.

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If you've been to Sirao Flower Farm and enjoyed your visit there, Buwakan ni Alejandra is definitely worth a visit.

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Kim Ybañez _{Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession, but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits secluded destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying hard photographer so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.} _{If you like his content, don't forget to upvote and leave a comment to show some love. You can also reblog if you want to. Also, don't forget to follow him to be updated with his latest posts.}

[//]:# (!pinmapple 10.430537 lat 123.776203 long d3scr)