Lapu-Lapu City
   Photo: Lapu-Lapu City

Lapu-Lapu City - highly urbanized Philippine city of Cebu province, which occupies most of Mactan Island, located a few kilometers from the island of Cebu. In the territory of the city also includes the island of Olang, and several other small islands. According to the census in 2007 there lived 292 thousand people.

Lapu-Lapu Mandaue is connected to the city on the island of Cebu by two bridges - the Mactan-Mandaue and Marcelo Fernan. This is where the international airport is located in Cebu, the second largest in the Philippines. And here I am the only one working in the Visayas region of the aquarium.
Mactan Island was colonized by the Spaniards in the 16th century, but in 1730 the monks of the Order founded a settlement avgustiniantsev Opon that two centuries later, in 1961, received the status of city and was renamed in Lapu-Lapu City.

The city's name was given in honor of the leader of the local tribe of Lapu-Lapu, who in 1521 killed the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan. In memory of this event in the city of the memorial Lapu-Lapu - a 20-foot bronze statue and a small chapel in the town of Punta Engano. Himself Lapu-Lapu, also known as the Caliph pulaka, died in 1542. He was not only the leader of a local clan and ruler of Mactan Island. When the Spaniards appeared on the Cebu to actively convert the locals to Christianity, Lapu-Lapu was made against the colonialists. Today, Filipinos are equally revered both heroes of the era: Magellan - as a pioneer country in Europe, Lapu-Lapu - as the first national hero, a fighter for the independence of the country. So no wonder that the island of Cebu commemorated both historical characters.

Another attraction of the Lapu-Lapu City is a cable-stayed bridge Marcelo Fernan, one of the two bridges connecting the city with the island of Cebu. The bridge was opened in 1999 to reduce traffic on the old bridge over the Mactan-Mandaue. The total length of the Marcelo Fernan - 1237 meters, it is considered one of the most extensive and longest bridge in the Philippines. His name was in honor of the bridge of a local politician Marcelo Fernan.

Tourists are also certainly worth a visit Oceanarium Mactan - the only one in the region Visayas. Oceanarium was opened in 2008 and today it presents about 30 exhibitions that introduce visitors to some of the most beautiful and amazing marine life of the planet. The highlight of the aquarium is an attraction during which anyone can feed the very real shark! By the way, this is the only Asian attraction of this kind.

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Lapu-Lapu City
Mactan Island
Moalboal
Daanbantayan