Aklan Adventure Part 1. Kalibo, New Washington, Lezo and Numancia

The province of Aklan is best known for Boracay and its annual Ati-atihan Festival. Outside these two attractions, very little is known about the province. Aklan is believed to have been settled in ancient times by settlers from Borneo, ruled by Datu Bangkaya, with his seat at Madyanos, near present-day Numancia. In 1565, Spanish explorer Miguel López de Legazpi landed in Batan and claimed the island for Spain. In early Spanish accounts it was called El Río de Aclán. Aklan's piña handloom weaving is inscribed in UNESCO in 2023 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This is our video documenting our visit to Aklan to visit its hidden gems, and to get to know more about its history, culture and heritage. For Part 1, we visited Kalibo, New Washington, Lezo and Numancia. We started with vibrant Kalibo, the home of the Ati-Atihan, as we visit its Cathedral, Pastrana Park, Museo it Akean, Ati-Atihan Museum and the lesser-known Chinese Cemetery. We followed this with a trip to New Washington, the birthplace of Cardinal Sin, and where we visited Museo Kardinal, a museum dedicated to his legacy, the Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church, the Cardinal Sin Monument, New Washington's beautiful plaza, and the Talabahan, where we feasted on fresh oysters. We then took a multicab to visit Aklan's smallest town in terms of area and population, Lezo, where we visited the beautiful church of Saint Isidore the Worker, the sprawling plaza with the bronze statue of Jose Rizal, and a unique park dedicated to Hello Kitty. Our last stop was the town of Numancia, the town first settled by the Bornean datus, and visited its century-old Parish of St. Joseph the Worker, its plaza and several memorial monuments.