Yakan Weaving Village, Zamboanga

This is actually my third visit to the Latin City, and on my previous visits, we would always go to the Canelar Barter for pasalubong shopping.  At the barter, you can choose from the many stalls offering Batiks, shawls, and goodies coming from the Malaysia.  My favorites would be the Apollo Wafers and the Maggi Curry.

This time, I was looking for something unique.  I read from Cebu Pacific's in flight magazine Smile about the Yakan Weaving Village included on the must do list.  After our morning trip to Sta. Cruz island, we decided to drop by the village, on our way to La Vista del Mar for our lunch.

There, the Yakan community, originally from Basilan creates wallets, table cloth, runners and other novelty items from the woven fabric.   They will even let you see how they weave the fabric using traditional methods, right behind the stalls.

I hope that the few hundreds of pesos spent there help save the art and the craft. I encourage my readers visiting Zamboanga City to do the same!