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Everything started with
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With the beginning of the ´90s my father-in-law Eleuterio
"Eter" Sumalpong started to develop a small beach resort
with the beautiful name "Hidden Paradise". The small
valley ending in a white sand beach came really close to this
name. There were 3 small native style cottages offering fair
prized and friendly shelter. The main house situated on a hill
in the entrance of the valley was designed as a restaurant. You
were seldom treated as a tourist - more like a family member
or a friend. Since this time numerous guests still keep contact
with the family. 1998 I came as a tourist for a couple of days - and stayed for 2 months. |
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New start with
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Unfortunately my father- in-law had to sell the property in 1999. He built a new house for his family on the adjoining neighbor parcel and started a new resort which was named "Hard Rock Cottages". This name is rather linked to the music genre than to the real hard rocks my father-in-law had to roll down the cliff to form a platform above sea level to place 2 new cottages on them. He did all of this hard labour only with the help of crowbars, water pipes and a car jack. Additional he constructed a staircase leading to the platform. |
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Marriage |
 At the end of 1999 I got involved again. I asked the eldest daughter, Elma, if she wanted to become my wife. She wanted. We married April 2000. While we were in Germany my father-in-law industriously built 2 more small cottages on the clifftop, developed the landscape and planted a garden. |
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Takeover and renovation |
June 2002 Eleuterio Sumalpong died, only 48 years old. His wife Norma
took over the resort, but tourism on the Philippines stagnated.
Backpackers and other travellers came fewer and fewer. Thus there
was no capital for renovation or new buildings. August 2003 we moved from Germany to the Philippines. January 2004 we took over the management of the resort. We rebuilt the smaller cottages on the clifftop from the scratch, renovated the bungalows on the platform completely and built a new restaurant / bar unit with seaview. |
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Last update: 08-15-2007
Copyright © 2005-2008 Hard Rock Cottages, Bitaug, Enrique Villanueva, Siquijor, Philippines All rights reserved.
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