Hello to all the readers of The Bayanihan Blog Network, Fool for Five, The Parody, and Yugatech. My name is Eugene Alvin Villar and Vista Pinas is where I lead you on a virtual tour of Filipino places from all around the world. This is possible through the satellite images provided for us by Google Maps and Google Earth. It’s a totally new way of looking at the Philippines. If you’ve enjoyed Anton’s Google Earth Philippines tour I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading this blog as well.

I have actually been running this blog as Tanawing Pinoy for over a year before it became part of the Bayanihan Blog Network. Rico found the idea of featuring Pinoy locations from hundreds of kilometers up in space fitting for the vision of the BBN, and so here we are! I hope you share my passion for exploring the country, if not on foot, at least online. There are many ways of exploring the sites that have been featured here in Vista Pinas: you can use an interactive Google map, see a random gallery of site thumbnails, or download the KML file so that you can view the sites in Google Earth or NASA World Wind at your own leisure.

Through Vista Pinas, I am able to revisit the places I have been to, such as the Cagsawa Ruins in Albay and Calle Crisologo in Vigan. This blog has also provided an outlet for me to “see” some places that I’d like to visit someday, like Avilon Zoo in Rizal, and Magellan’s Cross in Cebu City. Of course, it’s also nice seeing Filipino locations from all around the world, like the residence of the Philippine Ambassador to Japan or the first Jollibee branch in the United States. Cool, no?

P.S. At the risk of confusing my readers further, my online handle is seav, not vaes9. vaes9 is actually the name of my personal/technology blog, where I talk about music, movies, programming, web development, Google, blogging, and technology in general. (Why such weird names? Well, “seav” is an anagram of my initials and “vaes” is simply the reverse.)