9/30/08

A visit to Sagada is never complete without a healthy serving of yoghurt from Yoghurt House. Some find it a little too tart but for me, it’s spoon after spoon of creamy goodness. What I also like about Yoghurt House is the late afternoon light seeping in from its windows.

Here, a broom rests behind the door.

I posted a series of children playing in the rice fields in my previous entry. Among them was this muddied boy who gamely posed for us.

We stayed at Alibama Inn, across George’s Guesthouse. Alibama Inn has a discreet, beautiful simplicity to it. And the pine wood gives a clean, homey finish.

Just a random lamppost.

Gotta finish packing! I’m off to Batanes!

9/19/08

I will be facilitating this workshop. Hope to see you there!

Ilocos or Bust!

5/19/08

It’s about 4:00 AM. Suddenly, the van we are riding comes to a halt. Our softspoken driver quickly disengages his seatbelt and runs out of the van and disappears from our sight. We could only think that he has found people who we hope, know the proper directions. Meanwhile, all 14 of us are shushed into silence partly because of sleepiness but mostly because of the pitch black darkness of the world outside our metal contraption. I breaked the silence “This is how horror films about tourists start.”

We arrived at Lucban, Quezon at around 5:30 AM and already the locals were busy setting up all sorts of stages and platforms. For the people of Lucban, that day was even more important than Christmas of New Year. It was May 15 and it was Pahiyas.After having a hearty breakfast at Buddy’s we decided to scan the area for best vantage points to have an advantage over the hordes of tourists that are expected to pour later in the day. Amidst brooding skies, we were able to take some “street” shots which weren’t half-bad, we’d like to think.

Good Morning Lucban

Shin and a Regular Yum

Pansit at Buddy’s

Lonely Hearts Club

Lucban Longganisa

Ready to Fiesta

Silip

Hypercolorchicks

Candles

And then it rained.

4/8/08

Our trip to Caramoan involved an initial 8 to 9-hour bus ride to Sabang Port which is about an hour away from Naga City, the capital of the Province of Camarines Sur. From Sabang Port, we then embarked on a 2-hour ferry to Guijalo Port, which is Caramoan’s gateway. Because a weather disturbance had just passed, we encountered huge waves which made our sizable ferry bob up and down in hair-raising heights. At first it was fun and thrilling, the girls were even screaming as if they were in an amusement park thrill ride. Then nausea crept in and quieted them.

Porter

From Guijalo, our group boarded a jeep which transfered us to Bikal Port where we would ride another boat to our final destination.

Toploading

Agriscape

Our timing was off. When we got to Bikal Port, the tide was too low and our group’s boat was in the distance in deeper waters so we had to divide ourselves into groups of 4 or 5 and get into small boats which the fishermen painstakingly pushed against sand and silt.

Bikal Port

And The Sea

Low Tide

Steermaster

In the islands, we are all under the mercy of the sea.