VIGAN

VIGAN
07-08-16

When I was a kid, the family would make frequent trips to Ilocos Sur, particularly to the towns of Caoayan, Bayubay and Vigan. Even when my dad would have speaking engagements up north, the trip to Vigan would be a no-brainer.


You guessed it.
I'm a GI - a genuine Ilocana.
Both of my parents hail from Ilocos Sur. Though they come from the outskirts of Vigan, it was quite acceptable to say they were from the famous town. So, as a little girl, I would skip the cobbled streets of Calle Crisologo, even before it became the tourist spot it is now. I would look up and admire SyQuia Mansion, Quirino house and other old houses while dreaming of being a princess locked up in the second floor. I would have home-cooked sinaglaw for breakfast, empanada for merienda, longganisa & pinacbet for lunch and dinuydoy for dinner.

But as things would usually go, we grew up.  Our schedules got fuller and lives got busier. My manang and manong began to have their own time out of the house. The frequent trips became occasional,
then rare,
then only to whenever the opportunity came by. Maybe in the last 17 years, I made the trip to south Ilocandia only thrice.

Through these years, thanks to television and then the internet, I saw Vigan transform. She stood out like a queen in the pages of travel books, travel blogs and Facebook posts. So now I have returned to my blood roots, being undeniably GI even if I don't speak ilocano.
Maddic ammo nu kasano! Diak agsasao ti Ilocano! 
hahahaha

It was a different Vigan that welcomed me this time.
It felt somewhat nostalgic, yet somewhat different.
It felt like home, yet not truly home.

But it was nice to see the familiar pop up here and there. Then slowly, i began to feel I was home.

So while many things in Vigan have changed through the years, one thing still remains. The local folks are still as laid-back as ever. Really! So it would be good to know that they will not go fast-er to cater to your whims. So relax. If you go to Vigan, then just relax, unwind, and let the ticking of the clock go by.
That's my Vigan!

PS. If you want to know where to get most authentic Vigan longanisa...the one's mga apo nanangs make!
Go to Santa!
That's a trivia for you.

QUINTESSENTIAL

Ocam-Ocam, Busuanga
12-11-15

Busuanga is up on the northern side of the Pristine Island of Palawan. Its most famous destination is Coron. This would be my second visit to Coron, but this time it was only a two-hour stop over, for leg-stretching and lunch @Lolo Nonoy's!!!! Just a trivia, we urbanites would go to Coron and order seafood, seafood and more seafood, right? Did you know that the locals are not as crazy-about-seafood as we are? They would rather go for sinigang na baboy!

Since the visit was short, here are a few shots of the fish port, and boats that bring tourists to the famous destinations in Coron like Kayangin Lake and deep-sea dive spots like Sietes Pecados.

Well, my reunion with Coron was short-lived, since my main destination was Ocam-ocam, a three-hour rough-road ride further north, with limited helping of dust to the face. It would be my first in Ocam-ocam. When I told folks that I was off to/in Ocam-ocam, their response would be "where?" Not really inquiring the location of the place but moreso because of the intriguing, funny, "wait-what?" sort of name. The pastor there even joked telling us (hubby and I) "welcome to Ocam-ocam ye faithful", which, to me, was appropriately funny given that it was Christmas time.

Our destination was a community by the sea: quaint, quiet and quintessential. Imagine looking out your porch to the view of whitesand (boracay-esque) beach every day, sans the humans, and then every night to bask in the beauty of sunset. It was everything one can imagine of being "back to basic", in every way you can imagine - emotional, mental, spiritual and literal. No cellphone signal, no internet signal. I was off the grid...literally!

Life came alive at 3 or 4 am, perhaps except for me. So I was just glad that we stayed there for three days, thus I was able to get this shot of a father and son heading out to check out the net/trapping they had positioned the night before.

Then there's this ROCK. A humongous, giant of a rock that beckons in the distance. By dawn, when the tide is low, you can succumb to its hypnotising call. I obviously did! But as the dawn turned to day then to dusk, it becomes distant. Beautifully distant. I could only sit in a solitary shade and admire its beauty from afar.

The view from the ROCK

at 5:00 AM

at 9:00 AM

at 12:00NN

at 3:00PM

at 6:00PM

A Taste of the Simple Life.
Sometimes I wonder where all these simplicity has gone to.
A dose of simplicity.
Nowadays, we all need it. Perhaps even two. What has become of it?
Even living in the 'Burbs doesn't make me immune to the fast-paced life of the City. So I forget what it means to slow down, and what it entails to experience the simple life.

Then Ocam-ocam happened.
So I enjoyed God's "graffiti sky" or pristine sea.

Experienced unadulterated joy, simple happiness and innocence.

Felt secure and worry-free knowing God will take care of me.

WOW!

God, you never fail to amaze me.

I have been in many beaches, even lived beside one for eight years of my childhood. But I don't remember ever having a close encounter with perfection in nature. An example of perfection would be this sea-creature, the pool I stand in and the background of this shot. This is probably my first encounter with a five point Star-fish this huge (which I will correctly call a sea star, as the lady in Houston Oceanarium said, because it is not a fish. Ha!). I have seen the multi-pointed ones, but don't recall the 5-point buddies. So here, I am holding one. Tada!!!

Busuanga is perfect for hibernating, to disappear from the radar and just get lost in its beauty. I'm gonna do it again.

JEWELS

BULACAN

11-12-15

Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. (Matthew 19:14)

I had a wonderful opportunity to visit and do a photoshoot for BabyAnne's Mansion: a Home for Children. Schedule was extremely tight for me, but my heart urged me to do this. Perhaps because it was a rare opportunity to also drop everything and do what I love to do - capture images, take photos. It was also a rare opportunity to drop everything and head north without any agenda but to have fun. It was an opportunity to unwind. So I grabbed it. 

As I drove up the driveway of a small mansion-like home nestled in the midst of a golden rice field, I felt my shoulders go light. Ah, this was heaven for an introvert like me. I wanted to just dash out to the middle of the field and breath in the crisp, country air. But no time for that. I was already an hour and a half late so I wanted to get started with the shoot. The kids came out and their shrieks echoing through the hall that was quiet just mere minutes ago were proof of a life sans the cares of the world around them. 

Children can do a lot of things to you. They can have this effect on you in more ways than one.

...they can make you love

...they can make you hurt

...they can make you laugh

...they can make you cry

...they can make you dance

...they can make you run

or they can make your world suddenly feel like it stopped moving 

just by looking into their eyes.

After the shoot, I actually wanted to bring someone home with me!