broccoli, strawberries & honey
Click on the photo and visit the incredible photo blog that is lantaw.blogspot.comFor the third time in two years, I had the fortunate chance to go up to Baguio and enjoy the cold weather with my extended family. I love the cold. I love the vegetables. I love the mountains. I love the local pine trees. I love strawberries in various states of freshness. Boom di yada...and so the Discovery channel song goes.
But prior to going up the Cordillera mountains, we made a short stop at Manaoag, Pangasinan to makea pilgrimage to Our Lady of Manaoag Church with the enshrined statue of Mary brought centuries ago by Spanish friars and is known to be miraculous. It's akin to lining up at the mall waiting for your turn to sit on Santa's lap and enumerating your wish list. Except that Santa's not fake or under the authority of mall management...and you enumerate all sorts of things from wishes to apologies to being armed with a whole lot of virtues.
Not to say that I'm shifting to a travel blog or whatnot, because frankly, I still haven't traveled enough to be considered a pundit...even by yours truly. I've only reached up to Vigan, Ilocos Sur on the north and Cagayan De Oro on the south. And those two trips were parental-unit initiated. I'm mostly in between those two areas in the country.
I have a platonic relationship with traveling. I have no amorous, uncontrollable, sporadic urge to pack light, pretend to be a nomad and actually put those ideas into action. It's just not me. I'm not a Cain. I'm an Abel, in that annoying "I prefer to settle and farm in this place." There has to be a clear direction or purpose to my traveling. Even if I sometimes tell myself that I'd bring a rucksack and go backpacking around Europe in an instant (subject to availability of funds and some sort of multiple entry Schengen Visa), in reality, I'd be the list-making, booking reservations type of person leaving tracks whether via email or social networking with the attempt to appear as if I'm just making historical accounts when in fact, I'm 40% scared of organized crime involving human trafficking.
But hey, it's all about overcoming your fear. Like bungee jumping or riding the Viper on Six Flags when you're afraid of heights.
But prior to going up the Cordillera mountains, we made a short stop at Manaoag, Pangasinan to makea pilgrimage to Our Lady of Manaoag Church with the enshrined statue of Mary brought centuries ago by Spanish friars and is known to be miraculous. It's akin to lining up at the mall waiting for your turn to sit on Santa's lap and enumerating your wish list. Except that Santa's not fake or under the authority of mall management...and you enumerate all sorts of things from wishes to apologies to being armed with a whole lot of virtues.
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Not to say that I'm shifting to a travel blog or whatnot, because frankly, I still haven't traveled enough to be considered a pundit...even by yours truly. I've only reached up to Vigan, Ilocos Sur on the north and Cagayan De Oro on the south. And those two trips were parental-unit initiated. I'm mostly in between those two areas in the country.
I have a platonic relationship with traveling. I have no amorous, uncontrollable, sporadic urge to pack light, pretend to be a nomad and actually put those ideas into action. It's just not me. I'm not a Cain. I'm an Abel, in that annoying "I prefer to settle and farm in this place." There has to be a clear direction or purpose to my traveling. Even if I sometimes tell myself that I'd bring a rucksack and go backpacking around Europe in an instant (subject to availability of funds and some sort of multiple entry Schengen Visa), in reality, I'd be the list-making, booking reservations type of person leaving tracks whether via email or social networking with the attempt to appear as if I'm just making historical accounts when in fact, I'm 40% scared of organized crime involving human trafficking.
But hey, it's all about overcoming your fear. Like bungee jumping or riding the Viper on Six Flags when you're afraid of heights.
8:49 PM
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