A Saturday Morning Field Trip

There were four reasons to take a Saturday sojourn before the long break in October 2012:
1. To day climb 2. To introduce climbing to an associate 3. To revisit Vivere Azure and 5. To test drive a tough vehicle.

A climb is my antidote to the stress triggered by difficulty faced at work and stimulating personal conditions. The heavy breathing at the start purges the negative sentiments. The inhalation upon reaching the peak brings in refreshed outlook.

Introducing somebody to an ecstatic climb and to a new destination is a way of sowing gladness and expanding more possibilities in life whose windfall is felt over an extended period of time.

Vivere Azure imprinted in me an impression of an exclusive resort with customer service deeply imbedded in their staff. The feeling of delight simply flashes back to me by merely sight of the place in Anilao.

Test driving is a practical task that made this all happen. Standards were met.

Leaving Barangay San Teodoro completing all the four activities in less than a day is respite from the taxing past quarter activity. It recharged me to better face the demands of the closing two months of year 2012.

The antidote works fast. Immediately after the short climb, I received an email from the Chief himself stating how pleased he was with the output of a previous project.

A fitting close to this Saturday morning program is the adage “recall the past for its learning and positive association but look forward more to the developing future ahead.”

Foto taken by PJ using Iphone technology

BBC's Earth, Wind, Fire and Water



Crystals in Mexico

BBC’s “How Earth Made Us” hosted by geologist Professor Iain Stewart documents 4 incredible natural forces that shaped history: Water, Fire, Earth Beneath and Wind.

Each force is treated independently with a strong revelation per force that keeps one glued to both the professor’s narration and the awesome visuals typical of BBC’s documentaries.

While the forces are separately treated, they are linked together creating a complementing picture of how they shaped history and the advancement and destruction of civilization.

It showed the importance of water and how it cycles where at each stage, man abruptly disrupts resulting in distortion of the natural process.

Experiencing Fire

The earth beneath reveals minerals and metals which when converted speeded up the shaping of the earth.

Beneath the Earth

Wind influenced the discovery of land through the natural air flow opening up new frontiers via sailing.

Fire transformed earth’s natural condition to an industrial and mechanical state.

All forces lead to a climax keeping your curious mind interested and prompting you to beg for the answer which Professor Stewart eventually provides.

1. How did water influence the maturity of early civilization and the wealth of the state?

2. How did coal make countries rich?

3. How did fire wipe out an entire civilization?

How Earth Made Us shows us conditions and dimensions we have not seen before like crystals beneath the earth, fire in the eyes of man, inside an aquifer.

The 4 hour documentary ends posing a point of view: resources are finite and man is exponentially expediting its depletion. The team of writers mainly scientists also presents a perspective that man too has the power to re engineer the shaping of the earth. How? The answer won’t keep you hanging but you have to watch it.

Text by Chito, visuals from the BBC site.

Value Beyond its Price

My standard Nissan Sentra sedan has proven to be reliable and worth its value based on extreme experiences in the past month.

Last Monday, 10 Sept 2012 when sudden heavy downpour triggered by Hangin Habagat hit Metro Manila past 6 PM, I suddenly found myself in a standstill at San Francisco st. towards Mandaluyong city hall on the way to Quezon City.

It took me over two hours to cover this point to Shaw Boulevard near the corner of Araullo st. in San Juan. It could have been longer had I not bravely maneuvered the sedan in the flooded street that was just above the ankle. This modest car did not fail me.

A month ago, I attended a despedida for 2 visiting guests from the US who were to leave for NAIA1 immediately after, I ended up bringing the guests to the airport. With office materials stuffed in the trunk, I wondered how else I can fit in 4 over-sized luggage, 2 hand carry bags and 2 passengers in this sedan. With some creativity, we managed to squeeze in everything for the short 30 minute ride from Makati to Pasay.

For its price relative to other automobile brands, this Sentra has certainly earned its value far more than its peso price.

Ken Burn's The National Parks

The National Parks, America’s Best Idea a film by Ken Burns is a six part series running over 12 hours on how America started the creation of national parks in 1872 chronicling the events up to 1980.

It presents the political, spiritual, commercial, geological and historical dimensions on how the first set of the 58 National Parks (Yellowstone as the 1st National Park created by US President Ulysses Grant in 1 March 1872) and Monuments were institutionalized in the US. 

How a national park is declared is presented with facts that included lobbying in the senate by the advocates and oppositions mounted by miners, railroad builders, ranchers to protect their own interests. Always, the principle of preserving God’s creation for the greater good for the present and the next and future generations is invoked to move its passage.

Other than the commercial part (influx of tourists via train and Buick automobiles), the film is relevant to us particularly on how we have given importance to the value of a park, the preservation of wildlife and the will to sustain the drive. Of interest to us mountaineers are the messages of naturalist John Muir famous for his quotation among others The Freedom of the Mountaineer from Episode Two. The line "Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees," the personal transcendental experiences of writers and historians and those who have seen the wonder of the natural creation are featured in the "Leave it as it is. A revelation to a non-American is the role US President Theodore Roosevelt who is physically challenged and a taxidermist collecting stuffed specimens played in championing the cause of the parks.

William Cronan, historian narrates what John Muir meant in “transforming by his unconditional surrender to nature and in surrendering in everything that is wild.” as Episode One ends.

“Wildness is an essential part of ourselves that our ordinary lives tempt us to forget. By losing touch with the essential part of ourselves, we risk losing our souls and for him going out into nature to these parks is how we recover ourselves, remember who we truly are and reconnect with our core roots or our own identity, of our own spirituality that is sacred in our existence.

The tendency nowadays to wander in wildness is delightful to see. Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken over civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home, that wildness is a necessity, and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as factories of timber and irrigating rivers but as fountains of life.”

National Park personifying in film the forest ranger as the absolute source of information about the park gives him the adulation deserving for what he does.

Who is the forest ranger? Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service in 1916 wanted more national parks within reach of more people and wanted them promoted as one cohesive system. Working with his assistant Horace Albright, other than marketing the parks and allowing the entry of vehicles, he created a new image of the park ranger. Mather wanted a cadre of dedicated and professional park rangers.“They should be "men between the ages of 21 and 40," Albright specified, "of good character, sound physique, and tactful in handling people."They also had to be able to ride horses, build trails, fight forest fires, handle firearms, have survival experience in extreme weather conditions, and be willing to work long hours with no overtime pay. From a salary of $1,000 a year, they were expected to buy their own food and bedding – and to pay $45 for a specially designed uniform topped by a distinctive flat-brimmed hat.” -Lifted from Episode Four

The pinoy mountaineer can identify with all of the forest ranger attributes except for the horse riding and the brimmed hat.

Value of national park is immortalized in the poem "West Running Brook" written by Robert Frost and paraphrased by writer Dayton Duncan as “It is for that that we spring it’s going back toward the source, the beginning of beginnings.  And the national parks are part of that, that sparkle in the water. Life pushes us forward. Our society moves forward in a great rush. But the parks are the place that throws us back a little bit. That makes us pause, makes us reflect and points us back to the source to the beginning of beginnings. And that is their value. And that is their beauty.”-Lifted from Episode Two

National Parks in blu ray format is available for viewing with friends here in Manila, if that is what it takes to snowball a movement to be advocates of our own Philippine parks.

Ang Ibon at ang Phantom

Severino Reyes’ Walang Sugat, a zarzuela staged by Tanghalang Pilipino directed by Carlos Siguion-Reyna ran on the same date and complex as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, a broadway musical this 26 August 2012 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

Common between the two musical productions other than shared dates and venue is the theme: pursuit of a relationship and the wanting to be freed. In Walang Sugat, fulfillment of a relationship meant bond in marriage between Tenyong and Julia while in The Phantom it was the Phantom’s release of Christine for Raoul. Walang Sugat’s thesis is “O, makapangyarihang pag-ibig, hahamakin ang lahat, makamtan ka lamang!”

Both dramatized that it is the spirit that sets the heart free but the Phantom was more explicit in stating that music is the key to freedom. The song Music of the Night ends with“Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in to the power of the music that I write the power of the music of the night.”

Both were engaging in theme, language and production values varying only in scale and magnitude.

Love as a universal language has a wide appeal whether global or regional. There lies though one difference. In the Phantom, I was just one of the over 1,800 in the audience at the main theater while in Walang Sugat, I was seated at the center at the same level as the stage. In Walang Sugat, it was not relating to the 400 theatergoers but to me as a native citizen.

When the chorus described the nation in Constancio de Guzman’s music as “ibon man may layang lumipad, kulungin mo at umiiyak” and wanting to be freed “Pilipinas kong minumutya pugad ng luha at dalita aking adhika makita kang sakdal laya” the production was not merely an illusion but threading on a  reality.

Youth, System and Passion in times of Crisis

Judging from the quick response of citizen’s group to mobilize relief operations to supplement the government and advocacy group’s drive, we can declare selectively that we are an organized and socially responsible society.

Packing at the UP Diliman College of Human Kinetics

At the Ateneo and UP Diliman campuses and in other school and commercial centers, relief centers were immediately activated with donations in terms of goods, cash and services coming in on the onset. Mountaineering groups, fraternities and sororities, student council organization, medical units, logistics company willingly offered their expertise to augment the drives which are not traditionally covered by the usual relief operations.

The more structured units deployed score cards to provide visibility and transparency to their operations. Info like number of volunteers, donations received, sponsors, bags sorted and deployed, efficiency rates, operating hours, inventory and other relevant data were made available to anyone.

Three factors seem to have contributed to this spontaneous movement: Harnessing the energy of the youth who channeled their drives from the suspended classes to the relief centers, leveraging the power of organizations and their systematic approach to massive operations, our personal devotion to advocacy and in helping others.

Sorting at the Ateneo Loyola Studies Covered Court

While we may not have sufficient resources and facilities, it is our spirit as a nation that provides us with infinite wealth. Mabuhay ka Pinoy!

Photos grabbed from Arcel Tesoro-Madrid UP Student Council and Pregalario UCPRO Ateneo posted in facebook.

Time Flies

When Tears for Fear opened the concert with the familiar melodic strains of “Welcome to your life,” of the song “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” I was immediately transported to the 80’s when that song was in my last music syndrome memory box for an extended period of time.

Listening further to the angsts of Roland who created the band with Curt with a strong psychological affiliation of transforming the fears to tears as a bridge to coping, I assessed that their songs popularized in the 80’s heard again in the 21st century can pass the test of time. Still relevant, current, modern.

Concert's playlist interpreted to about 17 thousand concert goers supported with technically superior audio and video facilities in a landmark venue, several insights were spontaneously floating in my mind. One of them was how can life go on immediately after the “Hagupit ng Habagat” as if nothing happened? Another was, "Will the sights and sounds bring back the memory of my youth?"

Beside me was a young Chinese in the company of older folks appreciating the songs of another era who would stand up and sway to the beat of the drums when familiar songs are played. This validated that TFF music’s appeal to multiple generations. He would sit down when Roland churns in his relatively new tunes and stand up again and swing his body when the crowd gets excited. Though not skillful, he was naturally following the graceful rhythm of his pace.


New and old generation alike were equally approving and moving in varying degrees. But who would enjoy it the most?

After about an hour and a half, Roland and Curt ended the set playlist with “Head over Heels” resonating Araneta Coliseum with the prolonged melody of the final line, “tiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmeeee fliiiiiiieeeees.”

With the crowd’s loud and appreciative applause, at that moment, the line confirmed the debate I initially entertained, "It is inevitable, you cannot hold time.  Just go along with it.”

Moving out of the crowded coliseum, another song "Mad World" kept on ringing in my ear, "the dreams in which I'm dyin' are the best I've ever had."  TFF last 10 August might just be a dream.

Carrying Capacity Discussion Points

Discussion on Carrying Capacity conducted at the UP AIT Seminar Room 

Broadly, the host and moderator Prof. Caloy Libosada Jr. established the definition of carrying capacity as the limits (initially) on the number of people conducting activity without adverse impact on the installation and maintaining it for the succeeding generations of host communities and visitors.

Discussion points contributed by guests were leading to parameters that can define to the limiting factors of carrying capacity in different types of locations.

It can be physical, desired visitor’s experience, limited logistical and infrastructure supports, threats to ecological system, threats to safety, needs of the community, capability of the ecological system to recover from adverse conditions, stakeholders’ agenda including politics and commercial outfitters.

Attendees from various interest groups (mainly outdoors) provided samples of actual carrying capacity limits from their experiences as practical references:

1. Mt. Kanlaon’s standard of number of people in a group (arbitrarily set at 8 by the guides with no scientific basis)
2. Palawan’s underground river’s maximum limit of 780 visitors a day due to the size constraints of the cave opening (which caused a backlog of waiting visitors at the airport and other installations)
3. Mt. Pulag’s 200 trekkers limit per day which can be expanded situationally
4. Several others which I have missed out

 Example of degradation that happened if limits are not defined and controlled:

1. Dwarf bamboo of Mt. Pulag increasing in height due to the food left behind for the plants’ nutrition
2. Possible decline of Pulag’s cloud rat due to the widening of the trail which prevents the specie to cross path (hypothetical)
3. Disappearances of species
4. Migrations

Initially, numbers define limits but eventually should cover quality and extent of activity done. Parameters can likewise be expanded depending on the priority like culture, noise level, monetary and recovery rate among others. Capacity thus has to be customized initially broadly such as mountains, rivers, seas, caves and eventually to specific locations. Carrying capacity is based on the assumption that all other factors remain constant. If ever there are major influences, calamities, capacity has to be updated and redefined.

It may look as simple as defining how many passengers can ride a plane or an MRT/LRT because of space and weight consideration but is more complex than that if other parameters are considered. Caloy’s vision for this project is to provide a concrete output on the concept of carrying capacity Philippines setting to show it can be done.

There appears to be need for a neutral unit to define and set standards and model backed up by data and a discipline. A working model can be applied to various installations. What can drive the project among others are a consultant who is a subject matter expert on carrying capacity, funding, baseline information and previous studies.

In effect, to realize the output of a carrying capacity study, it will regulate. Prior to that, it must build awareness through education and information drive. Depending on the limiting factors to be protected, interventions can still be put in place. The end in mind is to maintain and preserve and resource for use in a defined time line.

Next step is to hold another discussion with other stakeholders to concretize the initiative. I understand there is a forthcoming workshop where this exercise can be put to test.

13 July 2012

Notes and essay from a workshop upon the invitiation of friends from the climbing community

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"Philippine Mountains SUMMIT: A National Policy Forum on Philippine Mountain Environments" held at Mt Makiling at the University of the Philippines Los Baños last 16-17 November 2000 was a resounding success for mountaineering in getting representation from this policy formulating body and in recognizing the value of mountaineering in our common ground, the mountains in the Philippines. The forum organized by the Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems headed by Dr. Edwino Fernando aims to develop policy initiatives for the conservation and sustainable development of mountain environments in the Philippines.

The Mountaineering Federation of the Philippines Inc, a national affiliation of mountaineers under the leadership of President Ari Ben Sebastian presented a position to the participants composed mainly of scientists, government officials on what it can to this scientific community:
• That not all climbers are mountaineers
• That this recognized body be allowed to climb
• That we have a responsibility to all those who climb
• That their researches will support our recreational undertaking
• That we can be tapped for environment related projects in this fragile/diverse mountain eco-system
• That we can partner with them in managing our common playground: the mountains.

Foresters, local government units, geologists, DENR, Philvocs, Tourism, mountaineers, PAMB, Bureau of Soils were represented.

Through the MFPI paper on mountaineering as a recreation, other participants sought the possibility of a collaborative drive between technocrats and hobbyists one of which is study on carrying capacities of mountain. Some foresters, geologists, professors expressed interest to enroll in the BMC and to be members.

The MFPI position on vision mission was not any different from the collective position of the conference output, in fact complementary in the aspect of ecological preservation. Our friends from the academe recognize all the time the value of carrying capacity in any undertaking in the mountains, putting importance to the local community. This is almost aligned with the MFPI Vision Mission.

This forum is a potential linkage for advocacy and policy influencing to the DENR and to the government. MFPI has established contacts with various foresters, tourism body and of course PAMB. As we move towards 2002 on the International Year of the Mountains, it will work closely with MCME in initiating a massive, year round mountain clean, if only to impress consciousness to everyone.

Director Raymundo Punongbayan of Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology in his astounding presentation made us appreciate the geological source of mountains in the Philippines. But eventually, they will disappear (in million to billion years that is).

For the next forum in Baguio last quarter of the year, MFPI has been requested to present.

Chito Razon, PALMC 18 November 2000

3 Global Events in Manila Week of 18 June

• Chris Botti performed at the Resorts World 19 June.
• Australia and New Zealand Chamber of Commerce organized An International Food and Wine festival at the Manila Shang-rila 23 June.
• Anton Juan staged Giacomo Puccini's Madame Butterfly at the Cultural Center of the Philippines 23 June.

Wine, Music and Drama all in a week. Enriching!

Dado Banatao's Local TV Interview

Dado Banatao was interviewed at the Bottomline with Boy Abunda over ABS-CBN Channel 8 last 2 June (Saturday 11:45 PM). Format is one-on-one interview observed by a live audience mostly students. In between interviews, there would be photos inserted to show the past.

Dado is a Filipino billionaire who made fortune in the IT industry at the Silicon Valley. Son of a Cagayano farmer from Iquig Cagayan, he studied in Ateneo de Tuguegarao, took up Engineering at the Mapua in Manila and eventually went to post college studies at the Stanford University.

The interview was not about the rise from farm to riches nor about his wealth but insights on what he believes in.

The messages I picked up from the interview was wealth provides you with resources which you do not have when you are poor. If not inherited, it is hard earned. The challenge for wealth is it must be spent well. Defining what poor is, he gave a basic and relative definition where rich is having provision for shelter, food and education and the poor the lack of them.

He values trust which he validates and revalidates. When in the company of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs in meetings, all of them discussed competitively and aggressively (lagao in local language). He is a believer of science, a fact-based person but still after thorough preparation listens to instinct. As a leader, he is hard, fair and objective and has low tolerance for non-performance (Steve Job is a difficult to deal with). He supports outsourcing as it provides more resources you can learn from. He does not support union as it results in group output undermining individual performance (Silicon Valley has no union.)

Dado walked to school in Iguig in slippers and did not get his 1st pair of oversized shoes until the 4th grade which we used for several school years. He recalled not celebrating birthdays other than attending mass. Today he spends birthday with a simple dinner at home or outside with family. He is not at home attending socials. Dado in his college days watched movies for relaxation, not Filipino but American movies. He declared he did not have a hero model neither does he have a dream. Today he relaxes by flying his plane.

Dado values mistakes as there are great learnings from the situation. Important to him is grounding yourself with market realities then work hard with discipline. While there is a luck element, set it up.

He has established 5 foundations to support the Filipino engineer scholar as a way of pay forwarding. The Filipino talent is strong in software development but lags in hardware creation. Dado is a firm believer of quality education.

The episode Bottomline closed with Boy asking his guests at the panel their impression on the interview. Most students said they were inspired by Dado. A female entrepreneur was more elated saying it is electrifying as there is a genius amidst them.

The host shared an off camera line threw in by his guest, "only the paranoid survives!" That line  tells a lot about the competitive informational technology world. Connect it with what he shared about the value of integrity and keeping it within family, it must be a dog-eat-dog businesss. Yet despite these, Dado Banatao, son of a farmer from Iguig Cagayan suceeded and remained humble.

Two related articles on Dado as posted in the Manila Bulletin and by a fellow blogger who watched the same show are in these links.
http://www.mb.com.ph/node/312180/dr-dio
http://rockmymike.blogspot.com/2012/06/dado-banatao-infamous-global-filipino.html

Diosdado Banatao is Chairman of PhilDev.

Humanity Captured at the Pipol Interview with Ces Drillon over ANC
• Each time I see a computer, I sense I have a part of me there
• When the kids grew up, I discovered that they treasure some moments which I did not pay attention to. Like watching their basketball or baseball games. I was busy but I knew I can adjust had I know but I could no longer reverse lock. . . . The kids grew up alright, thanks to Babes.
• I’m in heaven when I work.

Katipunan's center island

Katipunan Avenue's center island fronting Ateneo have been narrowed down to widen the main road. To do so means moving the young acacia trees planted at the center and relocating the Meralco posts at the remaining slim space.

In the past, the natural 1st step is to cut down the trees without regard for ecological balance. This time, they were balled out of the original location and transplanted at the center. They had burned barks showing they underwent some processing making them look dead.

Recently, small green leaves have been sprouting out of the fragile branches increasing in number by the day.

While timed for the school opening, it seemed like it was scheduled this Easter. As symbolically, the greens in burned branches projected hope, which during this time is a badly needed virtue.

Spirit of Place

What is the Spirit of Place?

It is tuning in to the place having a greater feel for it. The writer, Lawrence Durrell suggests travelling with eyes open. Capturing the spirit thus has to be experienced first and not necessarily narrated. Capturing is perhaps what the serious mountaineer does well. With just a pause, breathing, a rest sitting in a stone, some quiet moments or a gaze at the tree and the summit, he knows the place. Because the physical trek in itself which requires some degree of effort already prepares him for the commune with nature. Slowly leaving behind the woes of organization, tasks and routine of urban living, he slowly enters into the realm of the mountaineer’s “freedom of the hills.” When this happens, he has experienced and captured the spirit of their place, the mountain.

Quoting Lawrence Durrell, a novelist, dramatist, travel writer and poet

 “It is a pity indeed to travel and not get this essential sense of landscape values. You do not need a sixth sense for it. It is there if you just close your eyes and breathe softly through your nose; you will hear the whispered message, for all landscapes ask the same question in the same whisper. 'I am watching you - - are you watching yourself in me?' Most travelers hurry too much ... the great thing is to try and travel with the eyes of the spirit wide open, and not to much factual information. To tune in, without reverence, idly -- but with real inward attention. It is to be had for the feeling...you can extract the essence of a place once you know how. If you just get as still as a needle, you'll be there.”

Lawrence Durrell, Spirit Of Place: Letters And Essays On Travel

Quoting lines from Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo's introduction to the book Over a Cup of Ginger Tea

"I remember a phrase from Durrell – “a spirit of place.” He believed that travel writers needed to have a feel for that, a country’s special ambiance, compounded of landscape and history and the taste of the wine produced in its vineyards and the songs sung by its poets, which in turn affected the people’s character. And he believed one didn’t get that sense by going on tours. One got it by sitting quietly in a café or under a tree and allowing it to happen to one."

Hidalgo, Cristina Pantoja. 2006. Over a Cup of Ginger Tea. Quezon City: The University of the Philippines Press

Articles in Mind

High Definition History Channels' Pawn Stars is a pawn store of items with stories. The more notable and historical the story is, the higher price they can command. To authenticate high ticket items and apprise their value, the owners tap the services of consultants. The Harrisons coming from three generations of the Harrison family-grandfather Richard, son Rick and grandson Corey operate in the outskirts of Las Vegas. As a typical pawn shop, patrons usually part with their objects for money, nothing else.

In Manila, there are several surplus stores  like MSM Surplus Store along EDSA and Avenida that sell household objects sourced from the US, Australia and oriental countries. Displayed at their warehousese are second hand items mostly working, some broken. Scouting for objects in these stores is just like going back in time. Great finds are crystal glasses, hi-fidelity audio equipment, turntables and a hundred assortment of bric-a-brat. There is no authentication though but you can haggle for the price which as tagged is already at a bargain.



A store inside Adarna

Seeing how any object is restored by the Kings of Restoration on HD History Channel makes this show interesting to a Do It Yourself practitioneer. 

There are artifacts lying around when restored to its working state are transformed to a piece of beauty. It can be anything like a furnace, a scooter and other functional tools of the past decades or centuries. As any object in the past, it must have an interesting anecdote associated with it. Restorers quote a price based on materials and hours spent to service which by peso standards is astronomically outrageous. Owners almost always are satisfied with the finished product.

Old objects in commercial establishments add character to the place. Restaurants in Manila use these objects as decoratives to complement the ambiance they are creating. Thus a plantsa and a halo-halo ice crusher at the entrance of an old Filipino restaurant immediately tells a visitor local cuisine is on the menu. These objects, functionally operational and now memorabilia are worth displaying but may not still command a premium trading price relative to the items pawned in Las Vegas. But its value is priceless when it brings back to the present a feel of tradition.

Artifacts are objects from a particular period. They are key in uncovering the story of the past and are treasures. There might be as John Keats says, "a thing of beauty and a  joy forever" an object just right in your backyard.

Show visuals lifted from the History Channel website

Coming Home to your City of Dreams

Karla Delgado, a creative writing teacher at the Ateneo de Manila is one of the featured literary writers in Ruel del Vera's Connecting Flights, an Anvil publication 1^st printed in 2009 about Filipinos writing from elsewhere in the world.

Karla writes about her revisit to her favorite city, Barcelona in Spain where she studied in high school. She compares the experience with Philippines cities like Baguio where she grew up and in Manila where she is currently staying.

She describes her visit as a spiritual renewal recharging from the drudgery doing chores as a mother and teacher in Manila. Concluding her short essay, she reveals her insight when it was time for her to leave. She shared, she "discovered a place of tears, a spring of wellness where it allowed her to face the fear that lurked within about crossing into a parallel reality."

Just like us travelers, we have our own city of dreams, a place which allowed us to be ourselves laveshing us with all its resources for our appreciation. It could be our hometown or our summer destination or a memorable mountain or a nature spot. 

In my case, rich memories suddenly surge back when I revisit the UP Diliman Campus, the UP Los Banos open fields, Basco in Batanes, Dumaguete in Negros, Tuguegarao in Cagayan, Sagada in Mt. Province, Kabayan in Benguet to name a number of memorable domestic places. Recalling these moments, I can resonate to how it is to come back home to, borrowing the writer's lines, "thousands of kilometers away from Manila, I have come home to myself." For it is in breathing these places, we come to better appreciate who we are.

Read the essay or get the book.

Karla P. Delgado, "Breathing Barcelona," in Connecting Flights, Filipinos Write from Elsewhere ed. Ruel S. De Vera, 95-100.  Manila: Anvil, 2010

Caliraya

An alternative destination when the expressways are clogged.



Artificial lake occupying a 1,050 hectare area

It is accessible from Metro Manila (about 82 kilometer, 1 1/2 hours), yet possesses water resources, whether man-made or natural.

Caliraya strikes you as a serene place as you spot the calm lake, feel the gentle wind, walk through the Japanese garden and sense the uncrowded habitation.

It gives a top view of the Laguna de Bay and the profiles of the mountains Banahaw, Cristobal, Makiling, Calauan, Makban at the South West.



For the 1^st timers, the initial sight of the Lake comes in as a surprise. It is not visible from the Laguna National Highway connecting Lumban to Kalayaan and the zigzagged Lumban-Caliraya-Cavinti road as it is perched at the ridge of the Sierra Madre. Only when you reach the elevation of 1,066 feet above sea level that the lake is revealed to you.

Water Level Gate

Torri, a scaled down Japaense Arch

So much has been written about the construction of this man-made lake which is linked to the power supply of a hydro electric dam in 1939 by the US Army. During the war in the mid 40's, there was a struggle between the Americans and the Japanese on the use of the facility causing damage. Eventually it was rebuilt by the Japanese.  In the 60's, ownership was pinpointed to 3 families. A garden was built by the Japanese government in the 70's to honor those who perished in the war. Sometime in the 80's the area was made more accessible to the general public via the opening of access roads.

I have no recollection when in the 90's I 1^st drove up to Caliraya.

What I recalled though was an image of a rainy windy and cold morning painting an impression that I was in a faraway place so different from the place of work.

Google Earth Image Capture

I remembered also exploring to find waterfalls close to the Japanese garden to catch my climbing friends but ended up going in circles the whole night until I was led back to the garden via the main road.

In January 2009, with 172 other Coca-coca associates, our group supported the tree planting activity at the Caliraya watershed in Cavinti as part of the Haribon Foundation environmental conservation movement.

Since then, whenever where was a window to drive down to Laguna, I would always include Caliraya as part of the destination.

Why did I choose to revisit this year? For now, merely for the accessibility. In the near future when there is a deeper affinity between me and the lake, I may have other reasons to visit Caliraya.

Fotos courtesy of M. Averia

Respite from the City. Quick Escape

Idyllic Laguna

Friday this Holy Week provided an opportunity for a respite from work, urban traffic and routine chores.

Unsettled feeling of long weekends spent without an out-of-town trip usually shows up the week after. This is made more pronounced when friends are not available for any physical nor none face-to-face communication.

Thus it is good judgment to pull out of the city regardless of cost and distance to recharge and to breathe in a whiff of different air.



Paete Church Tower

In the past decades, extended weekends were spent at Mt. Banahaw via Tayabas in Luzon, Mt. Talinis in Dumaguete in Visayas via Cebu, or Mt. Guiting Guiting in Romblon in Luzon. More recently, it was in San Teodoro, a small quaint fishing village in Mindoro and in Baler, Aurora, all in Luzon. At times, with the luxury of prior planning, we would fly to Ho Chi Min in Vietnam, board a vessel to Borneo to climb Mt. Kinabalu.

There were moments when out-of towns were simply imagined while watching Living Asia and Discovery Channel over cable television just to provide an image of an open field, a mountain or the open sea. Done out of helplessness, it was meant to fill in a void.

Pilapil overlooking Talim Island

Conveniently, there are the nearby provinces of Pampanga, Bataan, Rizal and Laguna which provide a quick escape from the Metropolis. Travel time, as short as an hours' drive is enough to dramatically change the landscape from concrete to wood, cement to soil. Without the hassle of cramped space, mass movement and transport terminal gateways, these destinations accessible by land travel offer an equally attractive respite.



Station of the Cross Scupture

This April, welcome to Laguna described by Sampaquita in the song early 80's  as a place where winds blowing from the nearby bay, nestled against dreamlike mountains and lush forest in a land area with golden rice fields set in a vast expanse of the sea - "Hangin sa tabing baybayin Parang pangarap na tanawin Bundok na kagubatan, gintong palayan Malawak na karagatan."



Candle Offering

It ends with a statement Laguna offering a different perspective which will awaken your emotion with its beauty -"Ibang paningin ang mapapansin Na gigising sa 'yong damdamin Malalagyan ka sa 'yong nakikita'Pagkat walang kasing-ganda."

 

Fresh Fish and Vegeatables for Lunch

The one-day travel was contained to Kalayaan where the man-made Caliraya Lake sits, towns of Paete and Pakil, known for the century old baroque churches, woodcraft and sculpture, Siniloan up to Mabitac, gateway to Laguna from the East side.

Join our travel with fotos provided by Miko Averia. 



Biernes Santos