Friday, May 21, 2010
Too hot to handle!
We would have been on the road to the second best-preserved heritage town in the country this Sunday, May 23, except for one thing: it's freakin' hot outside and guests are rethinking their travel and leisure plans. Well, I guess, we will have to cool off a bit and shelve that for another more propitious day. ;(
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
That Visita Iglesia
Rise and shine! We left Manila bathed in glorious sunshine on the road to what promised to be a memorable day of rest and renewal of our faith. There were 25 tour paticipants, some with their photo gear, others content to tag along, every single one ready to capture images that awakened us to the reality of faith in ourselves and in others.
Because I made a check drive through the suggested itinerary a week before, I was able to make changes from this
to this
This meant we were going to drop Calamba and St Mark's chapel in Makiling's National High School for the Arts, add new destinations like Sariaya, Tayabas and Kamay ni Hesus, and gain distance and time since we would end closer to Manila instead of farther!
But as it turned out, man proposes and God disposes.
Traffic was horrendous. Everyone seemed to be going to the same direction. What should have been a 2.5 hour drive to our first destination in Sariaya took us 6 hours! To top it all, our bus had irreparable trouble in Kamay ni Hesus and we had to wait for a replacement bus from Manila. By the time it arrived at 10 pm we were still 3 churches short of our plan and had only 2 hours to complete the seven churches before they close at 12 midnight. Thankfully, we were rather full, thanks to the meals at Patio Rizal courtesy of the bus company (hurray!). Given the late hour we could no longer visit Liliw, Nagcarlan and San Pablo. Instead we were gifted with other remarkable churches in Pagsanjan, dedicated to our Lady of Guadalupe, in the beautiful heritage town of Pila and in the old town of Bay from where the Laguna de Bay derives its name. We left the eerie church, covered by cloud formations half revealing a full moon, at the stroke of midnight. Nothing could have been more memorable to our group.
Some were asking, kailan muli?
Because I made a check drive through the suggested itinerary a week before, I was able to make changes from this
to this
This meant we were going to drop Calamba and St Mark's chapel in Makiling's National High School for the Arts, add new destinations like Sariaya, Tayabas and Kamay ni Hesus, and gain distance and time since we would end closer to Manila instead of farther!
But as it turned out, man proposes and God disposes.
Traffic was horrendous. Everyone seemed to be going to the same direction. What should have been a 2.5 hour drive to our first destination in Sariaya took us 6 hours! To top it all, our bus had irreparable trouble in Kamay ni Hesus and we had to wait for a replacement bus from Manila. By the time it arrived at 10 pm we were still 3 churches short of our plan and had only 2 hours to complete the seven churches before they close at 12 midnight. Thankfully, we were rather full, thanks to the meals at Patio Rizal courtesy of the bus company (hurray!). Given the late hour we could no longer visit Liliw, Nagcarlan and San Pablo. Instead we were gifted with other remarkable churches in Pagsanjan, dedicated to our Lady of Guadalupe, in the beautiful heritage town of Pila and in the old town of Bay from where the Laguna de Bay derives its name. We left the eerie church, covered by cloud formations half revealing a full moon, at the stroke of midnight. Nothing could have been more memorable to our group.
Some were asking, kailan muli?
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