Summer Escapade

It’s summer time, vacation time, especially in the Philippines, a place where we can enjoy the moment to the fullest.

During vacation, it is the time when family, friends, and colleagues usually go out and relax. Some of the most exciting activities during this time are mountain hiking, swimming, fishing, field trip and others. 

“It’s more fun in the Philippines”, the slogan of the tourism department, to showcase some of the country’s tourists best destinations, for both foreign and local tourists.

We need not to spend so much just to enjoy this summer, just explore the place where you live and the experience will be fun and at the same time, you will be acquainted to your locality, its resources and its hidden treasures.

I for one, experienced a priceless vacation moment.

My family and I decided to go to Manila  to visit some of the churches there and have a trip to some of its tourists attractions. We’ve been to Quaipo Church, Sta Cruz Church, Manila Cathedral ( which is under renovation), San Agustin Church and Baclaran Church. We also visited Luneta Park, otherwise known as Rizal Park, Manila Zoo, because of my nephews and nieces, Museong Pambata and  Intramuros. It was the first time we go out together, complete. We had fun, 'though that’s a tiring experience because we need to travel for more than four hours from Quezon Province to Manila. But the experience and the enjoyment paid off.

The enjoyment continued when after a week, my brother in law invited us to have swimming at the nearest resort in our place. In my almost three decades of existence in our place, I have never been to this resort yet this is the "talked of the town" resort when we hear Tiaong, Quezon. My nephews and nieces had fun, sliding over the slide besides the pool, and the sceneries around were too attractive not just for the young but also for the young at hearts. Giant statues of cartoon superheroes scattered around such as Hulk, SpiderMan, Captain America. I myself can’t resist, so I had a posed with these superheroes, together with my brother and sisters.

Our school administrator planned to go on Visita Iglesia. An excitement came unto me because, this would be my first time experience, going to a Visita Iglesia. Our destination was Tagaytay City. We visited seven churches to complete the fourteen Stations of the Cross, two stations per church. My colleagues at San Antonio I Elementary School, the place where I teach, had a wonderful holy week  because of this. Among these churches are The Pink Sisters, St. Gabriel, the Archangel Parish Church, Redemptorist Church, and others.

The experiences of summer vacation paused when we attended seminar worshops and I helped in organizing one, the journalism seminar workshop. After that very tiring moment, the adventure continues.

My friends and I had a great full packed experienced when we do the mountain hiking, visited old friends, went fishing and dived for a great swimming, just for one day!

It was early in the morning; we woke up early to prepare for planned escapade. We left the house before the sun set too high. Our first destination was the mystic mountain in our locality, where we had mountain hiking. In here, we took photos and relaxed for the beautiful scenes from the mountaintop. We stayed there for almost three hours. Going down, we dropped by the houses of our old friends. Even if we don’t bring with us the food, our stomach became full because every time we dropped by in their houses, we had snacks, and even lunch was served for us.  We came home half past three in the afternoon. We just rest for a while and then go straight to the nearest lake in our place, the Tikob Lake. A soon to be eco park lake in the years to come, where horseback riding, rock climbing, zip line, and others lined up for the project proposal.

Steps going down are too stiff, you have to hold tight to the bamboo alongside so that you won’t slip down. After a very perspiring walk going down, we reached the lake. We set up our fishing rod over the balsa or  raft.While waiting for the fish to catch we do the swimming. The water is very refreshing. I don’t know how to swim so I just stayed near the shore while some of them are busy and enjoy swimming. At once we visit our fishing rod to see if there is a catch. We had one, two, three and almost more than a kilo of tilapia catch for more than two hours stayed in the lake.

The sun was beginning to set, and so we decided to go home. My mother cooked rice earlier because she knew we’re hungry the moment we came home from the lake. My father cleaned the tilapia and put over the charcoal fire and grilled it.  We had a great dinner that night. My friends decided to go home just before midnight. We had some drinking sessions, singing as well and mostly make stories of what had happened that day. I fell asleep too fast may be because of that tiring but very exciting experience. Thank you for these experiences, my friends.

Vacation time is almost over, but the experiences I had this time was unique, wonderful and very exciting, at the same time, I was able to know my locality even better and experienced what is the best of my locality could offer to us.