COTTA BATO CHURCH RUINS AT CATARMAN - WHY SPANIARDS ARE ATTRACTED TO VOLCANOES

With the many places I've visited throughout the country, it seems that every nook and cranny of the Philippine archipelago has a Spanish presence imprinted in its history.  One of the reasons that I came up with this observation is probably the attraction of Spaniards to volcanoes.  For example, the famous world famous Mayon Volcano in Bicol has a church ruins in Cagsawa. The world famous Taal Volcano has its church ruins in the town of Talisay.  Even Mt. Pinatubo ruined the Bacolor church in Pampanga but residents rehabilitated what's left of it.  Next photo shown is the Spanish bell tower.

According to the historical marker on Cotta Bato's entrance, this town was once a thriving community until the eruption of the volcano wiped out the town and destroyed its church. It makes you wonder why the Spanish friars didn't restore the church afterwards.  There are many theories I came up with.  First. the natives have a high reverence for the spirit in the volcano, so the Spanish priest established a church to dissuade the people from worshiping the volcano god and instead convert to Christianity. Having been wiped out by the volcano in front of the natives, the priests lost face and their influence afterwards.  Photo below is the church convent.

My second theory is probably related to Spanish colonial and spirit of adventurism.  Since Spain was at that time a superpower with expansionist intentions, they fancy places that has a continuing element of danger, for example, the ever-present threat of living near an active volcano.  In this way, their level of alertness is always high in anticipation of a possible uprising from the natives.  Below is a marker narrating the events that took place in 1871 that wiped out the town.

Of course, my theories are open to argument,  but I believe that there is one thing that everyone will agree with me.  And that is, people whether native or foreign simply just cannot resist the beauty of nature that volcanoes can create of a place.  In the aftermath of destruction and violence, a period of succession begins and the end will always come out beautiful and awesome!  So when we arrived in this once devastated place, we took the time to enjoy ourselves in the midst of history.

Despite my size, you can just imagine how small I am beside this humungus, centuries old tree beside the convent.  This is a favorite photo site  of the many tourists that visited this historical place.

The ruins is perched on the high grounds of the island with a navigational vantage point and this explains why an eye-sore like this modern-day light house was erected in a historical site such as this.  The Spaniards did proved that this place has indeed a military purpose.

 This is the perimeter wall or what's left of it, where the entrance to Cotta Bato is located.  This is the only wall left and the other three walls of the square are no longer around.  Beyond this wall, residents constructed a small chapel to retain the reverence of this sacred place. 

 Before departing the place, we took a posterity group picture along the cliffs overlooking the sea.  The view here is spectacular.  The visit to this place is quite interesting for me.  Don't expect too much when visiting this place.  It may be quite simple, but the beauty here is its simplicity.  The purpose of this place is give us a small glimpse of history of how the Spaniards live in simple grandeur in an island paradise such as Camiguin and how God took it away from them.  Until next adventure, I hope you enjoy this story as much as I enjoy its history!

ARDENT HOT SPRING - NATURE'S HOT TUB OFF THE BOWELS OF MT. HIBOK-HIBOK

Welcome to another adventure in my blog.  I’m here together with my son and we are about to be treated to  a new experience in this volcano island of Camiguin, something you would expect to come out of a volcano – HEAT!  And what’s the best way to enjoy heat without sweating?  Transfer it to water and presto!  You have a hot bath! Courtesy of Mt. Hibok-Hibok Volcano!  

Ardent Hot Spring is one of the attractions in the smallest province of Camiguin.  Groundwater heated by geothermal energy vented by Mt. Hibok-Hibok oozes out into the surface where inhabitants took advantage by containing it in natural pools like this and allow ovrflow water to run-off to the river like this.  To improve the quality of water, the sides where cemented to keep it from turning muddy.  The result is clear, lukewarm water so enticing you want to stay in and laze for the whole day.  

 What made this place cool is the way the developer retained the forest ambiance of the place.  The hot springs in Laguna is already far too anthropogenic.  Even though hot water comes naturally from underground, it is pumped into a swimming pool that is completely covered with ceramic tiles.  However, one cannot blame the owners of hot pools in Laguna.  They are constrained by the sheer volume of vacationers from nearby Metro Manila that prompted them to be more practical in maintaining the cleanliness of the pool by covering it with ceramic tile which makes it more manageable.  Concrete pools like this in Ardent will easily turn dirty when a huge number of people bathed in it all at the same time.

If you were wondering how hot the water is, I'm sure this picture will answer your question.  The water is slightly 1 degree lower to experiencing a high fever.  Immersing yourself in it slowly will immediately give you that sense of sleepiness as the warm water absorbs all the tension in your body and your brain responds by completely surrendering the body to its captivating warm but rejuvenating effect.  I can honestly say as experienced by all the guys out there,  a sudden dip into this hot caldera will make you feel like hard-boiled egg. ha ha ha ha! 

Aside from my son who's in the other pool, this is the entire bunch that's with me.  The girls are my sister and nieces and the guys are my cousin and nephew.  You can just see by the looks in their faces how much they enjoy the natural hot tub here in Ardent Hot Spring.

 Of course being the main character on this story, nothing compares to the exhilaration that this experience has brought to my mind and spirit.  This sure is a stress-buster from me after finishing another school year and just recovering from a major operation as a result of cancer.  The warm water in indeed rejuvenating, relaxing and most of all fun because I may not be able to pass by again this way so have to enjoy this place as if this is the last place on earth.

The rest of the place still has its natural flair with all the vegetation around.  The air is clean, the greenery soothing to the eyes, no traffic around.  No annoying vendors. just simply natural.

 Well, this concludes another adventure in the island of Camiguin.  The adrenaline in these guys sure hasn't gone down yet because we still have plenty places to go before the day's end.  Just as the saying goes, if by chance you may be able to visit this paradise , please do! Please CAMIGUIN! HA HA HA HA!

KATIBAWASAN FALLS: SEEMINGLY NEVER-ENDING FALLING WATERS OF CAMIGUIN

One of the memorable places in this island paradise is the visit to the popular Katibawasan Falls.  I'm not sure how it got its name but in the Tagalog vernacular it might be implying the never ending falls.  The falls is one major water outlet coming down from a cliff with some small trickles down its side.  The place is already well developed for tourists with concrete stairs leading to the bottom of the falls and tables and washrooms for picnickers and bathers.

 

 

The falls poses a majestic overture over the granite walls of the mountain, garnished with lush vegetations on it opening and sides.  If finally falls down forming a pool at the base making it ideal for visitors to admire its beauty and bathe on its surprisingly very cold water.

The best time to enjoy the falls is to arrive early in the morning when there are still very few visitors and no one dares dip in to the ice cold water of the pool.  This is the perfect time to shoot pictures to avoid having too many people in your background and of course to find the perfect spot to swim, dine and just merely relax in comfort.

 

It's not always that one gets to visit a beautiful place like this, and  be able to visit it again in the near future.  Most often you don't get the chance to visit again.  So when in a special place, take advantage of the moment and try to enjoy it in as many ways as you can.  That way you have no regrets in not doing something that you ought to have done in the place.  Every moment lost in a place may be a moment lost forever.

Many of the blogs I've read often involves the writer merely visiting the place and doesn't actually involve immersing themselves in the place.  The experience feels incomplete when one just merely describes the place visually and doesn't actually felt the cold,wet but soothing effect of the water penetrating up your spine and making you shiver to the bones upon leaving the water.  For me, the culmination of one's visit will always be a total immersion of one's self to the place.

 We stayed until lunch and rested a bit because we still have many places to go in the island in the afternoon.  We had just came from White Island and our spirit of excitement has not gone down a bit.  This really shows how beautiful the island of Camiguin is.

In every tourist site such as this, there will always be a pasalubong store where one can buy a souvenir, may it be a t-shirt or a simple token.  Souvenirs serve as our constant reminders of how happy and fun it was when we visited this enchanting place.

Of course, one gets hungry after the adrenaline rush brought in by the experience begins to subside and the best thing to satistfy your craving is to taste and eat something unique and special to the place.  Although simple as it is, eating this kipping is a once in a lifetime treat as this is something you don't normally see in Manila.  After this, we proceeded to other exciting destinations in this wonderful tropical island called "CAMIGUIN!"  I hope I can "CAMIGUIN!"

Sto. Niño Cold Spring Camiguin - Dipping into Frigid Water in the middle of a Volcanic Island

      One of the last destinations in our tour of this enchanted island is a visit to the Sto. Nino Cold Springs. The term "cold" is too subtle a word to describe its waters.  Haven't you noticed that despite the intense heat of summer beating down on this volcanic island only a few dared to dip into its most inviting water?  You know why?  Because the water is FREAKING, FRIGIDY COLD!  A jump into its freezing coldness will send shivers up your spine.  Wow! a cold spring in a volcanic island.  That's indeed an astonishing freak of nature!

      This a natural pool where cold water naturally rises up from the bowels of this infernal environment to serve as a thermostat that stabilizes the temperature of the surrounding terrain enabling life to flourish on its surface.  When the cold water reaches the surface, it fills up the pool and overflows to the adjoining river where it eventually drains into the sea.  Diving into the pool with your goggles on will allow you to enjoy seeing fishes in the pool, the kind that can tolerate such extreme temperature.  Unfortunately, the water was too cold to allow me to scrutinize what species of fishes are there in the pool.

      By the sudden expression on  my face, you can immediately imagine how cold the water is.  However, don't be afraid that one might suffer from severe hypothermia while swimming in this pool.  I'm am just a little bit exaggerating the situation probably because of the excitement it has caused me.  Dipping and swimming in this cold pool is a truly memorable experience indeed!

      If you give it some time,  your body will gradually adjust and no sooner than you think, you will be accustomed to the cold and gradually begin to float into a relaxing position in the water.  You can enjoy it homeostatic euphoria of the moment as long as you stay in the water.  But when you suddenly leave the water, the coldness will suddenly be intensified as the wind hits your body and it would difficult to jump into the water again because a kind of positive feedback mechanism makes the water colder than before.  So my advice to you, stay in the water for as long as you can, and when you're ready to leave the pool, make sure you won't go back if you cannot stand the heat.. I mean cold.

      As the afternoon slowly ebbs away the daylight,  I am very thankful that the Philippines is an archipelago. Because of the sheer "smallness" of our country, the scenario would have been different if we are just one island nation.  All tourist sites would be accessible to everyone and places like this are most vulnerable to overloading its carrying capacity.  We wouldn't have enjoyed the clean, cool waters of the Sto. Nino Cold Springs if it can easily be reached by many.

    For now, the place is very clean.  The surrounding community is not yet big enough to cause an environmental impact to this beautiful, natural pool.  I hope that this place will still remain as it is indefinitely in the years to come so that future generations will still be able to freak out when diving into its cold waters.

    In behalf of the Pasig City Slickers, which are of course composed of my beautiful nieces Ndreah, Nizhelle and Nezh and only child Speed.  We are also very thankful to the guiding hands of our able-bodied tour guides namely Wowie and Bernie, who are of course my cousin and nephew respectively.

Join us again in our other adventures together with my sister Dannah, I am DocFun - The Doctor of Fun and Adventure!  MAUPAY NA PAGDINI! even though I do not know what it means. ha ha ha ha!

SILANGANG NAYON: A CHARCUTERIE HIDING IN SECLUSION IN THE MANGROVES OF PAGBILAO

Welcome friends to the province of Quezon! Hometown and named after our first President of the Philippine Commonwealth, Manual Luis Quezon.  This is our next stop for another journey of recovery for the Dr. of Fun & Adventure.  The trip also coincides with the culmination of the schoolyear ender of our department and summer vacation.  One of the highlights of this trip is a visit to the secluded Silangang Nayon Restaurant where we will be having a hearty lunch of our favorite Filipino dishes.

But first we made a stopover to buy one of the most delicious fruits in the country, the lanzones.  This fruit strikes a memorable experience to anyone who gets to savor the juicy flesh of this delectable fruit and no one can deny that one the best places to but this exotic fruit is in Alaminos, Laguna where fruit stands dot the highway in every direction in the Laguna province.

 The journey to Silangang Nayon is a long one.  You have to take the Bicol route passing through some towns in Laguna right after you leave the South Luzon Expressway. You can either exit via Calamba or proceed further to the Star Tollway where you can exit in Tanauan, Batangas.  You'll be passing by Sto. Tomas, Alaminos and San Pablo where you can buy lanzones along the way.  Buying lanzones is best done in the morning because come late afternonn these fruits will be difficult to come by. 

Next part of the journey is when you enter Tiaong which is the first town of Quezon you'll be passong by.  The Quezon part is still a long until you finally reach Pagbilao.  Right after crossing over the boundary of Lucena the right turn to Pagbilao is not far and as soon as you turn right, the distance is still a long way off into the peninsula until you reach your destination on the right side.  Finally, welcome to Silangang Nayon!  Join me as we tour this interesting restaurant on stilts jutting out of Pagbilao Bay.

Silangang Nayon is a restaurant on stilts.  I have no idea of its history because my discovery of the place was accidental.  i was actually looking for a place to hold our schoolyear-end summer outing for our department and Pagbilao was the chosen venue. An ocular visit to a nearby resort revealed the existence of this restaurant.  It is open to the public and serves ad variety of dishes with Filipino cuisine as its main menu.  The feeling of being in this place is very special because of the romantic ambiance that it gives to visitors.  The revitalizing fresh sea air adds to the excitement of dining in this exotic restaurant as well.  They also offer boat services to the neighboring islands but we didn't avail of it at the moment.  Pardon me if I will not post pictures of the food that was served when we dined in this restaurant.  I would like to maintain this site as a travel for health site rather than a food and culinary site.  The feeling that one gets to visit this unique restaurant is something I would put more emphasis on rather than the experience of eating the food.  However, in fairness to the chef the food is delicious indeed.  No doubt about it!

ZOOCOBIA - CLARK'S ANSWER TO SUBIC'S ZOOBIC SAFARI

Nestled in the remote Sacobia Valley  within the fringes of Clarkfield, Pampanga is a new attraction called ZOOCOBIA.  It is a 30 hectare theme park consisting of a mixture of a zoo and amusement rides.  The first time I heard of Sacobia Valley was when my late mother had a rehabilitation housing project for Aetas spearheaded by a late general.  It was right after the Pinatubo eruption where I had a first hand glimpse of Clark Airforce Base as a sprawling ghost town when the Americans left it.  I had the scary opportunity of driving through the empty streets of the once restricted US Base fearing that I might be flagged down by security patrols or bandits that were rampantly ransacking empty buildings when they see an opportunity.  Luckily I did not encounter such group otherwise I might have figured in a precarious situation.  Anyway my mom left the project after the project hit a snag and after learning that it funding for the project figured in a controversy.  That was way back then.  Sacobia Valley has long recovered from the devastation and luckily due to the efforts of concerned people in helping improve the welfare of the indigenous people in the area, Zoocobia was developed to promote ecotourism and drive the place to a more progressive and sustainable future.

Our journey started all the way from Subic, Zamabales which was out first stop in an educational field trip of our school.  We checked out of the Subic International Hotel which was a fine hotel for the busy traveler after we had concluded our visit to the Zoobic Safari and Ocean Adventure.  It was a fine day for traveling.  The weather was perfect and the ride was comfortable.  We will be going to Sacobia Valley via the SCTEX which is short for Subic-Clark Toll Expressway which had just recently opened paving the way for easy access to areas nearer the summit of Mt. Pinatubo and other remote areas that were once inaccessible.

Travelling thru the SCTEX is a far cry from the usual Gapan-Olongapo Road which was a little congested due the the volume of traffic going in and out of Zambales and Bataan.  The SCTEX also provided a more picturesque view of the countryside and Mt. Pinatubo that will make you wonder if such powerful eruption did took place because the beauty that you are witnessing now doesn't suggest it ever happened.  Travel time was also cut very significantly although what really made this travel memorable is the price of the toll fee that you have to pay in order to reach Subic.  It will make you feel that the SCTEX is one place you will figuratively say highway robbery.  I learned recently though that a portion of this highway collapsed due to rains brought about by Habagat halfway this year.

When we turned left towards Sacobia Valley, we had to cross this bridge in order to reach our destination.  This is just a newly constructed bridge therefore access to the place was very difficult when the SCTEX was not yet in existence.  But as you will see, the place had indeed recovered and a significant sign of succession had indeed taken place as evidenced from the growth of the trees.  I read from research that the man who developed the Zoocobia started with only 3 trees because of severe deforestation in the area and now the place is on its way to a more sustainable endeavor with the establishment of this Zoocobia together with the Paradise Ranch.

We finally arrived in our destination.  The place is located in Barangay Calumpang which I found out to be part of Mabalacat City.  We had to enter a dirt road going to the left and travel inland for about 1 kilometer before arriving in the actual site.  Zoocobia and Paradise Ranch were both located in the same place so people plannignto go there won't need to travel from one place to another because all these come as a 2-in-1 pacakge.

 So here we are friends! The Zoobia Fun Zoo.  Join me inside as we enjoy the latest attraction of Clarkfield Pampanga!

STILTS - FORMERLY ROSEGOLD RESORT THEN RESIDENCE INN ARE CALATAGAN'S BEACH HOUSES STANDING OUT AT SEA

We departed Matabungkay and proceeded south towards Calatagan where our next destination, STILTS will be.  The picturesque view of Matabungkay fades away from our eyes as the day started gloomy with the impending arrival of Typhoon Odette.  The sea was calm but windy.  The "balsa" lay empty in the frolicking waters and people just started coming out of their abodes to start their day anew.

The journey to Calatagan was met with heavy rains but eventually dissipated as we finally arrive in Calatagan.  We passed by Punta Baluarte, a sprawling ranch owned by the Zobel and Ayalas.  When we finally arrived in Stilts, I discovered that there had been a lot of changes since I last went there several years back.  The place was previously called Rosegold Resort which was eventually changed to Residence Inn.  There were still a Tiger Safari being conducted for tourists during that time but they are long gone now after having changed ownership and the tigers transferred to Subic Safari up to the present.  Its new name now is "Stilts" which is the definition for poles where it serves as the foundation of beach houses set our at sea.

We visited Stilts on a day tour.  Staying overnight will require you to make reservations because the resort does not accept walk-in guests who intend to stay overnight.  Rates are more affordable for the high-end vacationer.  I think the strategy here is keeping the guests at a lower number by prescribing high prices.  This in turn will prevent the place from deteriorating fast because number of guests are kept within the carrying capacity of the place.

This is the Calatagan Resort Restaurant that caters to the food and refreshments of resort guests.  The resort charges corkage fees for food and drinks brought in from the outside.  So all guests are pretty much required to dine-in and pay for the food they eat.  Well, the resort probably wants to maintain the cleanliness of the resort by preventing picnickers from indiscriminately littering the place with picnic trash from food brought in from the outside.

    There are 2 types of accommodation one can avail in the resort.  One would be the houses on stilts and the other one the beach side cottages.  Rates for the different rooms will vary depending on the size, number of people and location. Overall, guests will enjoy a significant amount of privacy while enjoying the different beach activities and swimming in style in both the swimming pool and beach.

The swimming pool hasn't changed since I last took a dip here several years back.  It has been maintained clean through the years.  This is the type of vacation that I usually prefer.  I love resorts that have both swimming pool and beach at the same time because you get to experience the best of both worlds at the same time.