A few months ago, I finally decided on the car that I wanted and went for it. After so many twists and turns, the great debate was over and voila.. got my car..
Let me tell you, with a car, you have the freedom to go anywhere you want. And so of course, on my first long trip - it was to go home to Medellin.
After seeing how my son really enjoyed the place, we went back again and again on several spur of the moments trips and I discovered the joys of going home on the week-end.....
First off, the long drive is really therapeutic. Because of the deserted roads, you can really let loose on the road and drive at the maximum speed that you could dare, something that you can't do in the city. It answers my need for speed. Driving to the tunes of classical music with my siblings quarreling in the background and my kid joining in... seems like we never really leave our childhood behind.
The beauty of having your own ride is that you can stop anytime you want. Which is exactly what we did.
For several years now, everytime I passed by Sogod, I saw this sign 'This way to Borrusia', and I've always wondered what is inside it and so finally on one week-end trip, I told my sister and bro that we'd leave early and stop there for breakfast. So in we went and had a look around. The food was absolutely delicious. You got to try their hungarian sausage and lasagna (even my son loved it)and a pitcher of their lemongrass tea!
While waiting for your food, you can do a few number of things in their big space:
Take a stroll along the garden. Their garden is very green and at 8 in the morning, its a wondrous feeling to just stroll around, smell the fresh air and appreciate the flowers.
To work up an appetite, Play like a kid. Who say's only kids are allowed to play? You can swing to your hearts content
or you can swing up and down with their seesaw
or act like a monkey in their monkey bar (that's my brother monkey on the bar)
Or like my kid, you can just run around their garden :)
After that sumptuous meal, we resumed our journey.
After a couple hours of driving, we finally arrived in our round house by the beach
You can do a lot of things in this sleepy ole town located almost at the northern end of Cebu:
(1) Have coffee and eat the yummiest cupcake while watching the calm sea before you. Ah.. coffee in a quiet place.. one of life's greatest pleasure indeed.
(2) You can stroll around the beach and watch the fishermen haul in their catch for the day. You can even buy their fresh catch for the day at an unbelievably low price. Yum!
(3) Learn how to cook. After several attempts, I have finally perfected my favorite dish of calderata using mommy's secret recipe. You should try it. Its absolutely delicious and even my papi who doesn't eat kalderata is now a firm convert :)
(4) Further up our place, while walking round one sunset afternoon, we discovered that there were a lot of mangroves there.
The nicest thing? There was a grotto of the Mama Mary where you can offer a silent prayer of thanks for her countless blessings.
(5) Bonding time with family. I believed that the Sto. Nino was at work here. Let me tell you the story. On one such weekend, I decided to go home to Medellin on January 15 (Sinulog weekend) on a spur of the moment. I urged my sister to go with us and lo and behold, a couple of days before the trip, my manoy who is based in boracay, sent us a text 'hello my family, I'm on the boat from Iloilo to Cebu. See you tomorrow'. Boy, were we surprised. Our trip turned out to be one of those rare occasions when we were complete as a family. Heaven! This is what heaven is like!
(6) Playing with new friends. For the entire summer, my son decided to spend it in Medellin and I was glad that he did. He learned a lot of things there - going to a fiesta in the next barangay, climbing a tree, learning local names for sea creatures, using a slingshot, swimming, swimming and more swimming with friends, Flores de Mayo, sleep-overs with friends -. Good for him to socialized with kids his own age. He has the freedom to run around and shout to his heart's content. Its good for kids to stay in the province once in a while and learn to appreciate the simple things in life.
(7)On one of our trips back home, my papi brought my son and his friends to the park and surprisingly enough, it was a functioning one. They had fun in the turn-the-wheel around, climbing the monkey bar, sliding down the slides and just running around.
(8)For the adventurous souls, we also have our Eco-Adventure in the North:
(a) Our very own zipline. The nicest thing about this zipline is that it lands in our mountainhouse and because its on our mountain, we get to ride for free! My son (who used to be so scared of this) tried it and now he's hooked into ziplining. The red roof that you can see is our mountain-house.
(b) For those too small to ride the zipline (like Allen's cousin, Julian) you can just ride the slowest cable car ride to the other end and back.
(c) Funtastic Island here we come! Due to my son's insistent request, one hot summer day, we all trooped into a banca, brought food and went diving at Funtastic Island. As the name suggests, it really was a funtastic island. But what made it more special for me was to hear the peals of laughter from my son as he learned to conquer his fears and jumped from above 5 feet and into the cold water below. Oh Funtastic Island, we are definitely coming back to visit you.
(d) You can also go mountain trekking and walk around over our 5 hectares of wild mountain land and see a lot of trees and small animals scurrying around. When its already twilight, it makes the walk more exciting as there are no lights around.
(e) Adventure Cave. While doing your trekking, you can also drop by our Adventure Cave where the municipal town put in a coffin which they used during Halloween. Good for some kicks for the kids :)
(f) Airgun shooting. In one of our trips up to the mountainhouse, my papi bought with him his airgun and we decided to give it a shot. Though we didn't hit any of the target cans, it was still fun.
(9) You can also drive further and go see the famed floating WatchTower. Let me warned you though, after we got lost several times going there, it was anti-climactic going there as we can only see the Watch Tower from afar. And even up to now, I couldn't quite understand what the attraction there is :) Try it and you might be able to explain it to me :)
(10) On your way back to the city, you might want to drop by the shrine of the Miraculous Medal atop the hill and give thanks to Mama Mary for the countless blessings and for her ever daily protection
I would recommend that you go out of the city once in a while. It gives you a breather from city life and makes you appreciate the simple joys in life - family, good food, friends, the beauty of nature - what else can you ask for?
Oh by the way,
I forgot to tell you, that the sunset in our side of the town is just simply gorgeous.. and one sight that I never get tired of seeing..
So what are you waiting for? Go down North and see the sites.. Tara.. Biyahe tayo..
Let me tell you, with a car, you have the freedom to go anywhere you want. And so of course, on my first long trip - it was to go home to Medellin.
After seeing how my son really enjoyed the place, we went back again and again on several spur of the moments trips and I discovered the joys of going home on the week-end.....
First off, the long drive is really therapeutic. Because of the deserted roads, you can really let loose on the road and drive at the maximum speed that you could dare, something that you can't do in the city. It answers my need for speed. Driving to the tunes of classical music with my siblings quarreling in the background and my kid joining in... seems like we never really leave our childhood behind.
Take a stroll along the garden. Their garden is very green and at 8 in the morning, its a wondrous feeling to just stroll around, smell the fresh air and appreciate the flowers.
