Loboc River Cruise

One of the things you should not miss when you go to Bohol is the Loboc River Cruise. It is an hour or so boat ride upstream the Loboc River, from a point near the Loboc Church, up to what seems to be the beginning of the river, which is a short waterfall people call the "busai", then downstream again back to the point where the cruise started.

You can enjoy the cruise either on board a floating restaurant where eat-all-you can food is served with on-board entertainment provided by homegrown talents singing "welcome, to my native land" in undeniably Visayan accent, for just P250, or on boats big enough to accommodate whole families or groups, for P500.

Along the way, you will get to appreciate the uninterrupted "greenness" of the vegetation on the mountains along the river. The houses on the banks of the river vividly reminds you of the idyllic life in the province, a great contrast to the worries and chaos of city life. The experience is given an exclamation point once you see kids swinging on vines from the banks and plunging into the brownish water for a quick tourist-applauded swim.

At some point, the width of the river itself becomes the feast of the eyes. For those who've seen Cesar Montano's Panaghoy sa Suba, this is where they shot that scene where Cesar paddles his boat on a river so wide with nothing but green in the background. Trust me, the scene is more beautiful than it was in the movie.

At the "busai", where water rush down a short waterfall, townsmen on rafts provide music and entertainment while the boat rides stop for a few minutes. This is a quite a treat from the town which is the home of the famous Loboc Children's Choir. I wouldn't be surprised if on board those rafts are some fathers and mothers of those kids who have been given standing ovations in their performances in Europe and the United States.

Words are not enough to capture the experience. Not even pictures. I invite you to take the ride yourselves and feel the beauty of it. It is so cheap to go there anyway. It is just a P24 peso ride (if I recall it correctly) from Island City Mall, one of the malls in Tagbilaran City.

My first e-Bay sale

If I am not wrong, I started using the net in 1997. My use then was limited to sending and checking emails, browsing the web, and yeah, a lot of chatting. After a year or so, I was already experimenting with building websites. For our office, for our organization, for whatever. I remember I met someone online who requested me to help build a website for their organization. Built it using MS Word's save as html function. She was pretty happy with it then. Now, years later, here I am experimenting again, this time with auction sites. And, hopefully within this week, I am going to consummate my first sale at www.ebay.com.ph with a PCMIA card that I don't need anymore. Another milestone for a non-techie like me. I wonder what else can I sell there. :)

Birthday thoughts

I don't exactly have clear memories of my early childhood. I just have this one picture in my mind of a family dinner when I was around 5 or 6 years old. I was up there sitting at one end of the table while everyone else was trying to convince me to eat. Not exactly a spectacular sight now that we have two kids who also have to be "convinced" to even swallow a bit of whatever.

After so many years, things have come around. There was a time when our parents worried to death that we'd fall from tables and cabinets we were not supposed to climb, that we'd choke from the things we were not supposed to swallow, or that we'd slam ourselves against the concrete walls. We didn't have the slightest idea then of whatever danger there was. Now, it is our turn to worry.

Not easy but parenting do remind us of what our parents had to go through to keep us breathing and alive, through all those years. It reminds us of how much love came our way without us giving much thought about it. Come to think of it, it reminds us of the beauty of life, that people out there genuinely cared and continue to care for us.

My thoughts and prayers now are with them, my parents. I wouldn't be here now running after my hyper-active four year old boy and savoring the giggles of our one year old daughter, if not for them. My thanks to them and to the Creator who gave them to me.

The Black Nazarene

It's January once again and one of the first images we encounter in this time of the year is the picture of the sea of devotees during the annual procession of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo. All this time I thought the icon was just the creative output of some Catholic artist who tried to come up with a symbol which we dark-colored Filipinos can relate to. I guess I was wrong.

At Inquirer.net today, I read that the annual procession really commemorates the first procession to transfer the image from a church in Intramuros to the present St. John de Baptist Church in Quiapo on Jan. 9, 1767. The John de Baptist Church is now also known as Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene.

The Basilica was named after the image of the Nazarene which arrived from Mexico earlier in Manila, in 1607, on board a ship that had caught fire. Reportedly, the image did not entirely escape the blaze, resulting in its charcoal color.

Since then and until now, the image's color somehow helped put in context its meaning to Filipinos, then the prime object of Catholic evangelization by Spanish missionaries in this part of the world.

“Somehow, Filipinos, because of our brown skin, get to identify with the color of the Black Nazarene,” Msgr. Josefino Ramirez, rector of the basilica, was quoted by the Inquirer. “To many of the devotees, He is the Filipino version of Jesus Christ,” he said.

From Inquirer.net:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines...