Travel the Philippines on Bare Foot

Will Caramoan Survive?

2008-05-12T23:24:00.000-07:00

Standing before the entrance to Gota beach in Caramoan, I stared with wary eyes at the billboard bearing the statement: Temporarily Closed. I searched my pocket and then my head for any reason why a public place like Gota beach is suddenly off-limits to patrons. Probably some kind of human-eating-monster has recently wreaked horror in the poor town and is suspected to be hibernating beneath the white sands of Gota.

A few meters from the billboard, civilian security men have positioned themselves to ward off potential trespassers who might find the warning on the billboard unscrupulous (just as I thought it was) and insist in going to the beach. One of the men gave me a sidelong look. I asked them why the place was closed-off, they all pointed their index fingers to the billboard. “Massive developments accompanying the Camarines Sur government's construction of resort facilities and amenities are underway.” explained the billboard.

Gota beach is located in Caramoan's northeastern shores and is famous for its powdery white sand beach. The place could be just as appealing as any other beach environment in the country even without having to try hard to. The place is dubbed as the Hidden Paradise. Anybody who gets exhausted wallowing in its crystal blue waters could unwind under the shade of an exotic tree whose branches has birds doing a musicale. Gota beach is the jump-off point to islets of granite, limestone and volcanic rocks scattered by the bay.

“Its 'Survivor,'” the tricycle driver told me on my way back to the town proper. “Survivor” is the famous reality game show that entertains its audience by isolating contestants with pleasing personalities in the wilderness to compete for cash and prizes. Gota beach proved to be a perfect location for the French version of the game show. So, it's not a horrible monster walking on Gota beach but some Frenchmen.

Rumor has it that Arnold Schwarzenegger will also be coming to Caramoan to shoot a film on the picturesque beaches. My wild guess is that Arnold Schwarzenegger while jogging in knee-deep water will be firing a sub machine gun at some local bandits in one of the scenes. The scene is breathe taking because it will be filmed at early dawn when the sun is just about to light up the eastern horizon.

The locals have no idea when they can indulge their beloved beach again. Most of them doubt if the billboard forbidding them to enter Gota beach will ever be removed now that the place has made it to international stardom. The provincial government wants the place to be the next Boracay with its plan to implement a P200-million development plan. No less than the provincial governor revealed that Caramoan is being groomed as an exotic tourist destination.

Sooner or later the billboard will be replaced with a neon lighted one but this time it will read: Open for Business. The security guards each have a .38 revolver ready to fire on a penniless intruder or a wandering poor fisherman. Hopefully, this “massive development project” does not alienate the locals as it tries hard to endear the Frenchmen to return to Caramoan.

The local government of Camarines Sur must see to it that they do not create a deadly monster in Gota beach least the natives and the fishes who loves the place the most perish.

As I wait beside the road trying to hitch a ride a question stopped by and asked: Will Caramoan survive?

Philippine Travel Detours

2008-05-12T22:50:00.000-07:00

The Philippine scenery and those gorgeous hideaways as rendered in post cards, flaunted in travel magazines, and as promoted by Tourism is not as poster perfect as they are made to appear, and they aren't located in some never land which can only be reach through a special travel package as most travel agencies want us to believe. The scenery are simply splendid long before the advent of Eco-tourism and landscaping.

With only a backpack of goodies to nourish the stomach, loose change for the tricycle driver and the stevedore, and an unquenchable thirst for adventure, these destinations aren't as far as they seem to be on the map or as they appear in postcards.

Never mind the travel kit and the trip planner, forget the straight line in getting to places safe and sound (you'll end up waiting on que for the free whitening lotion in travel reservation booths), and lastly ignore those entrepreneurs who offer shortcuts.

Travel agencies who promise to deliver your morning newspaper and black coffee in the morning, bring your flip flops wherever you are at the beach, prepare your mountain climbing gear, and arrange for your return flight are not unlike priests who unnecessarily meddle between the holy communion between man and God as well as wedding planners who meddle between the holy union of man and wife.

In the Philippines where Hades is just a stone's throw away from Paradise so near that one who listens to angels singing Hosanna in the Highest in Paradise can smell burning sulfur emitting straight from the nearby pit, it would be a pity to a traveler looking for truth and beauty to negotiate his way along a straight line.

A travel package which will take someone from Manila to any point in the country at the shortest possible time deceives him into believing that he is up for a great adventure. No, it wouldn't take him anywhere.

Take the less-traveled byways instead.

Take the detour.

Get soiled.

Get wet.

Discover.

7,107 Tropical Islands' Shakes and Secrets

2008-05-10T17:52:00.000-07:00

Every place, just like every face, holds a secret.

The Pyramids of Egypt cradle more than just mummified Pharaohs; Leonardo Da Vinci's Monalisa smile not in greeting but at what you know not. What lies beneath the Pyramids and what Monalisa grins about, only the desert and the canvas will ever know.

There is a place called the Philippines where the Sun god, the Sea goddess were said to have frolicked. Legend has it that the 7, 107 carelessly scattered yet mystic islands of the Philippine archipelago are the handiwork of the playful lovers who after picking daisies and chasing dragonflies would run to the beach and start throwing handful of sand at each other until they are short of breathe. At the end of the day, what remains is a messy playground with mounds of sand strewn about.

One night, a tumultuous storm came and the lovers were never seen the following morning and in the many mornings thereafter. But the lovers were never forgotten because the mounds of sand they have played with went to become the more than 7,000 islands of the Philippines.

No one exactly knows if the Sun god and the Sea goddess still hang out in this hideaway. What the natives and the whole world knows is that this islands has since become green paradise floating on the blue South Pacific.

Many believed that the story about how the islands surfaced is just a legend. Perhaps they are right, but a traveler who have set foot and wandered in its shores attests to the fact sun does not fail to kiss his darling sea each morning when he rises in the east and at dusk as he settles in the west for the night.

Every place, just like every face, holds a secret. Even the Garden of Eden holds a secret. What lurks behind wild flowers, what swims silently in the crystal waters, and what creeps underneath the bushes in this tropical paradise is a secret only the face of this one Adam of a blogger knows.

Mabuhay! Let's travel the Philippines. Run, jump, crawl, dive, swim, and hitchhiked along with me as I hop from one island paradise to the other on bare foot.

Together let's discover the untold tales of joy and sorrow in the cities and the countryside, listen to stories of legends, and hear the Filipino people laugh and wail.

GOD SPEED.