The Long Way to Boracay

10:40 a.m. @ Roxas Port

This will be my fourth time traveling to Boracay. No more excitement? Maybe, but this time I'm traveling with my two sisters and two brothers together with their families. All in all, we're 13 adults and four children aged 2 to 10 years old. I'm with my son.

We're not in Boracay yet. Just stuck here in one small restaurant waiting for the 2 p.m. trip of the ferry boat to Caticlan. We left Calapan City at half past 5 a.m. expecting to take the 10 a.m. trip. But the ferry boat left at 8 a.m. just 10 minutes before we arrived at Roxas Port. So here I am killing the time to write about this trip.

Hopefully, the sailing this afternoon would be smooth and everybody would have a great time bonding with one another and appreciating the beauty of one of the world's finest beaches.

By the way, happy Resurrection Sunday! I missed the joint sunrise worship service today and will surely miss the church outing in Calatagan, Batangas this afternoon until tomorrow.

Hil-Flor Matibag Family Reunion

Reunions. It's more fun in the Philippines... For the first time, the clan from my maternal side had its reunion in Pansol, Calamba, Laguna on April 1-2, 2012. If I remember it right, the last big family event was the 50th wedding anniversary of our grandparents way back in the 80s.

My maternal grandparents (+) had 10 children, 6 girls, and 4 boys. Our mother is the third child and the eldest among the girls. The first three are already gone and the remaining ones are scattered in Lucena City, Calapan City, Balayan, Batangas, and the rest in New York, USA. With 10 children, 21 grandchildren, and 37 great-grandchildren, that's a lot! Yes, it was the first time and it was pure fun and excitement to see and bond with each other again. 

Though we were not complete, the turnout was good enough. I'll treasure the memories (no matter how strong the senior moments are) and look forward to the next gathering. Isn't it more fun to see them this way than meeting them at a funeral as usually happens? Thank God!

Paraw Regatta in Iloilo City

Our group took the early morning flight to Iloilo for our four-day writeshop. From the airport, we dropped by the hotel to store our luggage since check-in time is at 2 p.m. We unanimously agreed to have our "second" breakfast in a restaurant offering the authentic La Paz batchoy. Nowhere to go? Our taxi just followed the first group and we were surprised to realize that we were going to the paraw regatta at the Villa area.

It was low tide and we just waited for the program to end so the contest could begin. There were colorful sailboats and the beach was full of spectators. Once the contest started, we found ourselves sitting in the nearby restaurant for a very early seafood lunch. Super loaded!

Nasugbu, Batangas

Today is a non-working holiday the Chinese New Year and yesterday we were supposed to have an overnight family outing in a resort in Laiya, San Juan, Batangas. However, Ate finished her appointment with the dentist at past 3:00 p.m. Since it would take three hours to drive to Laiya, we decided to take Plan B which is Munting Buhangin Beach Camp in Nasugbu, Batangas. We arrived at the place after one and a half hours and hurriedly left our stuff in our chosen nipa hut to admire the golden sunset and capture it in photos.

The beach sand is fine but not as white as that of Boracay. I liked the gently sloping beach area and the water was calm and clean. Our night swim increased our appetite for dinner. We just ordered chicken and pork adobo combo meals and lechong kawali. Yum, yum!

This morning we traversed the shorelines of the cove from our beach camp to the other three adjacent beach resorts. After the walk cum pictorial, it was swimming time again despite the low tide. The day tourists began to arrive and we got to enjoy swimming again in the crystal clear waters after our breakfast consisting of tapsilog and tocilog.

Bye, Munting Buhangin. We truly enjoyed your beauty and serenity.

New Eyes

This is it! There's no turning back. I needed to upgrade my eyeglasses and I just got tired of looking for my eyeglasses whenever I had to read something up close. My second attempt to use progressive lenses. The first one was just a waste of money because it didn't fit me well. Reading small font sizes and from my netbook was a blur. I also need to protect my eyes from glare especially when I'm under the sun so I finally decided to go for Transitions. Quite expensive but it's a necessity. The eye doctor said that I had to make the most of it if I wanted to be benefited the most. I definitely will do it!