Enamored with ElYu

Our bodies are here already in Baguio, but our hearts and minds are still somewhere on the gray sand of San Juan, La Union.

As her 32nd birthday approached, my eldest child Kimi suggested we spend the Independence Day weekend at the beach. Who were we to say no? She was picking up the tab, another reminder that she was more than a full-fledged adult already.

For our soundtrack going down Naguilian Road to La Union (or ElYu in hipster language), we had the voices of the Four Seasons from the musical Jersey Boys.

Happy road trippers

Kai, the Not So Little One, came armed with her dark glasses and thrilled smile.

After repeated queries of "Are we there yet?" from the most junior in the group, we found our home for a night and two days--Villas Buenavista. It looked like a white castle from a distance because it's almost entirely made of marble. Of the weekend crowd, we were among the first to arrive with famished appetites. We had the restaurant to ourselves as we ate soothing sinigang na malaga and pinakbet with warm rice.

But Kimi told us ElYu is also a foodie's paradise so we shouldn't be eating resort food at all times. There were restaurants and hole-in-the-wall eateries to explore just a few kilometers down the highway, with Waze ensuring we didn't get lost.

Meanwhile, the Not So Little One made like she was to the resort life born.

Time for a "groupie," minus our younger child, Singapore-based Ida. Photos like this one are rare so when we remember we're almost complete as a family, we take time to commemorate the moment.

Kimi recommended we either go Mexican or Greek for our early supper. She and Kai had tried the Mexican in a past visit so Greek it was, together with waitresses dressed like acolytes of Aphrodite. We liked the view from where we sat. It looked out to the beach where groups of youngsters were throwing frisbees or volleyballs. Out in the sea, others swam or paddled with surfboards although there were no surfing-worthy waves.

Tres personas sin burritos

Just look for the blue and white building and you're in the Greek sanctuary.

Interiors of Gefseis Greek Grill are cool and open to the sea breeze.

While waiting for our orders, time for another three-generation "groupie."

I had the prawns and rice.

He (Rolly) had the grilled squid.

Next morning was playtime by the seashore for Kimi and Kai--they came equipped with bucket and shovels. The day before, Kai dug up a shell which she adopted as a pet and named Shelton.

Protected by sunscreen

Back to the pool we go.

Before noon we had checked out and decided on trying out the Independence Day turo-turo at Flotsam and Jetsam, another open-air resto by the beach. I loved it for its bohemian ambience--the hanging dream catchers, the parasols and lamps, the banana leaves topping the plates, the young girls and guys who stumble in from the beach for early beers or rum and Coke, etc.

Kimi recalled how in her college days she and friends would take the bus to San Juan. There weren't these many food places and bed and breakfast places. Sometimes they would just camp out on the beach. I'm happy I discovered San Juan and the ElYu vibe at this point in time.

At Flotsam and Jetsam, it feels like being thrown back to a hippie paradise.

Last stopover in Sablan, Benguet, before the climb to Baguio

Photos by Kimi and Rolly Fernandez

The roses of April are here

A pretty song--that's how I remember Simon and Garfunkel's "April Come She Will." It's the month "when streams are ripe and swelled with rain." But I guess the boys were referring to spring in their hemisphere.

I used to spin S&G's greatest hits on my parents' stereo back in college until I had memorized some lyrics. There was "I Am a Rock" whose lyrics struck me to my very core at a time when I was over-sensitive and in need of much desensitizing from a world that I thought I couldn't understand.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.

But years and decades have passed, I've somehow "moved on", achieved a certain amount of "closure", and the girl whose body I once inhabited is increasingly fading away. I put those words in quotes because they're, well, so current among those who would play psychologists.

One way of getting out of the prison of introversion is to take photos, to look at the world through a lens clearly. This I have discovered through the years of blogging and doing reportorial coverage for a living (correction: for survival in the big city).

I get near instantaneous results. These results make visible some inner conversations (more of monologues) I have with myself. Somehow I'm able to share the serenity or the turmoil (whichever I'm going through at any moment) with people out there. It does make me feel less lonesome, an alone-ness heightened when one is in the boisterous company of family and of friends.

Typhoon Chedeng is expected tonight or tomorrow. Weather forecasters predict that its tail end will pass through the province of La Union, not too far from Baguio. So before these pink roses are blown away, let them live through these images that I took two days ago while on a morning walk with my grandchild.

Photos by Babeth Lolarga

Road curves

On another trip to Baguio, I fiddled with the camera and waited for the bends and curves of the zigzag road leading to the city. The foliage changes from La Union to Benguet. Even the rain and the fog cooperated so I could get these shots.

Photos by Babeth Lolarga