Everywhere, in everything, there is a story. Even from an old lantern
just sitting there on a windowsill, or a piece of candy wrapper thrown
carelessly, blown on top of vibrant green grass. There are stories
behind these little everyday things. When I travel, I open my mind, not
just to the beauty that surrounds me, but
to these miniature details that make the moment whole. I have what
they call a burning curiosity, a hankering for both fact and myth. Our
country is an amazing place full of polarities: crowds and solitude,
loud merriment and the silence of mountains, party islands and spiritual
isle sanctuaries, urban romps and bucolic wanderings, verifiable raw
realities and magical wonders. These disparate elements help fuse a
whole, a whole we call home, the Philippines. I want to celebrate those
elements, those stories so particular and so diverse that as a
collective, they all reinforce the richness and multifariousness of our
culture. And in the telling of these stories, I’m hoping that people
will not just be enlightened about the many small fascinating aspects of a place, but I’m also hoping that they will be encouraged to
protect, preserve, care and nurture. I’m hoping that we will all
realize that any action, such as the careless throwing of our personal
garbage or the dauntless perseverance to always clean, conserve and
nourish, all the choices and actions we make aid in the weakening or
strengthening of the whole. I hope that in all the telling and
collective sharing, we all come back to that age-old creed of leaving
nothing but footprints and that the only thing we can take with us is
the story and nothing else.
Please click on the following links to learn more about responsible travel:
Marcos Island is my favorite among the many places to explore in the Hundred Islands (Alaminos, Pangasinan). It's clean, its got a good clean white sand beach (although a bit small at around 600 sq. m), there are numerous trails you can hike, plus there's a nice cave called ... guess what ... the Imelda cave. The Hundred Islands is a good place to visit, it may not offer the stunning views of Palawan or our other more popular beaches, but it certainly has its own charms. Plus, for budget travelers like me, it's affordable and you can just go on a road trip or take the bus which is most of the time cheaper than going to places that you can only reach by plane or ship.
Here are some photos I took of my sister going up the trail that leads to the mouth of the Imelda cave:
