The 7-hour walk.

Hiking on Christmas day? Why not?!


I thought I’d get really (really) tired, provided that I’d be off for another 7-hour trip back to Manila the next day. But it was my grandma’s request to see us, uhm, me in particular; I thought it’s a sin to beg off.

Deprived of access to any kind of transportation (except during summer), visiting my grandmother on a remote barrio would mean we’ll need to walk, hike, swim…something that I wouldn’t mind doing unless I’ll have enough time to rest after. I’ll be traveling the next day and go to work with no time for sleeping. Thinking that it’s something that may never happen again, on Christmas day, I woke up at 4 in the morning and decided to go, we started walking at about 5:10am. It was still dark, thanks to the full moon.

Dawn. Taken at about 5:30 in the morning.

It’s actually about less than a 2-hour walk; we planned to make it three hours. With my camera at hand, we ended up walking for three and a half hours. Back and forth, that’s seven hours.

I didn’t feel tired at all. I was busy admiring the view like I’ve never seen them before. I was furious I didn’t buy an extra memory card before Christmas. I had to lower down my camera resolution to 3MP, and painstakingly deleted some photos one after the other depending on their “value”.

Putting my animalistic appeal to test.

How nature made me feel so insignificant.

Enjoying the waters.

My grandma’s hidden treasures.

Digging inside her century-old "baul", our grandmother showed us this:

They’re not gold, but definitely they’re more than 100 years old, I don’t know exactly where they came from neither do I know how they’re called. Must be an accessory back in the 18^th century (or earlier, who knows). With a hearing problem, I didn’t demand grandma for a story.

Busy taking pictures, I didn’t notice these coins, until my brother exclaimed 1857!

The oldest coin in the collection is the Mexican (peso?) dated 1857. Above is a newer one, 1861.

And look how our Philippine Peso looked like back in the early 1900’s. I wish we still have the “ United States of America” on our money today.