Skip to main content

Life is a Beach

My recent trip to Capiz was hardly a vacation. We were there visiting with an ailing relative who raised me as a child. How opportune that we found an inn across from Baybay beach. It gave us the chance to enjoy a quiet walk at sunrise, get our feet wet and observe how the locals greet a brand new day.

I especially enjoyed watching the children frolic in the water. And how their parents indulged them. One day I saw a baby half buried in sand. And when his mother scooped him from the sand and into her arms, he bawled and my heart went out to him.

We discovered many things along the shore everyday. There were an incredible number of seashells, hundreds of beached jellyfish, stray dogs sleeping peacefully in the sand, PE classes in the water, fishermen pushing their outrigger to sea, fish drying in the sun, tacky beachside cottages and restaurants, seafood entrepreneurs as young as 6 years old raking for clams and fingerlings and a coconut raider who was generous enough to give us some coconuts.

The sun rises fast in this part of the world and the temperature along with it. Breakfast consisted of fresh coconut juice, fruits usually mango and chico and rice cakes from vendors coming to our doorstep. For P20.00, I was well fed.

I can still hear the sweet Visayan tone of voice of hotel staff greeting us "Good Morning!" with the accent on "mor".

It was therapeutic to live at the beach. What a lucky break!

* * *
Images by Rosario Charie Albar

Popular posts from this blog

The Art of Carlos Botong Francisco - Progress of Medicine in the Philippines

Pre-colonial period Pag-unlad ng Panggagamot sa Pilipinas (The Progress of Medicine in the Philippines) is a group of four large-scale paintings depicting healing practices in the Philippines from pre-colonial times to the modern period. Carlos Botong Francisco was commissioned in 1953 by  Dr. Agerico Sison who was then the director of Philippine General Hospital (PGH) together with   Dr. Eduardo Quisumbing of the National Museum, Dr. Florentino Herrera, Jr. and Dr. Constantino Manahan. These oil on canvas paintings measure 2.92 meters in height and 2.76 meters in width (9.71 ft x 8.92 ft) and were displayed at the main entrance hall of PGH for over five decades. Owing to its location, the artworks were in a state of "severe deterioration" at the beginning of the 21st century from exposure to heat, humidity, dirt, dust, smoke, insect stains, grime, termites and an oxidized synthetic resin used in an earlier restoration. These canvases were restored three times, the last was...
Read more

8 Heritage Houses of Iloilo

Lizares Mansion The province of Iloilo on the island of Panay has a rich trove of heritage houses, left over from the sugar industry boom in the 19th century. Iloilo also had the largest port in the Philippines at that time which facilitated the export of sugar to foreign shores and deposited money in the hands of the sugar barons. The barons dropped their earnings into the acquisition of properties in Negros and the construction of beautiful homes in Iloilo, many of which are located in the vicinity of the Jaro Cathedral. The Lizares Mansion was built in 1937 by Don Emiliano Lizares for his wife, Concepcion Gamboa and five children. The family fled to safety when World War II broke out and the house was occupied by the Japanese military. The family returned to the house after the war but left once again after the demise of Don Emiliano. It was sold to the Dominican order in the 1960s and was converted in 1978 to a private school, Angelicum School. The mansion now houses the ...
Read more

Filipino Struggles in History - Carlos Botong Francisco

In 1968, Antonio Villegas (then Mayor of Manila), commissioned Carlos "Botong" Francisco to paint the history of Manila for Manila City Hall. The series of large scale paintings was called  Kasaysayan ng Maynila  (History of Manila).  The paintings deteriorated over time and no attempt was made to preserve these historical canvases until 2013 when Mayor Amado Lim sent them to the National Museum for extensive restoration. Four years later, in 2017, Mayor Joseph Ejercito Estrada and the Manila City Council signed an agreement with the National Museum to leave the paintings at the museum so they may reach a larger audience in exchange for museum grade reproductions to replace the originals. Kasaysayan ng Maynila was later renamed Filipino Struggles in History and is now on display at the Senate Hall of the National Museum . Carlos "Botong" Francisco died in March 1969, a few months after completing the paintings. He is one of the first Filipino modernists and...
Read more