A Charmed Life: Life's a Play!

... Finally (again), I was off in the air! The Asian Spirit plying the Manila-Basco-Tuguegarao route is much bigger than I expected, and I felt like back to "civilization".

Before boarding the plane, I arranged to have a rendezvous with a friend in Tuguegarao. She'll have to travel one hour from her place to go to Tuguegarao.

The aircraft touched down in Tuguegarao airport and I went downtown by tricycle. When I reached the city, I wondered whether I came back to "civilization" or to chaos. Noise, air pollution, people, buildings, tricycles, buses, jeepneys, and even calesas are all crowding the streets.

The calesa (horse drawn carts used for public transportation) especially caught my attention. The horses were so pitiful. They are skinny, they appear to be dehydrated, drained of energy, parched by the heat of the sun... Then I lifted my gaze up to their drivers. Hands clutching thick ropes used in flagging the horses, eyes scrounging the streets for passengers. I was very surprised. It struck me how the horsemen astonishingly resembled their horses. Very skinny, shriveled, scorched skins... I didn't know what to think. I stood there for sometime, stunned, silently watching them.

I thought how the Ivatans always claim that they are "poor." In the same manner, many outsiders (non-Ivatans) think of the Ivatans as poor and primitive since they live in stone houses. But no Ivatan I saw look like these drained people of the cities, their shirts hanging very loosely from their twiggy bodies. Moreover, the Ivatans' animals are healthy, happy and free.

My brooding over suffering and misery was suddenly replaced by happiness when my friend arrived. Such a relief. We happily trotted towards Chowking and ordered halo-halo with ice cream for each. We savored the creamy ice and beans in that humid hot weather, excitedly talking in between gulps. After an hour, my friend sent me off to the bus terminal where I will take my ride to Baguio that evening. Then she also had to catch the last jeepney back to her place. Even for that very brief time together, it was a joy to meet a friend you have not met for a quite sometime and in a place you are both not familiar with.

The bus started at 5 pm and I arrived in Baguio at 5 am. I felt totally exhausted. Certainly, not from the 3 weeks fruitful adventure but from the 12 hours bus ride.

to be continued...

Travel Time: January 2006