Quezon, Bicol, Icon

When i was young-that was 2 years ago, hehe.. when i looked at the map of the philippines, i was always fascinated by the quezon province, it's long geographic shape and also the bicol area especially the mayon volcano and of course the uragons!

I remember my father or my lolo once told a story about the road called the bitukang manok in quezon province, known to its steep and dangerous road, where only one vehicle could pass at a time, and told me too that it was beautifully seen from the sea, well, my lolo and father once a fisherman.

My first time i stepped in quezon province, was when we visited a relative in gumaca, quezon, i have a vague recollection of the travel, i only remember the place-the house near the rail road. the second time was when i attended my classmate's wedding in gumaca too. it is the first time i savor the bitukang manok road, from the ordinary bus.

Saw the beach, not that attractive, just like in cavite and i said to myself, nothing was excting in this province-except for the known NPA infestation..

After several years-two years again hehe, we were invited by a friend to visit masbate via bus-ordinary, meaning, we have to go through the quezon province and most of bicol region, i rarely seen the view because we traveled by night, therefore i passed the bicol region without any idea what it looked like.

Then at 4am while waiting at the pilar sorsogon wharf, as the sun rises, i saw a triangular image from afar, it was fascinating because it looked like a pyramid, you would not even thought it was nature's creation because of its perfect shape-of course i know that it was the mayon volcano, looking at it from half to tip because most of it's body was covered by houses and establishment where i am standing.

Then few years has passed again-two of course! a friend invited me to her hometown in maripipi island, somewhere in biliran, samar. with only 7 hundred peso in the pocket she shoulders the rest of my expenses, her friend has a vehicle-nissan safari, so our travel for me is somewhat comfortable-i was sitted at the best seat hehe, but then it took us 12 hours to reach camalig, albay where we will spend the whole day of rest and stroll the area and some trourists spots.

I was overwhelmed because the rest house of ate thess was situated just in front of mayon volcano, now my longing to see mayon was fulfilled, there it was upfront and majestic! Then we visit the mayon rest house, hoyop hoyopan cave, the church ruin-i forgot the name! and while traveling eating pili nuts, raw! fresh from its shell. then the day after we travel to matnog sorsogon and transferred to a ferry boat to allen samar-but that is another story.

(Mayon with different facade)
Few days ago and several years-again two! we went back to bicol, now courtesy of ate thess, we rode on her brand new toyota fortuner and guess what, i was sitted alone in the front while 8 of them squeeze themselves to fit in hehe, thanks to my big size!

Although, we only based on Camalig, albay, her hometown, the travel was exciting and hilarious, my friend rina and dict talked non stop just about anything and everything, from funny to sarcastic to controversies to scandals, you won't get bored from the travel, it's like having a live radio talk show!

Ate thess house was almost finished, it was grandiose everywhere, it was her mama who decorate and chooses the furnitures, those huge jars, can't imagine it costs 40 thousand pesos each!

Then, we stroll the place, it was fascinating that old houses were still erect-hispanic era, i got some photos of those houses, it resembles vigan houses, the church was impressive although old and unattended, you could see how thick the wall was, ready to withstand any storms and one icon catches my interest, situated just beside the door-you won't see as you enter the church it was the crucified image of christ, and i feel the chill, i thought i would like to capture his image.

And as i was taking some shot of the icon, i forgot that several people were standing behind me, waiting for their turn to pay homage while some kisses and touches the icon image, with this i remember the same icon in paete laguna as i've seen on tv, huge and unsettling.

I was always been afraid of big religious icons, those life size icons, i can't imagine what to do when they move! oh.. my imagination, am i being heretic? i remember at mount banahaw as we sleep on the top of the hill, some devotees brought up a huge icon image of god the father, sitting. oh my god, i can't sleep! it was pitch black and the icon was the only one with candle-imagine that!

And to my neighbor's pabasa, there was this 7 foot icon of mother mary standing and cyring beside the same size icon image of jesus christ lying-dead. i was walking peacefully on a dark street, that when i turned my head on the window and saw such inside, i feel all my hair raised but i couldn't shout, instead i ran!

I began to ponder, why were those images are scary? shall we be praying on a scary or paying respect to those icons? if they represent the pain, agony, truth was it wrong to feel differently for those icon? (or was it only me who are afraid?)

I remember again! i dreamed of a place-cobbled stone, narrow street, concrete walled houses, as i was walking uphill the road, i saw there's a commotion on one of the house, with lots of people inspecting, i squeezed in from the crowd and saw that there was this huge icon of jesus lying with white robes and dress, awaken and stood up, some people ran, some were startled like me and couldn't move, then the icon walked, he's like 10 feet tall, he walk towards me, i couldn't move, my heart is pounding, he reached for my hand and squeeze it, it feels cold, hard and wood! and aching. then, i woke up! gasping for air, i was so terrified.

Well, i've been surfing the net for some image of jesus christ crucified but couldn't find a good one for my collection. i thought, it would be my goal, that every time i visit a church especialy in the province, i will take picture of jesus icon and keep them.