amateur blogger

Last May 22, 2010, we were invited by my officemate Henry to his hometown, Sta. Rita, Pampanga for the celebration of their annual town fiesta in honour of St. Rita of Cascia. St. Rita is known as the patroness of impossible causes. Kampampangans are really religious and traditional. Going to Sta. Rita was a challenge. We were stuck in a NLEX heavy traffic (Traffic #1) - four hours from Clover Leaf to Valenzuela. The cause of the traffic was just the on-going construction of a new exit. We arrived at Henry's cousin's house in Guagua, Pampanga at 2:30 PM to eat our late lunch. The usual Filipinos "handa" during fiesta were served. Kare-kare, Menudo, Lumpiang Ubod plus my favorite Mangga with Bagoong were among the "handa". After the late lunch, we went to Henry's house in ... read more

I remember when I was on my grade school; we used to visit century-old churches in Rizal during Holy Week for our annual Visita Iglesia practice. I was surprised back then that in just an hour drive from our home lays a rich cultural and historic heritage yet to be discovered by my young mind. After 10 years, I went back to those churches I had visited in Rizal when I was still a kid and in addition, some of the churches in Laguna and Quezon. In an early Saturday morning some time March 2007, I was so excited for our tour that I didn't able to eat breakfast properly so we stopped at a Tropical Hut Restaurant in Morong, Rizal. We decided that we went straight first to our hotel in Sariaya before doing our ... read more