Pampanga discoveries Part 2

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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 Sta. Monica, Sta. Rita. We were stuck again in a traffic (Traffic #2) and we had no choice but to walk. Upon arrival at his house, we ate Atcheng Bekbek's very delicious leche flan made from ducks' eggs. It was one of tastiest leche flan I ever had. We left Henry's house at 5 PM and before going to the pasalubong shops, we were stuck again by a parade (Traffic #3). We then decided to take pictures together with the amazing band and Kapampangan beauties as our background as we were waiting for the parade to pass-by. It is perhaps a tradition of Sta. Rita's folks to clap their hands whenever a "reyna" passes their house. Very interesting tradition though. The fastest way to the pasalubong shop in San Jose, Sta. Rita was via a tricycle but again and again, stuck by a traffic (Traffic #4) We had no choice but to walk again. My feet were really tired but it was still fun. We would buy our sans rival in Ocampo Lansang Delicacies but only to find out that it was out-of-stock. I bought Uraro instead and having a take-out of Atcheng Bekbek's leche flan was good enough as a pasalubong. What is interesting about the house of Ocampo Lansang (?) is it houses lots of Catholic saints statue. The Dominican or Augustinian nuns taught Ocampo Lansang (?) how to prepare the now famous, Sta. Rita's sans rival. We failed to visit the church because the tiny street going there was overcrowded with shops and people. We left Sta. Rita with happy memories and I won't have second thoughts to visit the town again. Luid ka, Apung Rita!

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Photos

Dan, Lhea, Cel and Me
San Matias, Guagua, Pampanga

Festive mood
The street going to Henry's house

Cel, Dan and me with a dancer
Look at the locals, they were looking at us :-)

Comments

[frank]

Good Blog
This is a good blog because you were able to show and display the beauty of Sta.Rita. It is also my hometown and i'm very proud of that. Maybe you can put more alluring pictures or explore more of the inner beauty of our place. All in all it was a very good blog for me.