Getting
There:
It was a welcome break to get the chance to go to the coastal town
of Baler, capital of Aurora Province in the Philippines. Art and
I left Manila at 6am, ready for a relaxed 6 to 7 hour drive to Baler.
Getting to Aurora is an adventure in itself. Looking
at the road map, Baler looked like it was just about 50 kilometers
north of Manila but all the way to the Pacific Coast. A trip to
Baler from Manila meant passing the provinces of Bulacan, famous
for its delicacies, and Nueva Ecija, the rice granary of Luzon.
The highlight would be the 3-hour crossing of the Sierra Madre
Mountains.
It was the usual weaving in and out of traffic
all the way to Cabanatuan City. If you keep your eyes open,
you will see sampaguita farms right by the roadside and see the
workers tending their plants that produce the fragrant white flowers
that is the Philippines' national flower. We passed
towns named after saints with identifiable cottage industries
as they sold their town specialties like balut, native sweets,
and soap along the highway. Leaving Cabanatuan meant the beginning
of open roads with much less traffic.
The open expanse revealed the vast vegetable farms
of Nueva Ecija in the plains at the foothills of the Sierra Madre.
The road to Aurora winds through the Sierra Madre
and roadwork is forever ongoing. Subject to washouts and landslides
with every torrential rainstorm, heavy machinery is always on
standby. During the dry season, the road has a tendency to crumble
away into deep ruts.
"Look," Art said while pointing west
to the plains of Central Luzon. "From this point in the mountains,
you can see almost 5 provinces at one time, Bulacan, Pampanga,
Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, and Zambales." From this height, the
usual view of Mt. Arayat as a majestic tall mountain changed dramatically
as it was transformed into a lone little hill in the vast Central
Plains of Luzon.
We pulled over in a shady area by the mountain
road and had our packed sandwich lunch, careful not to leave any
trash. There was a strong breeze brought about by the northeast
monsoon making us don our windbreakers. The silence of the
ancient trees at work was punctuated by the hoots and howls of
the many birds and animals that have made the Sierra Madre their
home.
A couple of minutes later, we noticed a flat tire, probably from
the sharp rocks loosened by the bulldozer leveling the road during
the early part of the climb. In a huff and a puff, Art changed
the tire and we were on the look out for a vulcanizing shop.
Sure enough, there was a tire shop right on the mountain pass.
A man with no legs owned and operated the shop assisted by his
son.
Continuing our drive to Baler, there were children selling ferns
by the roadside. A fist-sized bundle of young fern, perfect
for a salad, cost about 20 U.S. cents.
It was a wet and windy afternoon when we arrived at Bay's Inn
Resort, host venue for the competition. It looked more like
a perfect setting for a windsurfing contest. A tropical
disturbance in the south was inducing the northeast monsoon bringing
on shore winds and waves to the province.
"The surf conditions will improve and we will have a grand
finals at Cemento," predicted Marvin Go, a local Baler surfer.
"How can you tell?" I asked. "That's because every
year, Mother Ocean has been good to our event. Many people pray
for good waves and it does come."
I couldn't believe it, but the surf conditions as predicted by
Marvin for the finals at Cemento, couldn't have been more perfect.
