Beyond the Photo: Gloria the Lato Vendor

People were throwing sharp glances at me, as I languidly walked down the main road from lofty Fort Culion. I was looking for a place to have lunch, and regretted heading out in the punishing noontime sun with a daypack and 2 cameras strapped around me. Along the way, I was shooting random street scenes: leper-colony era structures now in decay, kids playing with their makeshift toys of ruined bicycle tires & used food cans, homemakers tending to their sari-sari stores and food stands. The locals projected this canned smile at me, as if telling me to take their photo - and when I'd oblige and point my camera they would break into wild laughter and shake their heads as if it were a silly thing to ask for.

As I was walking along I heard a loud and elongated cry from behind me, like a jungle call that drowned out all other noise on the street. I looked around and saw this lady at the bend of the road, bucket in one hand and a carrying staff hoisted on her shoulders with green bundles hanging from it. She was steadily marching down like a soldier in a parade while chanting her jungle cry. As she came into better view I realized she was peddling "lato" - that delicious seaweed salad that exploded into the taste of the sea in your mouth. She stopped a short distance away, looked at me intently and exclaimed in a commanding voice: "kunan mo ako ng litrato."

She told me her name - Gloria Bereng, and that she was Tagbanua. Gloria had a regal posture, standing erectly never mind the heavy load on her shoulders. She was dark-skinned and her hair was brown, baked from working under the harsh sun most of the day for sure. What caught my eye though was a deep & very pronounced canal on her temple, right between the eyebrows.  The rest of her forehead looked like it was collapsing, being sucked in by it. This sculpted what seemed like a permanent scowl on her face. I asked her to give a big smile for the photo, and all that she could muster looked like a squint against the afternoon sun, rather than a smile. Despite that, I was pretty sure she was elated to have her photo taken.

Gloria Bereng, Tagbanua Lato vedor from Culion, Palawan

I promised to have the photos printed for her and sent to Hotel Maya via postal mail, where she can pick it up after a month. I was able to send them after 2 weeks, and I hope she got her copies.

Beyond the Photo: Beach Bumming in Bagasbas

The ultimate beach bumming experience is when you have an absolutely nothing to do except waste the day on the shore under the summer sun - down a few drinks, read a book you've been dying to finish, pick a few sticks of bbq street food, and dive into the wild waves that playfully spit you back out to the shore. Relieved that we survived our one-week romp through the Bicol Region, we savored the downtime in Bagasbas - the last stop in our trip with our crazy itinerary behind us.

Bagasbas Beach. Daet, Camarines Norte - April 2011.

This was our BUSY schedule: We left Cubao in Manila Palm Sunday. Holy Monday we swam with Whale Sharks in Donsol, visited the ruins of Cagsawa, tried to get a glimpse of Mt. Mayon  (she skillfully hid behind a thick cloud) and spent the night in Camsur Watersports Complex after miserably failing at wakeboarding. Holy Tuesday we hied off to logistically elusive Caramoan but finally arrived before sunset despite the transportation challenges. Holy Wednesday we went on an early morning island hopping tour of the Caramoan Islands and had an amazing breakfast on a secluded white-sand island, we headed to Naga right after and caught onward bus to Daet. My sister Marija joined the trip at this point, our shuttle van picked her up in Pili. Holy Thursday we braved the waves on a rickety boat for 2hours on the way to jaw-droppingly-pretty Calaguas Islands where we spent the whole day with JM's clan - which meant we were free to act like kids in a family beach picnic. Which brings us to...

Good Friday - with all to-dos masterfully crossed out of our ambitious checklist, we could finally wind down and take things slow. We allowed ourselves to sleep in late, have a prolonged and lazy breakfast, and play  around with the kids. We headed to Bagasbas to bask in the morning sun, and it was simply magical feeling to have nothing to do looming over you. Finally we could exhale deeply, relax our clenched muscles and just let time run its course without worrying. We could have tried surfing, but we were simply too lazy even for that, and just opted to skimboard. Walked around town after that, went back home and slept some more. Ahhhhhh, a perfect way to end a great adventure. 

Beyond the Photo: Distress Call

Once... we were in the middle of a punishing six-hour trek up the Singnapan Valley and through the Matalingajan mountain range when my mobile phone started ringing wildly - it was so alien amidst the gentle sounds of the rainforest.

Anna taking an overseas call in the heart of the rainforest

For four days we were staying with a Tau't Bato family and the ten days prior we were with a Palaw'an community on the other coast of Southern Palawan up Mount Gantung. The areas were so remote we had minimal access to the modern world, until that moment.

I answered the call, and a lady with a thick aussie accent anxiously inquired if I was Raffy Vicente, and asked to talk to Anna immediately. It was Anna's MOM!! We found it so amusing at first, your mum calls out of the blue while trekking in the heart of the rainforest.

Turns out she was in a semi-panic and wanted to check our condition because a typhoon was about to hit the Philippines and was on a direct collision course with Southern Palawan. Anna assured her that we were okay, it was sunny in fact with great blue skies and I told them that we get typhoons all the time and staying safe wouldn't be problem. So we carried on, reached Rizal  town after several more hours, spent the night by the beach and rode off to Puerto Princesa before sunrise the next day.

In Puerto, we ambled to a convenience store to get supplies and our jaws dropped when we saw the newspaper headlines: TYPHOON SENDONG. Hundreds dead - in just one night as mammoth flash floods washed away towns in Northern Mindanao. Barely a week before Christmas, it brought unprecedented devastation that affected hundreds of thousands of  families.

We were unbelievably lucky. Turns out Anna's mum was not overreacting at all.

*Beyond The Photo will be a series of travel snapshots and the personal stories behind it. We all get a flood of memories surrounding that moment captured in a photo - and that's what I want to share.