oh holy week

we spent our holy week at bicol, gubat, sorsogon to be exact. we departed last wednesday. luckily, the trip going to bicol was good. it was only on sto. tomas, batangas where we met a heavy traffic. there, i was able to participate in different religious activities like way of the cross and procession. on our first night, we watched a procession. upon entering the town proper of gubat, bright lights welcomed us, signaling a procession. luckily, we were not caught up in traffic because the procession was quite long. then, we had our dinner at our tito jan's place. it was the fortieth day of his father's death. there, i got the chance to meet the famous, roque. roque is, as most of the people would say, a crazy guy. the first time, i saw him wearing a black shirt, camouflage pants and combat boots - his daily get-up. the funny thing was that he would always wear his shades, even at night. then, this guy is so talkative. on our second day, which was holy thursday, we went to magallanes. magallanes is a town in sorsogon fronting the china sea. it is two towns away from our town. the view going to magalllens is one of the best because there's a nicely shaped mountain. it's better if you see it yourself. then on good friday, i joined the morning way of the cross where the stations are at the streets. it would look like a procession. i never knew that i would enjoy eating fish during lunch. then, as a panata of my father, we participated in the procession. one thing that i noticed is that today, there's so many people residing in our town as manifested by the very long procession. i really wish i had a good camera that day because i want to shoot the people going crazy on the santo entierro. the scene somehow reflected the quiapo fiesta for the people were rushing to get the ferns thrown. these ferns are used as charm in sabong, according to my father. on black saturday, we went to dangkalan beach. well, it's not comparable to the pristine beaches of boracay because the local gov't has not harnessed it. anyway, i had fun taking pictures of people who are trying to get away from the solemnity of holy week. unfortunately, we went there for only two hours because we have to visit a family friend. on our last day, easter sunday, we went to rizal beach. i was really frustrated that time because the weather was bad. it was cloudy and you could not sunbathe, which was one of my purpose of going to the beach. ahaha. a funny thing when rain started pouring, you would see two groups of people: people rushing to enjoy the warm seawater and people running for cover. i was also able to see the step-by-step process of how a pig becomes a lechon. it was fun yet disgusting. the lechon was for the dinner for the graduates at our compound. most of the families in the compound had graduates. gubatnons really loved sing because some of my relatives have on their pockets the number of songs they're planning to sing. and some would even memorize the combination. as i got bored, luckily, tito jan asked me to take a picture of the "meeting" of the mayor, it's like a meeting de avance. the trip back home was fun because we had two stops just to take pictures of mayon volcano. damn. guinobatan, albay is really freaky. mud, even boulders, is seen almost everywhere. to see pictures: www.arjayd.multiply.com