The Opposite Direction

I walk along the beach nearly every afternoon, usually around sunset.  I also try to get out and do so in the mornings, before 7:00 if possible, but lately have been a little bit lax.  The two photos below are from one recent afternoon, and they show graphically one of the "simple pleasures" of being here.

 This is the view south-west from  Malabor, which is our Barangay

(the word for neighborhood) at Tibiao.  The object in the ocean is

a bamboo fishing raft which appears to be about 15- feet by 30- feet.

Often twenty or more people will be fishing from the raft, and sometimes

using canoes to deploy nets.

When I turned to face nearly west,  this was the sunset that afternoon.

Culasi is the next municipality from Tibiao as you head north along the coastline of Antique Province.  The main part of the town is about 20 km from us and we occasionally travel there for various supplies and building materials - some things aren't available at Tibiao, and it's a shorter trip to Culasi (koo-LOSS-ee) than it is to San Jose (the Opposite Direction).  But we mostly head towards Culasi on Sundays, as that is where our church congregation meets.  It's a little shorter trip than going all the way to "Culasi Proper," as the site is on the nearer outskirts of the Culasi area, about 11 km. from us  (7 miles).  Since I earlier showed some of the sights I see when heading south towards San Jose, I'll show here some of the scenery headed north.

We always travel to Culasi by tricycle - we have a regular  Sunday

appointment with our driver.  Since I have a hard time scrunching

into the front seat, I ride in the back seat;  I would be sitting side-

way if I were in the above, where the two people are riding.  I often
see 3 skinny-buns Filipinos riding in the back of a tricycle.  This is
the National Highway within 100 yards of our house.

Heading north from Tibiao the scenery is often just like this, expansive
fields, trees, and mountains always brooding in the background.   I call
this type of view a "post card" because it is so natural to this area.

The road to Tibiao Eco Adventure Park is shortly after the town.  The
sign mentions waterfalls, kayaking, and caves.  I'm told that the walk-in
distance to the attractions would be too much for me, but I intend to
find that out for myself some day soon.

About 2 miles beyond the turnoff for "Tibiao Proper," the Tibiao River
bridge comes into my category of "long bridge" as it seems to be more
than 200 yards in length.

One category of vehicle I haven't mentioned before is a "biomass-
fueled" tricycle (pedal powered).  These are nearly always side-car
style, like the motorcycle- tricycles.  They are called  trisiked (siked=
pedal) and are very common in towns, both as passenger and as freight
carriers.   Here are two making a several- mile jaunt between  areas.

All kinds of places appear along the road; there are many medium-
prosperous seeming houses which are upscale enough to have a few
"architectural details - - -"

 - - -and a seemingly equal number of bamboo mini-stores, which are
more "organic looking.*"  In the "middle of nowhere" they somehow
stay in business.  (*"Hello - Gilligan?")

 Schools in our area are always enclosed in some sort of concrete-
plus-metalwork fence, sometimes simple angle-iron with points on
top, and sometimes more elaborate "wrought-iron work" with scrolling
and leaves.   The names of fence-donors appear below each panel.

 There are many places with "Spanish-Moorish" stylistic influences.

Many times passing-by, I've been intrigued and wonder how a very
expensive earth-moving machine comes to be parked with several
years-worth of vines and brush growing over it.  Parts trouble?

 This very prosperous-looking house is surrounded by rice-fields and
has a large concrete rice-drying pad (solar energy!) on one side.

The next four photos may be the best sequence I've managed to shoot here. I just happened to have the camera ready, and there was enough time for it to re-set in between shots.

As usual I'm sitting facing backwards in the tiny tricycle side-car when
a large truck overtakes us.  Notice the California Pacific-Coast Highway
scenery in the background - - -

 He moves in pretty close - waiting for his opportunity to pass, delayed
briefly by opposing traffic.

 Now, he's starting to make his move.  He can do over 60 mph, and
we  "top out" at about 25 mph.

I could not quite have touched his drive tires by stretching out my
toes, but it surely seems I didn't miss by more than "a foot - - "

This structure is one- vehicle- width from the highway, and is solidly set
on concrete piers.  It seemed to go up in "no  time at all" - probably a few
weeks  - - -

- - -and was quickly in operation as an open-air restaurant, bar, and

grill with the fine view of the ocean (which is hard to capture), beyond it.

Our congregation meets in a simple open-sided structure which overlooks
the ocean, about 200 feet away.  It's a beautiful site, developed for seminars
and conferences, with the murmuring of the waves always in the background.


I've tried to capture the perspective, looking towards the ocean, but it's
hard to really show it.  The trail seems to drop 30 or 40 feet in elevation
on about a 50- yard walk down to the beach.

There was an ocean baptism on the day I was taking photos.  A very
beautiful location for a memorial event.

The rest of Culasi will have to wait for another blog-post sometime later.  Mostly it would be a couple photos of the lumber-yard (home-made machinery), the hardware-and-plumbing suppliers, the window-fabricators and maybe the "shade-tree" side-car factory.  Nothing really remarkable - - I hear there are some municipal and provincial official-buildings but I actually haven't been as far as the "town square" if there is one, except "passing thru" on my first trip to this area 11 years ago.  Everywhere we have gone since arriving here in November last year, has been errand- objective- oriented.  Eventually we will have our priorities "settled down" enough to take a more leisurely look at our surroundings;  likely within the next 6 months.

I have been "covered up" with an amazing variety of small projects lately - the "Fisher Price Effect" with a little "Playskool" thrown in.  I think it has taken me 2 weeks to put together this blog, having started - if I remember right -  2 Sundays ago.  Usually these take me an hour or so to put up a bunch of photos and caption them.  Some of what I've been up to will be in later postings, and I'm just "itching" to also get up an issue or two of miscellaneous "stuff I've also seen" which is odd or interesting but doesn't fit into my pre-conceived categories.

Meantime, we hope you all had a great Independence Day Celebration of the greatest nation mankind has ever been blessed to see.  (We got to do some 'merican things here like home-made ice cream, hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, and Devil's Food Chocolate Cake - - my celebration-mind always seems to move towards my middle!).

Have a great week, everyone!

Tim and Bernadette Larson, Philippines