HOURLIES
7:00 PM: By now the sun was finally gone, and the only sources of light were the smattering of bonfires littering the beach. There were also a few tents lucky or experienced enough to bring lamps. I was feeling a bit envious, when all of a sudden, Jani whips out this huge foldable lamp. Nope, sorry i'm mistaken. She whips out this huge foldable table lamp. Talk about prepared.
8:00 PM: I was pretty zoning out by now. The camp site had ran out of pans to lend us, so we ended up cooking the liempo with the pot. It was difficult, as i think some oil ended up on the side of it, and the fire was climbing everywhere. Smoke was everywhere, and i half expected the locals to just scratch their heads, shrug and say "Kami na lang po mam, baka masunog pa ang campsite."
8:01 PM: Shan, bless this beautiful soul, managed to work some magic on the pot. It was burnt a bit, but it was still amazing to eat that shit with some rice. Dinner on the beach, score.
By now everyone was pretty tired of bumming on the beach and runnning on reserve energy to light up the bonfire. We washed up (which took forever, on account of having only 2 bathrooms and a dozen other tents and campers) and crawled into our tents. Our was a sand filled cave with a hard as fuck floor, but i was too tired to care. I slept like a log.
5:30 AM. New day. I kept on waking up intermittently during the night to our camp neighbor's drunkenness. Thankfully though, i managed to scrape a few hours of sleep. I crawled out of the tent with some difficulty, as i thought i pulled a muscle sleeping (the floor was crazy hard) and almost ran into Fess' legs. She bade me goodnight and crawled back to sleep. I stood up and took in the beach air. Everything was bathed in blue, with one end of the beach dipped in the honey yellow of the morning. The mountains threw shadows at each other and the sea quietly beckoned with gentle, but consistent waves.
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| Morning. |
Curled up and half asleep by the lawn chair was Shan. We chatted for a bit before we were joined by Jani, and then by Fess. We decided to rouse Bren to walk for a bit and enjoy the air at the far end of the beach - the one that looked like it was dipped in honey and connected the river and the sea.
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| Drowing |
6:00 AM trudging up the sand was a difficult process as the grains were fine and almost miniscule. Our feet kept sinking, but it was not annoying in any way. We were too wrappped up on the atmosphere of it all, and how, just a few hours ago, we were on the concrete jungle of Metro Manila.
When we reached the end of the beach, everything was amazing. The trees receeded into the background, and all you could see was the river that met the sea.
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| Reminds me of the Lord of The Rings. |
It was an indescribable feeling. We were there when most of the others at the campsite was asleep, so we kind of had the place to ourselves. Earlier, i described the sunset as tender. But this time, i struggle to find the right word that nestles between an adventure and potential.
It was around this time that it hit me - we're all leading different lives right now. I wonder if our college selves were proud of the way we turned out.
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| Part time HR, full time model |
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| Footsteps. |
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| Rule of Two's |
7:00 AM Back at the campsite, we started to go about the daily business of survival. Fess had to leave for a bit as she needed the phone connection, and the only place with a decent signal was at Pundaquit - a boat ride away. While she was gone, we cooked the remainder of the first batch of hotdogs and placed them on sandwiches.
11:00 AM Around this time, we were putting up the finishing touches to the pasta we were making, when up she trudged from the boat, all safe and sound. She was carrying with her a bag of cooking oil and a whole host of other things that we needed. But most importantly, she was carrying a bottle of Coke and Royal - two commodities i sorely missed. The beach was hot as balls.
1:00 PM: People around our campsite began leaving, so we kind of had the place to ourselves again. We settled down on another cottage and ate our food, placed our hammocks and lawn chairs and got a much needed nap. We made plans to try and trek up the mountain near the beach, which in hindsight was a foolish thing to do. Out of the four of us, only one remembered to bring suitable shoes for the hike. The rest of us only had slippers. I looked down at my feet, wrinkly from the water and a bit bruised and cut from swimming in the sea. "Be strong," I whispered. "Be strong."
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