Guest Write Up by Bea Gomez (Part 2)

*This write-up was submitted by Bea Gomez and is about her recent trip to Adams and Pannzian Beach with her family last December.

IV.    Malakas at Maganda, and the Road less travelled

In Filipino folklore, they say that the first man, Malakas, and the first woman, Maganda (Adam and Eve in Christian belief), were born from a Banana tree in the middle of paradise. In Adam’s, I began to believe it could be true.

“Doon sa may puno ng saging, (There about the Banana tree,)” our tour guide Cesar explained, “doon tayo papunta (that’s where we are going).”

 There it was a few kilometers away. A lone banana tree stood high amongst other trees. “Malapit na tayo (we’re near)”, he encouraged us as we were trekking for a full hour by now.

“Saan tayo dadaan? (Which way do we pass?)”, we asked him. He smiled, “Sa shortcut tayo (We’re taking a shortcut)”. This was great, we thought… we thought.

Apparently, taking the shortcut meant trekking on less than a half-foot wide rough road, with inclines of at least 30 degrees… for another 30 minutes. We wondered if this was all worth the while – and this was only going to our destination, we definitely had to go back through this same way. 

 We could no longer feel the cool breeze through our body heat and perspiration. Our shoes were muddy and our hands were filthy. But as we walked through the soil’s balance beams, we noticed something peculiar. The trees roots seemed to have made stairways for us. There were pits of soil one on top of each other in between roots protruding through the soil so much so that our feet landed so easily on them like they were steps up and down the path. There were branches that were sprung up the soil, like posts that we could handle through our seemingly treacherous climb. There was one boulder that hung from a cliff of some sort that served as our only pathway across. At some point, we felt as if even the butterflies and dragon flies here and there were guiding us through the right path. The road less travelled was a road guided by Mother nature. And my sister kept on whispering behind me, “Trust the forest”.

 So we made it through the forest – and lo and behold, we were welcomed by a parade of fresh water. The stream greeted us with a symphony of trumpets and drums and hurried us to the grandest throne – Kabigan falls.

 Ice cold water was raging down 20 feet of boulders and greens. It looked like the clouds fell from the skies, creating a curtain of white gold liquid. The waters gushed through so briskly, creating a drum bass concerto. The scene was marvelous.  At that point, Kabigan falls was Malakas at Maganda – the epitome of the strength and beauty of nature.

V.    Mangan

The sight of Kabigan falls left us at awe, but the entire road trip left our stomachs craving for filling food. I learned that there was one word similar between Ilocanos and Kapampangans (I am a Kapampangan) – “Mangan”, which meant “To eat” or “Let’s eat”. So, when I heard our home-maker cum host welcome us with “Mangan ta”, we were in definite understanding.

She served us with “Adam’s Menu”, which included organic, home-grown mixed vegetables, pork steak, Tinolang baboy, “espesyal” pancit canton, and the best organic brown rice. Being the foodie that I am, I had to taste it all – and none of it disappointed me.

The rice.. oh, the rice. Where do I even begin? At first glance, it would’ve been any other brown organic rice you could buy in the supermarket. But as I said, these people do not rely on supermarkets for their produce, most especially their rice.

The rice was grown at the backyard of our host, Sabel. The rice fields’ irrigation system is  hand-made by Adam’s villagers. The water came down from the mountains from Kabigan falls, down to its veins of rivers and streams of almost 3 mountain ranges. It grew from the fertile soil of Adam’s without the use of any form of pesticide or chemical fertilizers. This rice was as au naturale as you can get – and the taste was as authentic as it could get. Naturally, we bought some home for our own consumption.

VI.    Preservation of innocence

This trip to Adam’s was not only a fun trip to experience nature at its finest, but also served as a reflection point especially at these times of modernization.

As cliché as it may sound, this trip made me realize the essence of preserving the innocence of nature – “nature” not only in the sense of preserving the environment and its natural resources, but more importantly “nature” as a way of life. The principle that people were not made to be caught up, or hindered by the technologies of our times. Rather that we are at our best when we rely on ourselves as human beings, and rely on our communities as the organic source of “progress”.

We sometimes gauge the “modernity” of our communities – whether it be our households, schools, cities, and country, by the amount and datedness of its gadgets and machines rather than its resourcefulness, efficiency and sustainability. We guage the “progress” of our lives by the amount of money we earn and the goods that we can purchase with it rather than by the quality of life we live. We measure our “status” by popularity rather than by the strength of the relationships we sustain.

This 2011, let’s take a paradigm shift – from thinking and living the “modern” way we know and start taking steps to live in our own “Adam’s”. A place where the fruits of nature are technologies in itself; and where life is not just a vehicle towards a point of success but an achievement of human fullness.