2011 has been an incredibly liberating year personally and though the prospects of my first overseas trip eluded my meager means, Luzon still offered some wonders that I needed to experience. As the bang to my yearend, I set aside the Christmas break 2011 for a backpacking trip to Bicol. Up till then Lucena has been the southernmost point of mainland Luzon that I have visited and its hightime, I went far beyond that mark. The experience of travelling to Bicol via the resurrected Bicol Express train system, the sight of the majestic Mayon, and them old churches which I love were going to be the highlight of the trip. Armed with web research, a modest budget, a backpack, and a camera for memories, this Bicolandia trip took me and two of the most intrepid travellers I know (Joven and JM) to 2 of the region's provinces - Camarines Sur and Albay.
Starting the trip off on style was the ride to the Bicol Express trains, recently ressurected and plying the Manila-Naga route. Though bumpy at best, the experience of chugging along the steel rails en route to Bicolandia on sleeper cabins made the 12-hour travel comfortable and memorable. Upon arrival in Naga in the morning, succumbing to temptation for kitsch, a token shot of myself below the Naga signboard at the platform cannot be passed up.
While enjoying breakfast in downtown Naga, we perused and reviewed our itinerary of the day. Heavily underestimating the width and breadth of the places we were to visit, the itinerary we drew beforehand where we were supposed to traverse CamSur to Albay via its northern borders fell apart. The first lesson Prepare to be surprised. So insteadof journeying from Naga to Sagnay where we were to cross over to Albay via Tiwi we geared up for a simple CamSur Visita Iglesia to the towns of the Partido (an area now being proposed to eat into CamSur to form a new province to be called Nueva Camarines) starting farther up in Lagonoy and going downward to San Jose, Goa and Tigaon.
But before we were to journey on, we briefly enjoyed some sights in downtown Naga like their charming plazas (Plaza Rizal & Plaza Quince Martires) to their Metropolitan Cathedral and Holy Rosary Seminary. Stately and imposing the cathedral indeed had the trappings of a proper house of worship; and the adjacent Holy Rosary Seminary with its arcaded portico is arguably one of the country's most charming brick edifice. Now pressed for time as the morning was wearing off, we carried on to our itinerary with a personal vow to finish the trip with a visit to Naga's most important pilgrimage site - the Basilica of Penafrancia.
Greeted by rains our journey into the old Partido de Camarines offered our next backpacking surprise not knowing that our first destination offered yet another one. The church of Lagonoy is a charming church, framed by the Caramoan mountains in the background and set apart from the town plaza via a large fenced field - the vista reminding one of Nagcarlan's cemetery chapel. What destroyed this destination however is a ginormous red parol right smack center of the facade - its size severely outsizing and obstructing the church. As what Joven and JM enthuses, this bad decorating choice may have been a homage to Vietnam or even a nod to Communism (extreme Liberation Theology perhaps?). Whatever the intention was, however good-willed, it doesnt take an expert to see that it was a step in the wrong direction. One hopes that aside from ill-considered renovation projects, our colonial churches be saved from bad decorating choices as well.
Like a whiff of fresh air, the next stop San Jose offered a more refreshing sight not to mention a shelter from the ensuing rains. The church is ornate and elegantly decorated, no outlandish lantern in sight, its aged stone walls now plastered with but still showing the original details of its exteriors. Carrying on this elegance to the interiors, the altar and ceilings was kept original and uncluttered.
With no signs that the rains were relenting, we carried on to Goa - a town we hoped would be as spiced as its namesake in exotic India. Goa's church was simple and elegant its facade best viewed from the wide green promenade fronting it, but the approaching dusk, unrelenting rains and the prospect of dropping Tigaon's church from our itinerary looming we didnt even bother checking out the interiors and immediately left.
Riding the bus which will take us back to Naga, we resigned ourselves to foregoing even a brief stop at Tigaon. 3 out of 4 aint bad we said to ourselves, consoled that we had a brief view of the peach-colored church en route to Lagonoy earlier; but as if like serendipity, the bus had a pitstop at Tigaon's poblacion right across the church to pick up passengers. With camera in hand, we scampered out the bus to have a quick picture. Completing the 4 churches we earlier planned to visit, this leg of the trip, surprises included was complete.
Upon arrival in Naga that evening, we decided that instead of staying the night at Naga, that we should carry on the trip and have our first night at Legazpi city instead. The prospect of waking up to a view of Mayon cannot be passed up so catching the last bus to Legazpi was key. This night journey into Albay, I cannot help but find at least the faintest view of Mayon's silhouette in the horizon, and somewhere in the town of Camalig, the unmistakable black triangle in the horizon revealed herself for the first time.
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