Foot and Fire

The International Mask Arts Culture Organization held an exhibition late last year (2019) and yes, this is a very late upload. I wished to make separate blogs on different masks from differentcontinents but I believe, I am too ambitious about that. I was not even able to post a general information about the exhibit alone.  Anyway, since, I got the energy to tell you something about this endeavor, I am posting the photos I got and I am granting you the priviliege to admire the pieces. I got hooked by the variety of the pieces myself. I hope to see them again, especially that Bacolod celebrated Maskara Festival which literally translates to mask.  Of course, I got you a photo of the Maskara Festival Mask, headress and costume here. The festival s  celebrated in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental. To be honest, I could not remember the masks in relation to which continet they belong and I have no time to read the story that I photographed along ith the photos. So bear with me a...

Mountain View Cafe is located at Sitio Old Fabrica, La Castellana, Negros Occidental and nested at about 30 minutes away from the town proper  by using the new national road leading to Canlaon City. There is nothing fancy about the place except that from the cafe, one can see the panoramic view of the mountains and the wide skies.  To go with the native ambiance, the cafe serves up native coffee and a variety of "kakanin" or native merienda foods, like "baye-baye," "linupak," and "suman." These kakanin are small amount of sweetened food made from rice flour or cassava rootcrop.  I was happy to try the "tupig" which is a variation of the sticky rice flour with coconut wrapped in bnana leaves and cooked in charcoal fire.    The cafe is perched on top of a hill. The skies along th way. The bahay kubo or small huts are lining the yard of the cafe. n.b. This blogger is yet to be updated because...

When you're told to pay P10 apiece for the strawberries you will be picking, you will immediately snob the overripe, damaged, green or unripe, dry, small and all that you think are imperfect. You are being reasonable, afterall, it's a bit pricey for a fruit. I even bought Sayote for P10 per kilo and tomatoes for P20 per kilo. Imagine how far my P10 can go. Look at what we spotted among the growing and fruiting strawberries. We paid and enjoyed all ripe, red, and fresh strawberries. They are grown organically and the fruits are separated from the dirt by a garden plastic cover that we did not even wash the berries anymore before eating them. The important disvovery I made was that the greenish strawberry tastes superb that I wished half red and half green berries. Try them on your visit and I guarantee, you will love the green strawberries. Or is it yellow strawberry as used by Jose Garcia Villa in his poem? Mmmmm perhaps! They sel...

Karsts and Pine trees define the short trek in Bucari, Leon, Iloilo. Cool breeze, verdant mountains, breathtaking views are only a few finer things nature can give us in that part of Panay Island.⛰🌏 The karsts above and rocks below pepper the mountain of Mt. Mansiga. 🌲⛰ Reaching the heart-stopping heights of Mt. Mansiga is all worth it. The bird's eye view of the mountains and routes, the clean air deeply processed by the lungs, the cool greeneries of the forest trees, the happy sturdy trunks of pine trees are all worth the effort of going up. Going down is easy so I can guarantee that you can go home. 🤣 View this post on Instagram Nan, selfie pa more. #bucari #bucarileon #leoniloilo #pinetrees #karst #limestone #naturetrip #naturetrekking #trekking A post shared by Gerlie Uy (@sassy_gerlie) on Feb 5, 2020 at 4:27am PST Pine trees are forev...