Life's a Beach

Beaches have a significant part in our lives. Growing up, we'd go to Bicol during the summer to stay at Lolo's beach house. It was this long stretch of beach with a quaint, cozy, 2 room (which eventually became 4) rest house, plus 2 bahay kubos at the back. It was a place that would be filled with kids during summer but empty the rest of the year.

Those times usually meant reunions for the Morales cousins. Since we were in different parts of the globe - some cousins are in Manila while others were in Barcelona - summer was the only time for all of us to reconnect. We'd do this in ways both conventional and unconventional. Among the unconventional ones were having these huge military style dinners, complete with army-style plates. Sometimes, Lolo and Lola would set a table on the shallow part of the river and we'd all have breakfast with our feet submerged in water.

It was in Bicol where I learned to play "shato" and how to make toy guns from banana stalks. It was where I found out what a "santilmo" was, and freaked out at the sight of a ball of fire after that. There, I also learned how to "rough it up" and camp out the entire night.

Early morning, the fishermen's boats would arrive and the wives would pass by the house to give us fresh fish. That time, I though it was a bit weird to see a palanggana full of live fish in the morning, then see them fried or grilled a few hours after. The first thing that would come to my mind come lunchtime was: "Didn't I just see you alive a while ago?"

Afternoons were spent setting up hammocks in between coconut trees and waiting for merienda to arrive. Sometimes, Lolo would ask the "marines" to go up the coconut tree and pick fresh Buco to be made into juice. Until now, I can still remember that nothing compares to fresh, just-cut-from-the-tree, Buco juice. Then in the evening, we'd make a big bonfire and trade stories, or we'd walk to Tita Dolly's house and watch TV there.

I miss going to our beach in Bicol. What made me miss it more was seeing these pictures of my nephews and nieces having fun in a beach in Florida. (Oh, I swiped the pictures from my niece, Princess. Acknowledgements go to her for these.)






Looking at these pictures and seeing happy kids running around the sand took me back a decade ago when my brothers and sisters, as well as our cousins, would do the same thing in our beach in Bacacay. It's been a while since we were all there together -- our last visit there was probably 4 to 5 years ago.

A trip back to the beach is long overdue. And thanks to Princess, Kai-kai, Toni and Noah, I'm inspired to go back to Bacacay and do some running on the beach myself.