To Begin It All..

My love affair with life, outdoors, and living began years back at the time when my childhood was spent in a farm.

My lolo owned a little patch of land in Famy laguna, including some rice fields. After we came from sara, iloilo ( i was 5 yrs old) my papa instead of going back to banking focused on farming and sometimes antique digging/dealing. For a time, we became caretakers of the farm, spending nights sleeping in the hut in the midst of the rice paddies.. I could remember waking up before the sun rises and fetching water from the river up to the vegetable garden where we grew tomatoes, string beans, peanuts , eggplants, okras, papaya, among others. The whole day would then be spent uprooting grasses, climbing sineguelas, bathing in the small manmade falls we call sala. And on harvest season, ill be roaming the town proper , basket or bilao in hand selling this goods. I love best the taste of tangy and sweet duhat during summer. I had picked up hundreds of snails prior to rice planting, get acquainted with the leeches and insects, i sooo love this experiences when it was all so simple. Food was always fresh and everyone always happy.

I so love this farm life that even when studied and worked in manila, i craved for these times and dreamt that someday I'd have a farm to come home to, again.

And here, i was also awakened to my inherent desire for travelling.. With my Papa's influence.

During weekends of my grade school years, Papa brought me to farm with him and we spent mornings walking the 1.5 km distance of home to the farm. our conversations varied from my school, to the plants he was growing, to the family, to his life before us, and a lot of other both significant and mundane things. He made stories derived from Florante and laura, Don Juan Tinoso, the Bible and more. But in between these topics, he passionately shared with me his love for the antiques and his quest to dig more and make a little museum to showcase his finds. This was his dream.

His passion brought him to places, and gave him alot of friends from this travels. I was amazed with his stories, much that i want it to experience it myself. It was my father who influenced me to leave my shell and explore.

However His life's purpose had been fulfilled and God already called Him in His presence. And in his good life, he influenced another, beyond measure.

i pay tribute to my Papa, my great love. To Mama, to the family who were explorers all..

Here is my passion.. my journey..