Tuesday morning the boys came to the flat at 7:30, eager for our expedition to Riverview Water Park in Asin. I had looked-into going by bus or renting a van to go to an eastern beach, at San Fernando, San Fabian or Hundred Islands. I was warned of sand fleas in the beaches, jellyfish in polluted water along the coast (South China Sea), and I could not find reliable information about transportation from here to there. So I settled on the idea of going to a water park beside the river in Tuba, near the hot springs resort.
The youths of Baguio Gold would be pleased to go anywhere novel. Riverview Waterpark has thirteen or fourteen swimming, wading and relaxation pools, and it’s about 16 km from Baguio City. I knew that we could ride a jeepney or taxi from here in Tuding to the city center. And I knew that we could take take a jeepney to Asin from the jeepney staging area between Baguio City Police HQ and Baguio City Market. Or we could take a taxi 18 km from downtown to Asin.
We would have liked to go on a Saturday or Sunday, when busloads of other people would be there. But we had rain all of Saturday and Sunday. I had no internet access in those days, so I didn’t check weather forecast for Monday and Tuesday.
Monday we had decent, sunny and cloudy weather, but we had not planned to go to Asin, so Mack and I did several errands to try to get necessary documents and materials and pay costs so that he can transfer from one high school to another. We decided to go to Asin the next morning, assuming that Tuesday’s weather would be the same.
So Monday night, a while before electricity was restored here, I began preparing for an ‘outing,’ gathering supplies and foods to take with us. At 9:53, lights came on, I prayed thanks, then I checked e-mail and weather forecasts on the internet before I resumed packing things.
Tuesday morning I awoke earlier than my alarm clock, arose, had breakfast, and soon thereafter I heard the patter of flip-flops descending the steps outside then a knock on the door. Mack, his younger brothers Pat and Nick and their friend Arnold were ready to roll. So I pulled meat, fruit, milk and juice from the fridge, picked up my wallet and keys, and we schlepped our bags and a box upstairs to the street and onward to Tuding Road to hail a transport.
We left the flat about 7:35, and we arrived at Riverview around 8:25. I think that we were the first customers through the door. I saw no vehicles in the car park, and the gates had just opened at 8:00. Though this is summer, it was a Tuesday, not a Saturday morning.
We splashed-around and swam for hours (well, I swam), ate a lunch that Pat, Nick, and I had prepared, then the kids jumped into the water again to get further sunburned and worn-out.
I took my Canon waterproof 35mm film camera and we burned-through 36 exposures of Fuji film. After lunch, I bought a 24 exposure roll of Kodacolor film in the Riverview store and spent it while poolside, while on a 40 peso nature walk in Riverview’s modest ‘zoo’ and on my walk outside Riverview in search of access to the rushing river.
I enjoyed my trek downhill through Asin, looking for a possible path down to the river. I saw rice paddies that looked like movie scenery, bordered by majestic palm trees and saw rice farmers tending their crops.
I saw a lone man filling potholes in the dirt road beyond the pavement’s end at the hot springs resort, and simply by being a lone white man flip-flopping downhill in the boonies, I provided a curious sight to villagers working or lounging at their homes and shops beside the road. As usual, I smiled at most, I waved at kids at play in back yards or hiding behind walls, I greeted nearby adults in Tagalog, and they replied in English.
Eventually, with the help of two girls, about ten years old, I found a route down to the riverbed. By then I had no more film to expose. I had spent it along the way by taking pictures here-and-there, including the exterior and interior of a small, poor country church. So I just looked at the river and boulders for a while, praying and relaxing. ‘Twas a nice time and place and weather for meditating.
What goes down must go up, as I say, so I strode uphill toward Riverview. Where the cement pavement began I doffed my flip flops and walked. Some of the ‘country folks’ were looking out for me to return uphill. I guess that most Caucasian tourists that they see drive or ride taxis to and from the Asin Hot Springs Resort; they don’t walk alone on the road, barefoot, waving and speaking Filipino. If I had any money in a pocket, I may have stopped at a snack shack to buy a bottle of tea and strike up a conversation.
Back in the water park I found the youths still at play in two pools, so I puttered around, packing our stuff. Some time later, when the boys had began to emerge from the pools, a park employee told us that the last jeepney bound for Baguio City would depart soon. So we beckoned to Nick, the boys dried off and dressed, then we hastened to the jeepney stop.
Well, I rushed, because I didn’t want to miss the last stagecoach, and the Filipinos ambled behind me. That’s their way, in this no-rush society, and they were fatigued.
The boys were sunburned and tired, but they’d had fun in the sun outside of Baguio Gold one day. One of them slept in a jeepney on the journey back to the big city. They looked tuckered-out after hours of horseplay, jumping, diving, and trying to swim. †
