new year escapade

January 11, 2009

I bought a ticket a week before our travel to Surigao , leaving Cebu December 27, through Cokaliong  MV Maasin, we had a lot of baggage, bringing some gifts, calendars, fruits  to our beloved relatives and for my mom and sis Emily. We are all excited and happy to travel.  We arrive Surigao early morning of December 28 at around 8:00am and we were met by my nephew Frances, and we directly went to Jollibee for breakfast, and then travelled for 45 minutes to our hometown.

 

My 87 year old mom was very happy to see us and cried for happiness. We distributed some of the gifts to our respected cousins and relatives; it was so fun and there is this feeling of enlightenment everytime we hear the words “Thank You”..

 The following day, we travelled to Gingoog City, for an overnight invitation to our family friend Beb’s and Marlyn Guanzon–the owner of the Mansion by the Sea Restaurant.  The travel was fine, I was driving the XTO Crosswind–the service car of my mom. Along the way we saw the beautiful Mainit lake.

 

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We arrived in our destination at lunch time and met our host, we are all pleased and delighted that they have prepared seafood and native cuisines for our lunch such as grilled pork, panga, sugbakilaw, grilled fish, shells soup and others. It was great lunch and we were all full and sleepy after the meal. Then after our afternoon nap we went to Duka Beach Resort, a beautiful place where you can really see the wonders of nature. We had a glass bottom ride where we can see the sea, amazing corals and fishes of the sanctuary.  We dropped by in the hidden cold spring named Mabuan, then, at 6:00pm we went back for our supper. It was a buffet dinner such an excellent food with some of their guests. After eating, we roam around the city and visited some relatives and mingle with them for a few minutes.  We also visited their plaza which was decorated with different native lanterns ingeniously created with different twinkled lights. You could surely feel the atmosphere of Christmas. The other side of the plaza was full of gigantic concrete fruits beautifully made and designed. And later we visited their pier turned into park in front of the restaurant of our host. We felt tired and slept soundly for the night but the girls are still having a never-ending-conversation.

 

We woke up early in the following morning ready to go back home. Our breakfast  was nutritious. We really didn’t know how to thank our hosts for they treated us way more than we expected. No words are enough for the gratitude we feel.  The travel back was smooth and safe, but the rain continuously poured, I wonder when the rain stopped. We dropped by at Gaisano mall – Butuan city for some cakes and ingredients to be bought for the New Year. We arrived my hometown at around 2:00pm feelling tired and sleepy.

our  host  in Gingoog city

mr.&mrs. Beb’s and Marlyn Guanzon

 

The following day is another awaited day of the year, December 31, everybody was busy for the preparations for the New Year. The roasted pig was delivered at 7:00pm and some of my relatives shared some native sweets like suman, bingka, puto   and of course the 13 different round fruits on the center of the table. We attended the midnight holy mass which started at around 9:00 pm, the chapel was full of familiar people, neighbors, friends, relatives and classmates. Greetings and smiles from them was such a great feeling. We ate our dinner at around 11pm after the souvenir pictures. It was fun and exciting but the deafening sound of the fire crackers, was so strong, much more when the clock strike at 12:00 midnight. The kids jumped to make them taller, ate lots of grapes for good luck and coins on the pockets for financial blessings, we sang and danced till the wee hours of the morning. Wow! What a night. And another chapter of our lives has passed and the next, awaits to be unfolded.