Our Lady of Manaoag

A religious shrine with countless miraculous tales and healing powers - and the church that Kuya Mel (my brother-in-law) wanted to visit since he was still single...by the way, he is now married to my sister for 6 years :)

This is the image you'll see upon entering the church premises

Kuya Mel is so happy and fulfilled as he is now at Manaoag Church

Our Lady of Manaoag (formally: Nuestra Señora del Santissimo Rosario de Manaoag, literal translation: Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary of Manaoag) is a title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary, associated with a statue in Manaoag, Pangasinan said to be from the 16th century. She is the patroness of the sick, the helpless and the needy.

The church is one of the Philippines' most widely visited Roman Catholic Pilgrimage sites. Many people from across the Philippine archipelago come and visit the town of Manaoag, where the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary is enshrined in a church dedicated to this name. The church is administered by the Dominican Order in the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan, located in Manaoag, Pangasinan, about 200 kilometers north of Manila.


Garro Family with Ate Indang

Hero Miel - in full concentration while utterring a prayer

inside the main church

shrine of Our Lady of Manaoag inside the church

The whole Garro family - Ate Cielo,Kuya mel with kids Hero Miel & Precious Meciel, were there together with Ate Indang and me. I'm happy that Ate Indang was able to go with us. She's our kind of 'special sister' as she is suffering from epilepsy (traumatic in nature) and is childish (her intelligence level is that of 7-8yrs old only). She enjoys travelling when she feels her body can do it. And of course, as we are visiting a church with the miraculous Lady of Manaoag, we are also claiming that she will be healed and be guided and guarded always.

Garro Family

Ate Cielinda a.k.a. Ate Indang

It was Sunday and the place was crowded with devotees. But you will still find peace inside you when you look at the face of Our Lady of Manaoag and pray with your heart. We also lined up to the upper floor of the church to be able to touch the miraculous image and whisper a petition and prayer to her.

If your going to Pangasinan or just passing by (on th eway to Baguio or vice versa, like us), take time to visit and utter a prayer to Our Lady of Manaoag and BE BLESSED!

Caleruega Philippines

-22 Aug 2010-

Caleruega Philippines
Brgy. Kaylaway,Batulao
Nasugbu, Batangas

Silence, solitude,harmony,the enchantment of creation,the freedom of Light, and the passion to share God's Word - this is Caleruega- the seedbed of preachers, the cornerstone of spritual inspiration.

(http://www.dominicans.ph/caleruega/index/index.htm)

This is a spiritual roadtrip for us friends. Alex asked us (Amy, Joseph and me) if we'd like to attend mass at Caleruega in Batangas,and since we haven't been there, we said yes. But Amy wasn't able to come with us as she was not feeling well that day. So the three of us headed to Nasugbu .

Our meeting place was Taft MRT station. From there, we took a bus going to Batangas and asked the driver to drop us to Nasugbu as we're going to Caleruega. We get off at Evercrest (this is Nasugbu already) and took a tricycle going to Caleruega.

Caleruega is a house of prayer and renewal. It is open to activities like retreats, recollections, prayer, and renewal workshop, study, research, youth camps, marriage and family encounter celebrations, skills training, leadership seminars, art, music, and liturgy workshops, and environment and agriculture-related activities.

This is the first roadtrip that we did. So its a bonding moment for us three and I think Caleruega is a good venue. The atmosphere is calm and relaxes you. We paid around Php25 for the leaflet given at the entrance gate which provides information as well as map of Caleruega. I think the mass starts at 10:00am and since we we're there early, we took the time to explore the place.

The Transfiguration Chapel,where the mass is held, is not that big but a lot of people comes there to attend the mass. And you can feel the solemnity of the mass...maybe because of the chapel's size...people really observe silence.

Celebrating the mass at the chapel and roaming in the peaceful but quite beautiful scenery will uplift your spirit while clearing your mind.

It was a wonderful place to visit, and I would love to go back there some other time.

Sunday in Baguio

I'm having this weekday blues and wanted to have some fresh air "somewhere", so i texted my friends if they could accompany me on a weekend getaway...Since their schedules and budgets are tight, its kind of difficult for them to commit - and i understand... Gladly, Alex agreed to go with me but could only spare sunday, then its no longer a weekend getaway but just Sunday getaway- nonetheless, im happy i got company!

So,after 7 years, im going back to the country's Summer Capital - BAGUIO!
It's a one-day affair so the theme is: Walang Pahinga! (No rest) ahahaha

Left Manila on 02April2011 @ 1115pm
Transportation: Bus (Victory Liner, Aurora, Cubao, Q.C.)
Fare : Php715 (Deluxe bus - with CR and Wi-fi!)

This is the first time I've been in a Victory liner deluxe bus and I must say that it is quite spacious and comfortable. There's a seat assignment, a stewardess on the deck, free bottle of water, CR (which is the reason I chose to try deluxe hehe) and to my delight - WiFi!
Well, I think this is gonna be a nice ride!

My friend and I chatted along the way while eating his "baon" (he has packed some bread & chips). Then since we knew there's wifi, we tried it. Uh-uh, i cannot connect, i jokingly told him that access might be limited to only a few persons...he then disconnected his phone, wah-lah - im connected! (See i told you! haha) But the connection is not that good...We decided to have some sleep as we need strength to tour the city later.

We're already nearing Baguio when the call of nature arised (really need to pee). Well, might as well try the comfort room in the bus....And I must say, its not at all fun, well not even comfortable to use it...maybe because I decided to go there when the bus is already in an uphill road, so its kind of rocky inside... When I got back on my seat, I knew he is waiting to see my reaction & we looked at each other and laughed as I told him - its not fun at all! I thought that it will be just like the comfort room on airplanes - but I guess (well, I know for sure), im wrong hehe

We we're both surprised to arrived in Baguio at half past 3 in the morning - gosh, its sooo early! The bigggest factor of the fast travel - SCTEX. What is SCTEX? The Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) is the country’s longest expressway at 93.77 kilometers.Its southern terminus is at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales, it passes through the interchange with the North Luzon Expressway near the Clark Special Economic Zone in Angeles City, and its northern terminus is at Brgy. Amucao in Tarlac City, Tarlac.
The travel time from Manila to Tarlac via NLEx and the SCTEx would only take 1 Hour and 25 Minutes.

Thanks to that new expressway...but what are we gonna do this early morning? First since, we're still at the bus terminal, we decided to buy tickets back to Manila for that same night. Unfortunately, deluxe tickets are already sold out. Well, we'll have to just take the ordinary aircon bus then. Ok,now that the tickets are secured, let's hit the road!

My first  priority when I get to Baguio is to attend a mass at the Baguio Cathedral, so we went to the church first. We checked the scheduled mass and the English Mass is scheduled at 6am.

By the way, my second priority is to buy "Halaya" (Yam Jam) from Good Shepherd! - just so you know hehe

Well, it's cold and we're a bit hungry anyway, so we looked for a place selling hot food - well, good thing Chowking is already opening the time we arrived at Session road. So, hot noodles, here we come!

After eating, we went back to the Cathedral to attend mass. Thanking HIM for bringing us safe in Baguio and sking him to guide and guard us as we stroll the city later :)

After that, we went to look for the jeepney terminal going to Lourdes Grotto ( the fastfood crew's instruction is for us to find the 3rd jeepney terminal - where the h_ _l is that?! haha) Well, after a long walk here and there, we finally found it! Gosh, why is it that the jeepney here have high steps - not comfortable for the not-so-long-legged me?! :) By the way, fare is Php 8.50 (minimun fare there).

The guy who told us its 307 steps must have overcounted it...coz based on the web, its only 252 steps :)

Earlier, we declined 2 "taho"(soy/beancurd) vendors who kept asking us to try Strawberry Taho which they said can only be found in there....so we decided that if we happen to see another vendor then we will try it. And there's one right beside us, so we tried it!

What does it looks like? - Like a regular taho, except that the syrup is red & there's strawberry bits.
How does it tastes? - Sweet! Its like, putting strawberry syrup & strawberry jam on beancurd with sago- well, i think, that's what they did.
Verdict - well, its nice to try but i'll go back to regular programming - meaning, to eat our "traditional taho" (soy/beancurd with arnibal & sago) hehe

We'll atleast we got to try it,right? :)



After that, we're off to Benguet for some strawberry picking! Yey! I Haven't done it before. Well, first we need to look for the jeepney terminal going to Benguet, its near their City Hall and the fare is Php13.25 (i think, coz the driver asked for Php26.50 for the 2 of us:). I will never sit in front of the jeepney there - why? coz the step is much higher! Alex needs to assists me in riding it & i need to jump down literally to go down the jeep - ahaha.



Well, I thought it would be hard for us to find the strawberry picking area but thanks to the driver and the signs posted on the streets, we we're able to find it. I think its already past 9am when we reached it and we can already feel the hot sun (where is the cold atmosphere here?!). For the strawberry picking, the price is Php250/kilo and they will first teach you how to do the right picking.

At first, we're so excited to do it but since the fruit season is almost over so there's not  much super good strawberries to pick. So, we need extra effort to find good ones. And by the way, did I mentioned that the weather is quite HOT already? I did,right? Well, so under the blazing sun...ok so its not really blazing, but just under the sun, we're looking for good strawberries to pick, so after a few minutes, we're already tired. We even asked the owner there if they can just finish picking it for us - but well, they cant or wouldn't and ask us to go explore the other side of the field.We'll, we did and we're really,really tired and thirsty after this strawberry picking first-hand experience. - But, nonetheless, I ENJOYED IT! :)

We found a McDonalds store near and decided to have an early lunch. Afterwhich,we went to Bell Church which is located near the boundary of Baguio and La Trinidad.

Then we went to Mines View to take some pictures and buy some "pasalubong" (goodies or souvenirs to give to loved ones or friends). And from there, walked our way to Good Shephered to buy my UBE HALAYA!!! Yum!

taken @ Mines View

a fave of mine :)

We then went to the Pink Sisters Convent to utter some prayers (well, ofcourse to take some pics as well hehe. And since we're already hungry and need to have some rest, we decided to try a resto in Session Rd - Pizza Volante. The place is not that big, the price is ok and the food is - great! We ordered pasta, pizza, coffee for him and avocado shakes for me.

@ The Pink Sisters Convent

Kenny George's Pizza

Pesto Pasta with Shrimp - a Must Try pasta!

Simot-Sarap!

We're full and sleepy already but like what I've said, this is - Walang Pahinga! So after a yummy meal, we walked our way to Burnham Park, passing through Melvin Jones Grand Stand. Then went to the market to buy some more pasalubong before heading off to SM Baguio to get some rest.

@ Burnham Park

@ a Coffee Shop in SM Baguio (forgot the name due to tiredness hehe)

Mango Cheesecake- Yummy!

Tiramisu - Not that delectable

After some rest, we went to Victory liner terminal to await our 1120pm bus back to Manila (03April2011).Since its a regular aircon bus, the fare is Php445 and the travel time is 5-6hours.

It has been one wonderful,  a little tiring (ok, its really tiring) but fun-filled Sunday!