the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

8 and 9 June 2007. When editor Kristin Llerin asked me to write about Boljoon for the Cebu Yearbook, I asked, "Why ME?". I'd just written an article on it a few months before for the Lifestyle page (supposedly, it was what inspired the Yearbook editors to feature Boljoon in the yearbook), and I felt I had written all I had in me to write about Boljoon, after years of yearning for it. I'd explored all I wanted to. It was a closed book, as far as I was concerned. "Because you like to travel!" she said. Fine. It was MY Boljoon, after all, so I thought it might as well be me. When I got there on a Friday morning (the first weekend of the schoolyear, and I was already on another "vacation" :P) to interview some government officials, I discovered that there was an archeological dig going on in front of its historic church, and that there were actually still a couple of places I hadn't been to...which some of the locals hadn't even heard of, eit...

  Text and Photos by Jeneen R. Garcia     People who go down southeast on Cebu’s scenic coastal road--perhaps to take the ferry across to Negros , perhaps to rest in one of the seaside towns, to come home to family and the sound of the waves--if they go far enough, will come to a bend in the road.   It is a bend so unlike any other in these parts that those who have gone around this bend are sure to know exactly which one I am talking about. For those who have not, let me tell you about it.   Just before you reach this bend, you come down the road right next to a cliff, which is right next to the sea, blue-green turning abruptly deep blue where the reef drops into the Bohol Strait . The water can be calm or ferocious against the rocks, depending on what month it is. On a clear day, you can see Bohol on the edge of the horizon.   The bend itself is marked by a high limestone wall on one side, and the sea on the other. Morning light rises slowly over this ...

September 10, 2006. One of the rare occasions I used my underwater camera on video mode. I've always loved looking at schools of fusilier, and here's a perfect example why.

September 10, 2006. so i insisted on bringing josrique, who had just gotten his open water diving license in davao , on this trip so he could see more of cebu and get to cross to dumaguete as well. we'd just come from diving in mactan, and were promised two dives the day after courtesy of club fort med and pacific cebu resort so i could write about boljoon's underwater attractions. we knew we would be diving with some japanese, but we didn't know the pair were sisters until we were suiting up. took them on a tour of boljoon's historic church after the dives--their first time inside a catholic church, and their first time on a tricycle =) afterwards exchanged japanese and tagalog phrases over dinner: "onaka ipai" = "busog" and "watashiwa anataga s'ki" = "gusto kita". food and love--perfect dinner converstaion, don't you think? Open Water Diver status: Josrique - 10 days Ane Yumiko - 4 years Ate Jeneen - 5 years Namiko - 6 ...

September 9 & 10, 2006. For some strange reason, I found myself exactly one year later on the road southeast again to the picturesque town of Boljoon . But while I had only solitude, dread, and anticipation as companions then, this time I had my brother Josrique along, as well as Oliver, marketing manager of Club Fort Med, which had invited me to write about their resort. Same moon, same sea, but on a much lighter note this time.

September 9-10, 2005. Was feeling claustrophobic in the city, so decided to go off on the long weekend by myself to Boljoon, which I've been wanting to visit for the last 5 years (imagine, 5 years worth of frustration =P). Left the house at 5am Friday morning, got on a bus, and took a 2 1/2-hour trip to southeast Cebu. And i'm so glad i went even though i wasn't sure what i'd find. Rented my own cottage by the beach, took as much time as i wanted to write, snorkel (it was beside a marine sanctuary), read poetry by the rocks in the rain (o ha!), wait for the sunrise, sketch, take walks in town, make friends with kids and old-timers, and shoot...in short, everything i want to do but hardly have time and SPACE to. it was wonderful! God is great =) more stories coming in my journal. PS forgive the (fat) pictures of me mixed up with everything else. when you automate things, it's easiest to just lump everything together. i discovered it's not so bad, after all, to a...