Abandoned Treasure The Sad Way We Found It

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TGIF! Happy Friday, Hive and to all my Filipino peeps in the house!

What's everyone up to? I made it through another never-ending week. It was a long day today too. Hoping this weekend would play a little nicer and slower. Could go either way. Honestly, after yesterday, I kind of feel like it should be Saturday already. But, pooof! It's a prank! So, let's start writing so we can get something profitable. Include some reading too. It's always nice learning something new and something interesting from different friends all over the platform.

I have nothing inspiring to share at the moment, so let's continue traveling virtually. Let's go fly back to my beautiful province of La Union, Philippines. These photos were taken a few years ago on our wedding anniversary located in Luna, La Union. It's an hour drive north from my town San Juan.

Preface

On other social media platforms like Facebook, it is no secret that my husband and I including our daughter @naniplayergamer have a little hobby of collecting shells. Well, a day after Valentine was our anniversary date so we took a trip an hour north to go to a beach that didn't have sand. We live a few walks away from the surfing are where sand is all over our neighborhood. So anyway, It was all crushed shells and corals, although we did find a nice collection of shells. Guess what, we only had Php 120.00 Philippine Pesos (roughly $2.00 USD). We took a jeepney (Philippine public transport) and the fare for each was around Php 20 I think. Surprise surprise!

(Husband enjoying picking shells)

(Husband and I)

We really had a good time with such a simple plan, that it was mainly because it was something new. You know sometimes, that is all it takes to make something special right? My husband just took a scoop out of the ground and as you can see not a fleck of sand.

(Ain't no sand, baby!)

So my husband being a goofball, as usual, he actually not sure what this was. It's the shell body of some type of shellfish. I think it's a lobster or something.

After digging corals and shells, we took a break from walking under the only shade we could find. All in all, I think we were walking for about 3 hours. Then we saw some urchins while resting.

These are sea urchins, and no! they are not soft and fuzzy! These things have needles like cactus, and when you get poked, God help you! That area feels like you got bashed by Thor's hammer! I swear!

As we continued walking, we got to where it was almost the end of the beach. I suppose this is coral? It looks more like lava rock. It is very sharp and jagged. Here is a bit of a shot.

and some islets

We continued walking and we found this old watchtower.

THE SPANISH-ERA "baluarte" (watchtower) on the shore of Barangay Victoria in Luna, La Union.
[//]:# (!pinmapple 16.856948 lat 120.372615 long d3scr)

The above is a photo of the condition of the Spanish Watchtower when we visited some years ago, with the ground sinking under it splitting in two. Watchtowers, by the way, were used by the Spanish to watch the coastline for incoming ships (possibly Chinese, Japanese battleships arriving for battle or maybe Moro pirate ships).

(Inside the watchtower)

Luna received money to repair the structure. It shows though that they really didn't care what happened to it after, as long as they could pat themselves on the back and say, "We didn't let it fall". I personally think it is a shame that this is how a "National Historic Monument of the Ilocano people" is preserved. Sorry.

SOURCE HERE

Then again, this is very common in the way anything is handled here in the Philippines (not all). Make a great big deal about things. And then maybe, do something about it if you don't just forget about it first. If you don't forget about it, then you can forget about it after you do something you feel worthy of patting your own back for. Very sad.

The historic tower is grown over with vegetation. As a matter of fact, we walked past it the first time without even noticing it. If you look closely, you can see the crackdown in the middle where they brought it back together. Husband standing inside it where you can see it is also grown over with brush.

Also in this photo, you can see trees are actually growing out of the bricks and concrete. I am guessing in time, the roots will destroy this incredible piece of historical structure.

After taking a bunch of photos of the watchtower, we headed back home. We were kind of hungry too and our money was just enough for fare going back home. That ended our anniversary date. Charrrrrrizzzz!

You guys have a great weekend wherever you are in the world.

One love,
@bloghound