They say "Time flies so fast" but I am not fully aware that time could possibly fly this fast.
It felt just like yesterday when I used to take care of this little child-now-turned-into-a-pretty-eighteen-year-old-lady. I used to tuck her to sleep, feed her breakfast, lunch and dinner, sing songs just so she could sleep (I almost made an album of my cover songs because it really took very long time for her to close her eyes and sleep so peacefully and soundly), wipe her bums and change her diaper.
I could still remember how she used to be so little and this little child is now taller than me.
MONERINE -- is a name so unique which is a combination of her father's name Ramonito and mother's name Catherine. Pretty amazing, right? Her name is just as wondrous as she is to me.
As she turned into a lady, we became more and more like best friends rather than merely cousins. She is my photographer, my confidant and my companion recently whenever I travel from Santander to Medellin and vice versa.
This weekend, she decided to visit me here in Santander since she was already done with the school works and she already graduated in senior high school last May 12.
I then took her to a spontaneous roadtrip to the mountains because I know how much she loved mountain views as much as I do. Speaking of mountains and roadtrips, there was only one thing that came into my mind which I would love for her to see -- THE PINES OF CAÑANG, OSLOB.
It has been like three years since the last time I went there and in my memory, it was vividly beautiful -- the asphalt roads, the pine trees, the huts beside the roads -- they were painstakingly gorgeous.
However, the road going there was not that no-sweat-kind-of-road because going there was really sweaty and exhausting especially when we had to pass through bumpy roads with several puddles in them and what scared me about puddles is that what if they are too deep and my motorbike would get stuck in the middle of it? There were also roads under construction which we were not aware of and we had to take the narrow side of the road in which with one wrong move of the motorbike's tire, we would slip and find ourselves on a cliff seeking for help in the middle of nowhere.
But I guess that's what makes spontaneity an art of adventure -- you will never know what's ahead unless you take the risk and experience it.
It took more or less forty-five minutes for us to arrive from the town of Santander to the spot where a long line of pine trees can be seen. As I was driving, I wandered my eyes and looked for that familiar asphalt road where there were pine trees beside them but there was no longer an asphalt road because the road was reconstructed into a more durable and high-maintaining cement road.
Deep inside, I was saddened. I was anticipating to see the beauty I had in my memory of it and I wanted my cousin to see it but just like all the other things in the world, this place too had to change. The huts beside the road were no longer to be seen.
It felt like a whole different place already.
Nevertheless, the pine trees were equally astonishing as to what it was before. It's just that the old asphalt road and small huts could've made it more rustic and it added up to the beauty and uniqueness of the place.
Since I realized that the long queue of pine trees was almost nearing to its end, we just stopped by to a random side of the road and took pictures. We just enjoyed the view of greenery and blue skies up above us and then proceeded to continue the ride until we had to reach the town of Oslob because our initial plan was to go to Tumalog Falls and I just decided to take the road less taken to the pines rather than taking the highways.
And I was not wrong because taking the road less travelled provides a more wonderful scenic tour than grabbing onto the safe sides of the journey. As we were having our way to the town, we were astonished by the moments the mountain views had offered us.
We were on top and able to see the beautiful islands of Siquijor, Bohol, some parts of Negros Oriental and the tiny Sumilon island of Oslob. The picturesque view was just so wonderful I hope it doesn't have to end. We can also see the center of the town of Oslob and some parts where droplets of rain that seemed like a heap of clouds touching the surface of the ocean are witnessed from afar. The scene was spectacular and magnificent.
But, I think this is the part where I understand why people would always say when someone goes travelling: Be careful. Because... I was too caught up with the view while driving and I failed to see what was ahead of me and we were already going down to a road where there were a lot of sand and my motorbike almost lost its control. Luckily, I managed to control the brake and we didn't fall to the ground.
So, after all of that rollercoaster-type of ride with a mixture of joy and nervousness, we were able to reach the mouth of the highway road.
Remember our initial plan which was to go to Tumalog falls? Well, it became a 'supposedly'. We were supposed to go there but as we were approaching to Tumalog, heavy rain fell and the sky got darker and darker as we were nearer and nearer to the street going to Tumalog.
We just decided to cancel the plan since if we pushed ourselves going to Tumalog falls, we had to deal with slippery and dark roads and it would take 25 to 30 minutes ride from the highway to Tumalog falls so we just ditched the plan and just went straight back home to change our clothes and take a rest.
And yes. Time flies so fast because the moment we got home, it was already evening and I was supposed to tour Monerine anywhere she sure would enjoy but it was raining and all of this happened on a Sunday and tomorrow would be a Monday which means a working day for me.
Yet, even though time had to fly fast, I am still glad that we have some experiences together we can share from our memories and talk and laugh about all the things that happened in between which were not written in the list of our plans but still hold the same amount of enjoyment or even make it a hundred folds more enjoying.