Hello, wonderful people in this beautiful community. How are you today? I hope everyone is safe and well as we start another week.
If you ever asked me about my favorite days of the week, it would be my weekend. What's good about these days, is we get to spend time with our loved ones and end our working days. Leave our paper works at the office and try to unload the stress creating happy moments with our family.
For today's blog, I will be showing you how I spent my time with my family. Every time I get to spend time with them, it would always becomes fruitful. Because no work today, my sister and I planned to walk to one of the local tourist destinations here in our place. People who come to visit our barangay will always want to go to this place because of its awesome view and the nearby cave.
The place is located in one of the Sitio (it is usually a cluster of households or hamlets in a more dispersed, rural barangay), Pancil (in the local dialect, meaning rocky or mountainous area). Sitio Pancil is only a small cluster of houses in Barangay Canaocanao, one of the barangay in the municipality of Tabogon.
Going into Barangay Canaocanao.
The place is mountainous. Before you will arrive at the place, you will get to encounter this long and winding road. You will cross Labangon Bridge. This bridge was constructed around 2017, before, people are suffering from crossing this river because every time the rain pours heavily, the river will overflow and it was so hard to cross. A lot of people died here crossing the bridge and unluckily brought by the huge flow of water. We are so lucky this time that the local government unit constructed this bridge for safety purposes in crossing the river.
To the Grotto and Cave, we go.
Our house is only a walking distance from this beautiful and overlooking place called the Grotto. Since my elementary days, we are so grateful that we can just visit the place every time we wanted to go for a hike. During the pandemic, a lot of people are hiking here every day.
The place is best for hiking because of its awing nature. You can feel the fresh air. Before reaching the top, you will walk in this rocky area. Vehicles are possible to cross the area but make sure to drive carefully because the area is very rocky. Sometimes enjoying walking and talking together with your family is the best.
You will cross farmland before making it to the top of the grotto. Before this farmland is planted with corn but I guess some of the people here are not planting the place anymore.
You can see a big mahogany tree before reaching the Grotto which is a good place to stay and relax for a while after an hour of walking.
Beside it, you will also see a big mango tree which is a very shady one, a good place to sit and relax.
This is what you will see before reaching the top. You have to walk these footsteps going to the top. During my elementary days, I used to count the footsteps which are exactly 80 going to the topmost part.
You can rest in the middle of the footsteps so you do not get out of breath. And continue walking and enjoying yourself together with your family. Continue walking and you are almost there!
The Top View of the Grotto.
Woah, behold! Its wide and beautiful place makes me go back to this area. On the top, you will see an overlooking view of the barangay. If you want to relax, you can just sit on the wide Bermuda Grass and enjoy a picnic together. You can also bring your tent and pitch with you here. Some travelers also visit the place with their tents with them and enjoy the night view here.
At the top, you will see a mini chapel. This chapel was destroyed during Typhoon Yolanda but glad it was rebuilt after a year. You can also see constructed chairs made up of stones because there were also days when masses are being taken place in the area.
You will also enjoy the Kalachuchi (plumeria) flowers planted in this area. My nieces are very much happy swinging along in the Kalachuchi flowers.
They're so cute and seem no worries in life. Enjoying climbing the Kalachuchi (plumeria) flower.
The grotto is constructed a long time ago. Even when I am in my elementary days, the grotto is already here until the present. We are so happy that for a while we can visit the place anytime we want. And we enjoy walking.
Be careful with your footsteps in going down because some so slide, and there were mosses grown already. We are so thankful that somebody donated and made hand railings here last pandemic. Before, we don't have hand railings here so we just have to go slowly.
In going down, you will see some wildflowers and ferns in the area which are also lovely. It adds beauty to the view of the grotto.
To the Cave.
There is also a nearby cave in the area. Historically saying, this becomes the hidden place of the people during World War. People will go down here and hide. This becomes their hiding area. During strong typhoons like Yolanda, the place becomes the evacuation of village people.
From the outside view of the cave, you can also see Bermuda plants here. Going down to the opening area of the cave you will see a small hole here which you can also go down into the middle. When we are elementary and high school, we used to go down the place for some rooms in the middle bringing with us an artificial light or a candle because it was so dark. But sad to say nobody will go down into the middle this time because afraid of snakes or whatsoever you can see when going inside.
Indeed our weekend is very much precious. A lot of us make plans on our weekends with family or friends.
Enjoying a walk to the grotto and cave not only gives us refreshment of what we used to do before, but it also brings a healthier body for us.
We get to spend quality time together, so enjoying walking and laughing together is a very good way to start our day.
Thank you so much for reading and supporting my blog. That's all for today Hive friends. See you on my next blog. Keep safe and God bless!