Filipinos love to buy pasalubongs or gifts to take home to their families. Often times they are food associated with the place we are visiting. Almost all of us in fact also bought longaniza or Filipino sausage that we ordered through the hotel. The vans smelled of a mix of the longaniza and strawberries on the way home.
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| The lady selling strawberries in front of the Holiday Park Hotel. You could see these peddlers with the basket of strawberries atop their heads in the streets of Baguio. |
Day 2 of the Baguio trip
The day started with a Mass at the Daughters of Charity Convent which to Bishop Rolly Santos' delight everybody attended. This Mass was specially offered for our 14 deceased classmates whose names were reverently enumerated before the Mass by Paeng.
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| Bishop Rolly with Rudy Parayo, Zeny's husband assisting during the Mass the Daughter's of Charity Convent Chapel. |
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| The Bishop with the Sisters. |
In this Mass, Bishop Rolly shared a beautiful story about the power of prayer during his recent visit in the States. An unexpected requirement with regards to his visa for his return to New Guinea did not allow him to board the plane. Unfortunately he could not even stay in the airport to sleep since it was a holiday weekend. He found himself stranded with less than 100 dollars in his pocket since he had just sent all the donations that were given him to the bank at New Guinea. He knelt and prayed the Memorare when he woke up at the only hotel he could afford. He left the hotel uncertain where he would stay next. He hailed a taxi to go to a church hoping they might give him accommodations but it was closed. He was walking under the heat of the sun with his luggage, when a stranger gave him a ride and accommodation.
This wonderful turn of event was followed by another heartwarming story that happened after he said Mass in Texas. A member of the congregation offered a generous donation to his ministry in Papua, New Guinea diocese. He attributes all this to the providence of God who is always there to take care of us.
We also were blessed with a wonderful surprise after mass. The sisters treated us to a merienda of hot sotanghon soup and all kinds of pastry. Bless their heart.
Below are pictures of the places we visited and other events for day 2.
Mines View Park
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| The view. Visitors can now rent Igorot costumes and pose for pictures. Note the unidentified couple using a selfie stick. |
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Nilda Lorenzo Tuazon posing in front of the sign of MinesView Park
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| Florie and Ossie Cruz taking time out from their shopping for this beautiful picture. |
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My favorite street refreshment: taho (made of soft tofu and tapioca pearls with syrup usually caramel but this is has strawberry flavor). Sani, Esther's husband, poses with the taho vendor. |
Presidential Mansion
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| Shown above are two of the "lovey dovey couples", comprised of classmates who were joined in the trip by their better halves, Lovingly taking each other's pictures in front of the Presidential Mansion are Rudy and Zeny Parayo on the left and Vida and Ben Isip in the middle. |
Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto
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| Several shopped till they dropped at the Good Shepherd store that we had to add an additional vehicle to carry the extra "pasalubongs" or gifts they bought there . Among those were Malou Santos and Jun Salumbides shown buying all the "bilins" or requests of their daughter. Aside from the strawbery jam, peanut brittle and ube jam are other popular items to buy. |
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| A few bravely bought Civet coffee. Please google what that coffee is all about. It is expensive since it is challenging to harvest. Among the few who bought was Rudy Parayo who was convincing me to try the cup he bought. He said it was awesome but I could not make myself drink it. Perhaps if I did not know where it came I would have. |
Lunch at Dencio's Restaurant
Dulce and Manny Quimson generously treated us to lunch at Dencio Restaurant. While waiting for the restaurant to prepare our table, we were entertained by two star jokers, Vida Rivera Isip who I refer as the Queen and Esther Gutierrez Banaag, the Princess.
One of the highlights of the trip to Baguio was the hilarious time we had listening to jokes, clean and otherwise. Two of our classmates shown above took over the task vacated by our classmate Rufino Tiangco, who did a spectacular job during our 2009 reunion. In the first photo is Vida Rivera Isip, the master storyteller of jokes. With her is Imelda Aguilar Tiongson and Charito Lazcano Lazaro. They were actually laughing at the joke, complete with actions, given by the "Princess" of jokes, Esther Gutierrez Banaag shown in the second photo. Upon hearing her jokes, we could not help say to ourselves, "Is this the same demure and quiet Esther from high school". Looking on are Lita Garcia Tangonan and Sani, Esther's husband on the left and Susie Magcalas on the right.
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| There is a third star joker, sometimes behind the scene, Ben Isip, shown above in the center. He turned out to be the ghost writer of most of Vida's jokes. |
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| Dulce and Manny during lunch at Dencio's. Thanks for the delicious lunch. |
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| Jokes continued at the restaurant with Danny giving his chemo joke which I did not get right away but then again I am slow. Looking amused are Paeng and Boy Bautista. |
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| Flordeliza Vivandor Ongkeko and Paeng in the photos directly above have their own favorite dish : irresistible Crispy Pata! Note the empty plate of crispy pata in front of her. Did she eat the bones too? Just kidding. |
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| Glory Camus Orlina and Girlie Garcia |
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| Lory Sevilla and Boy Garcia |
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| Zeny and Rudy Parayo |
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| Tony and Beth Pacifico |
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| Cristy Cruz Santos and Lita Garcia Tangonan |
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| Norma Santiago and Susie Magcalas |
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| Elvie Roque Lagrimas |
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| Leonardo or Boy Bautista |
Chocolate Baterol Restaurant
After lunch, the group stopped by the rustic Chocolate Baterol Restaurant for a relaxing merienda consisting of Chocolate Baterol, a rich chocolate drink, suman, turon and bibingka.
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| From left: Bibingka, suman and turon. |
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| Raquel and Vida iin the foreground and Ramon in orange and Jun in white at the background. |
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| Clockwise: Bishop Rolly, BoyG, Girlie, Florie, Lory, Ben I think, and Paeng. Standing is Tony. |
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| From left: Malou, Eleanor, Flor, Myrna and Christy. |
Burnham Park
Some of us took a walk at Burnham Park in the evening which was just few minutes from Holiday Park Hotel by foot. You would not believe this but some of us actually danced with some kids in the park in order to learn some moves for the dance presentation for the homecoming. Onlookers were both amused and shocked. |
| Some of us at the beautiful Burnham Park. Kneeling from left: Rudy Parayo, Malou Santos Salumbides, Zeny Mendoza Parayo. At the back from left: Imelda Aguilar Tiongson, Ondes Lucas Herold, Vida Rivera Isip, Norma Santiago, Raquel Sioson Huliganga, Nilda Lorenzo Tuazon, Eleanor Pali de Alday, Charito Lazcano Lazaro and Lita Garcia Tangonan. |
Evening of Togetherness
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All in all, the challenge of putting together dance/comedy routine actually brought us together. I salute Vida's tenacity to having this done. See the video below on the dynamics among us while creating this "dance/comedy" presentation. It was a labor of love.
Day 3 of the Baguio Trip
The day started with a Mass officiated by our own classmate, Bishop Rolly Santos. Our third Mass for the whole trip, one for each day. The nuns we had at St. James must be beaming with pride up there in heaven. We thank Bishop Rolly for saying all these Masses and preparing the uplifting sermons. Thanks be to go God for the gift of having Bishop Rolly with us. I felt that this trip had turned out to be a mini spiritual retreat of some sort for us except we can talk and tell jokes of all color.
In this mass, he specially invited us to pray for those who could not make it to the trip or other reunion activities. To all our classmates, you are all are in our thoughts and prayers and we truly miss you.
In this mass, he specially invited us to pray for those who could not make it to the trip or other reunion activities. To all our classmates, you are all are in our thoughts and prayers and we truly miss you.
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| Bishop Rolly had on the chasuble that was provided to all the bishops who attended the Mass said by Pope Francis when he visited the Philippines. |
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| Bishop Rolly giving his sermon. Standing at the back beside the altar are Rudy Parayo, the altar server and wife Zeny, the Lector. |
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| Group picture after the mass. |
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| My roommate in Baguio, Imelda Aguilar Tiongson, and I pose with Bishop Rolly. The statue on the left is that of Our Lady of Manaoag. |
After breakfast, some went to the Baguio market to buy fresh vegetables which Baguio is famous for. Some of us waited in the lobby where I for one ate the awesome banana chips from Mindoro that Norma Santiago generously provided. Thanks Norma. I almost forgot, we practiced the dance presentation in the hotel lobby and this time another song was added, YMCA by Vida, our commited choreographer.
We left for Trinoma Mall to meet our respective sundo or people picking us up. But first we went through the winding roads Kenyon road and boy it was quite a ride. On the way home, I will never forget Raquel and Nilda reciting in unison the Our Father in Latin not because of the driving but for nostalgia sake. Bishop Rolly, our seatmate on the bus, was very impressed they remembered every word. We did or they did (I fell asleep) pray the rosary too and not because of the driving either or was it.
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| Taken from the van as we rode through Kenyon Road. Goodbye Baguio. |
We arrived at Trinoma at around eight at night loaded with our strawberries, longaniza, Good Shepherd goodies.and plenty of wonderful memories. (By the way thanks Linda Paez Calixto, shown below, for the rides you provided me to Baguio and back). 
Strawberries with Balsamic Vinegar
Ingredients
- 1 pint (2 cups) fresh strawberries, sliced thick
- 1 1/4 tbsps balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 tbsp sugar or Splenda
Combine the strawberries, balsamic vinegar and sugar in a bowl thirty minutes to an hour before serving. Set aside at room temperature.
Place a serving of the strawberries in your favorite pretty container as is or with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream on top.
Place a serving of the strawberries in your favorite pretty container as is or with whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream on top.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to Jun Salumbides, Florie Cruz, Nilda Tuazon, Zeny and Rudy Parayo for some of the photos and videos featured in this post.
If you want to help Bishop Rolly Santos' mission at Papua, New Guinea, here are some information:
Anybody who wishes to help the diocese in Alotau esp. from outside of the PHI, he or she may just issue a cheque to the account name “CDA Bishop” and mail it to:
Bishop’s HouseP.O. Box 107Alotau, MBP 211Papua New Guinea
If you want to do a bank to bank, here is the information:
Name of Account
CDA Bishop
Bank Account Number
0804816801
Name of Bank
Westpac Bank, PNG, Ltd.
Address of Bank
P.O. Box 135, Metakata Place
Alotau, MBP 211
Papua New Guinea
Phone of Bank
(675) 641-1104/641-1003
S.W.I.F.T
WPAC PM PG
Iban-Code
038-008
Address of Account Holder
+Rolando C. Santos, C.M.
Bishop’s House
Section 13, Lot 1, Modewa St.
P.O. Box 107
Alotau 211, Milne Bay Province
Papua New Guinea
Phone & email of Account Holder
(675) 641-1252 (house);
641-1354 (admin office)
+675 722-65-717 (mobile)
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