Road Trip Down Salot

CEBU, Philippines - Chase the office blues away. Travel on a motorbike, with a trusted colleague who shares the daily corporate grind, down salot (play-up on the pronunciation of “south” in the southeastern side of Cebu).

Recently, I took our layout artist, Chen, on a road trip down Cebu south onboard the RS100 of BANAT News “aficionado” Ezzen Isugan who knows Carcar like the back of his hand.

Carcar is approximately 40 kilometers from Cebu City which is accessible by bus from the Cebu South Bus Terminal, by mini-bus from the Citilink Terminal, and by multicab from Talisay City at P35.

On the first part of our road trip, I recalled the many fond memories I have with Carcar – the World Youth Jam in 1999 with the Theotokos Shrine for our delegation’s temporary home; The FREEMAN Foundation’s projects in barangays Calidngan and Can-asujan; the bonsai farm in Bolinawan; the encounter with the Siervas Sisters in sitio Dam; the lessons on the Sialo-Carcaranon dialect and the golden age of the “linambay” (Carcar’s version of the moro-moro/zarzuela) in the Suroy-Suroy Sugbo event.

Still, with the many good things that have come out of Carcar, I still wish it would be able to put its best foot forward - globally - through its quality and reasonably priced footwear products. How I wish we Filipinos, who swear we love our country by choosing P-Noy for a new leader, would strengthen patronage of the ingenuity of the Carcaranons by wearing flip-flops, sandals or slip-ons sans reluctance, most especially in the international scene, to claim: “Uy, Carcar ni!”

As for Chen, who got initiated into long-distance travel via “habal-habal (motorcycle-for-hire),” she confessed feeling uneasy at first. In fact, she would thank heaven for every time we get off the national highway and into the interior roads, as zooming past big buses gave her the scare of her life. However, she is glad to have realized how big Carcar is and the tourism potential that’s still waiting to be tapped.

The ancestral houses like the Sarmiento-Osmeña House, more popularly known as the “Balay nga Tisa” built in 1859 and still standing to this day, wowed her. Much more the vintage copies of The FREEMAN (September 6 and 27, 1929) at the Carcar City Museum with the trial and death of Pantaleon “Leon Kilat” Villegas on headlines gave her the idea as to why there’s some sort of bad blood between the Baconganons (Negros Island) and the Carcaranons, the former having revered Leon Kilat.

The brief stop at the Mainit-Mabugnaw Spring (yes, one part has cold waters, another hot) of the Guadalupe Natural Park showed her a major water source of the Carcaranons which helped both residents and carabaos survive the dry spell brought about by the El Niño phenomenon. Because she is not prepared for a grueling climb to the Mainit-Mabugnaw Cave, I just mentioned to her how years back we would come in the area to practice rappelling and wall climbing and would wonder whether there’s an iota of truth to alleged illegal treasure hunting back there during the Marcos government, with giant religious statues piled up at the mouth of the cave supposedly to give the notion of ongoing works on a Station of the Cross, as most convenient front.

In Tan-auan, Guadalupe, we stopped on purpose at a conspicuous marker to pay respect to the souls of the Chiong Sisters. They hugged the headlines the very first time I reported at The FREEMAN in 1998 - as proofreader (with Chen as typesetter).

Afterwards, we proceeded farther south to munch on “bingkang pinaliki.” I call this “bingkang paig” (rice cake baked in oven sandwiched by embers). Then we washed down the bingka with fresh milk at the Molave Milk Station. We also sampled other products of our local dairy farmers like the ice cream with its variety of flavors. Chen picked Cookies N Cream, Ezzen slurped on Chocolate, while I went gaga over Buko Pandan.

Ezzen invited us to get a peek as to how chicharon or pork cracklings are cooked in boiling fat. “Mantika sa baboy sad ang moluto sa baboy. Kalooy sa baboy,” he joked.

Chen was so surprised at the condition of the workplace and at the sight of containers where ready-to-pack cracklings were placed. We believe, though, that no germs can survive under such “hellish” environment and that sanitizing goes with the hot fat. Well, there is something about Carcar chicharon that strikes you with selective amnesia the moment you nibble on it. The previous nauseating visuals become instantly irrelevant!

Ezzen cared to drop us off at a “puso”-making station and Chen did find the weaving of young coconut leaves complicated for typesetters. There was also a hut where what seemed to be planks of wood were being sundried. Ezzen was quick to lecture that the wood is that of palm tree trunk, being the source of “landang” - an ingredient in “binignit” (tropical fruits and root crops hot stew with coconut cream).

In an attempt to raise the trip literally to level higher, we negotiated swerves and blind curves to the Ave Maria Sanctuary in the mountain barangay of Valencia. It was Chen’s first encounter with the Philippine eagle owl. “Never thought there’s such a bird like that,” Chen wrote in her personal log.

Other animals being kept there are the grass owl, the Philippine tarictic, crows, turkeys and guinea fowls, peacocks, night herons, a family of ostrich, chimps, sheep and deer. Sad to note, though, that the pythons died under an alleged irresponsible previous zookeeper. By the way, the entrance fee is P20, though there is a sign “Donations Only.”

In the same place, there are Via Crucis stations or the “Way of the Cross.” So we decided to go a little farther up where, past a cliff, the afternoon offered us a sweeping view of Carcar City. Taking refuge at the shadow of an enormous white cross up there, we took turns in taking souvenir photos, admiring the ever-glorious sunset, and the overwhelming interplay of crimson, cobalt and yellow. ?