Touching Heaven

The long and winding road

That leads to your door

Will never disappear

I’ve seen that road before

It always leads me here

Lead me to your door.

The wild and windy night

That the rain washed away

Has left a pool of tears

Crying for the day

Why leave me standing here?

Let me know the way……

This song was playing round and round  in my head as we were traversing the long and winding  highway of Mayamot, Antipolo, Rizal.  Our destination – Tanay, Rizal, a good one a a half hour trip from our place in Cainta.   We were in convoy with our good neighbors Jom and Jane Ramirez.  There were occasional jeepneys full of passengers up to the roof , otherwise, we were in tandem, admiring the scenic view and making ohhs and ahhs as we passed by some cloud formations along the mountain top making you feel like you are touching heaven.  A few minutes before we reached the town of Tanay, Jom told us to roll down our windows and savor the nippy morning air,  and the light morning breeze gently playing with the bamboo trees along the way. To smell the clean, fresh air, what bliss!  Up and down, going down the bend, climbing a little higher, the longer the trip was, the more beautiful the scenery we saw along the way.  You could literally hear the sound of the wind.

This was my first longer trip away from home since I started my treatment last July.  My life was recently divided into the pre-chemo days, my struggle to finish my six cycles of chemotherapy and the long road back to recovery.  And  the  days in between were just spent on laboratory procedures, hospital and doctor visits, church visits  and yes, blogging.   Reading books has somehow lost it appeal during the last five months that I was on chemotherapy.  I am slowly catching up though, recently reading The Book Thief by Markus  Zusak.  It is now a challenge for me to finish a book in a week or so.  And why is that?  Sometimes, my attention really gets  haywire.  It was a sedentary lifestyle to the max.  There were so many things that I could not do like gardening, doing heavy work at home, taking charge of  the weekly marketing and anything that would tax my weak body, which was  battered by chemo IVs , chemo tablets and maintenance drugs.

Communing with nature  always  has that welcome appeal for me. It was comforting to know that Tanay is  nearer, traffic is almost unheard of and the place is truly beautiful.  We left the house before seven o’clock and reached the farm at around eight thirty in the morning.  It was a long descent from the highway, going down on foot via narrow foot trails, admiring the view from the top.  We had our jackets on even before we left the car, that’s how cold it was there.  We reached the place after about fifteen minutes of shouts and laughter from the four kids we had in tow.   They were as excited as we were. The log house is still under construction, a one bedroom affair that seems to blend with the rustic feel of the place.  Jom fetched a tent for us and the kids. We brought along cooked food. Fancy a sandwich toasted direct from the makeshift grill (charcoal and bits of wood found at the place),  hotdog on sticks grilled to perfection, even the  slices of Spam tasted so good. Just a simple way to celebrate life really.  And the camaraderie is wonderful!  After lunch, the boys (I mean the men in our group) went trekking.   The  hubby told me that  there were  lots of interlacing brooks and streams in the area and the water was icy cold.  Hunting is prohibited.  I  found several flowers growing wildly and got excited taking shots of them.  Nissa and I took lots of pictures, the ever changing scenery in the distant Sierra Madre mountains was a sight to behold.  It was incredibly beautiful. One minute, the clouds were hovering, closely touching the mountaintop, a few times, the place was shining like gold due to the sun’s intense rays.

We started with the upward climb back to civilization after lunch.  It was a twenty minute trek back to the top.  We discovered this  beautiful vine with its flowers spread like a blanket.  The owner said it is called Lover’s Vine. We bought a sapling of it for P100.00, so costly for such a very small branch but it would be quite a challenge to grow  it.  We passed by the Spring Valley Resort for a few shots.  The kids wanted to take a swim but the water was so cold.  It’s too bad that some of the trails which they have made were destroyed by soil erosion.  There were no sturdy trees to hold it. We passed by another scenic route in going back to Cainta,  Manila East Road to Baras, Morong, Teresa  then Antipolo.  Bing bought a  rattan hammock (duyan), it’s a permanent fixture  now in our garden. We ended the day hearing mass at St. Jude Thaddeus Parish. Our Tanay adventure was a little bit tiring  but it was worth it all.  I posted some shots at my Multiply albums (http://arlene1027.multiply.com).

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