Brutality of the Goddess

my baguio debae experience will be something that i’ll find hard to forget in a long, long time.  it’s not because of the surreal feeling one gets at actually being able to attain the impossible without expecting it.  but more so, it’s because of the hilarious experiences that one has with team mates.

i admit, i was giddy to leave dumaguete city and trade the humid weather for baguio’s chilly mountain breezes.  after an exhausting six-hour bus ride, it felt oh-so good to just set foot in the city of lights, knees knocking, and teeth chattering.

right then and there, i knew we’d be having loads of fun.  actually, the fun really started when juliana, rochelle, belton, odie and i went out of summerplace hotel to explore the city.  first stop was burnham park where we decided to jump into those quaint swanboats for a ride.  juliana and i volunteered to do the rowing and believe me, it seemed as if the boat was going nowhere as it rocked and moved forward and backward in the middle of the murky pond.  belton of course, sat in the middle of the boat to provide ample balance while rochelle and odie sat behind him.  now odie, unknownst to us until that fateful time, wanted so badly to do the rowing, and went as far as actually standing up and attempting to move to where we were.  we screamed.  the boat rocked violently and threatened to overturn when the balance was wrecked.  sincerely, it felt really good to get our feet back on dry land.

we headed for session road right after and wandered aimlessly as we searched for the elusive ukay merchants while leaving odie to haggle with a key-chain vendor by the sidewalk.  we lost him eventually right after and were only reuntied with him at sm baguio.

it was a sunday and rochelle, having come from a catholic family and having been educated in a catholic school kept nagging us that we needed to go to church.  no problem.  however, after hailing a taxi cab, it seemed as if the taxi driver, rochelle, and i had different things in mind.  upon entering, i told the taxi driver that we wanted to go to the lourdes grotto.  rochelle told him that we wanted to go to the cathedral at the heart of session road.  exasperated and confused, the driver said, " saan ba talaga kayo?  sa lourdes o sa cathedral?"

" sa cathedral nalang po manong," i said, yeilding to what my friend wanted.  unfortunately, the taxi driver was only able to remember lourdes grotto.  it was strange.  the taxi driver took us through a winding path uphill, far from the city proper.

" manong, yung cathedral po sa may session road.  malapit na po ba tayo sa session road?" rochelle asked the taxi driver for what seemed like the nth time already.

the driver scratched his head in frustration.  " Bakit ba kayo session ng session?  walang session dito!" he scolded and pulled over in front of a stone grotto that was carved from the face of a hill.

my companions’ faces paled as they gazed at the 392-step stairway that led all the way to the grotto of the lady of lourdes.  belton and rochelle were on the verge of fainting as we trudged uphill.  belton carried three jars of strawberry preserves and six jars of peanut brittle while rochelle carried six baguio broomsticks and three jars of peanut brittle.  my stomach ached as laughter consumed me.  what happened to belton and rochelle was a perfect remake of jesus christ carrying his cross to golgotha.

we collapsed at the base of the grotto, surrounded by candles and offerings.  on our way down, rochelle grumbled and insisted that we head back tot he hotel.  however, yana and i had other plans.  we had to go downhill to hale a taxi and when we did, all of us raced towards the cab.  a few seconds made the difference and we were able to tell the taxi driver that we wanted to go to session road to continue our ukay ukay expedition much to rochelle’s misery.

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