Albay Wanderland Act One: Cool Waters, Part Two
The brief was simple. Go to Albay and find its culinary heart. Like the early conquistadores of the New World, we succeeded. What I tasted was beyond spice. It's a wanderland of a sort.
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As they busily setting up the ingredients for our coverage on a makeshift kitchen, consisting of a table made from bamboo and a charcoal stove, against a backdrop of the Quintinday Falls and Underground River in Jovellar, southwest of Albay, I sneaked myself out without them noticing me.
There was something about the place where I had to shut down and empty my brain from a cognitive overload. I was physically exhausted. We were on the road most of the day and have spent just a few hours of sleep every night just to wake up before sunrise. This was our daily routine for five long days since we arrived in Albay. The Quintinday Falls and Underground River’s cool atmosphere and fresh waters are what I needed to restart my system. Badly.
Just a few meters away, I have found my "mini" Roman Bath site that fits only my restless feet. From there I stepped into the cool running waters coming from the mountain. Like an injected drug, the soothing cool rapidly travels in each and every little vein of my body and up to my head. And the gushing sound made a soothing music to my ears. From that brief moment, I was in a trance. Until Ferdz, our photographer, snapped me out by telling me to move further away from his peripheral view as he covers a local chef.
Conclusion. It's not every day you can encounter or experience these moments by chance — the serene waters of Albay Gulf and the soothing sound of gushing water in Quintinday Falls and Underground River — sometimes, you just need to go out and find them.
Next, Albay Wanderland Act Two: Graveyard Tales.