Thursday, June 24, 2010

FEAST OF SAN JUAN IN THE ISLAND OF KAPITAN…..


June 24th 2006 a call for a celebration of feast for Saint John, this is one of the highlight for the month of June where everyone remembers it as a feast for wets and waters. Of course beach lovers never failed to witness the most awaited high tide and to celebrate this feast. While others plan to drop by in most well appreciated beaches we also take the opportunity to look for a piece of adventure during this day.
Our main and only stop was in Bogo, a place in northern Cebu that is blessed with untouched and unknown but fabulous places. Our group was not that adventurous except for planned ones, and this time our main goal is to celebrate the feast and just see some unfamiliar faces in that certain place, without any knowledge of what should we do upon reaching Bogo, our host guy (daut) has this naughty plan of bringing us to a place where we never expected to be such good and daring, a tiny place where beauty is unusual and is very new to our sight. We never have an idea of what kind of place this would be except for certain thought he gives us that we will be roaming around of the so called “ kapitan Selyo” islet. I guess it is not only me who thinks what kind of adventure this islet can give us because each one of us has this bungling mind why we have to travel for 45 minutes just to see the wonder of this islet.

Truly this day is a hallowed one, we travel with great sunlight where rays of sun shower us heavily though waves are not that fine but heaven justly grant us its gift of nature. For the first time of seeing that islet I have this second thought that our host guy fooled us because this is not an islet but a portion of lost ship that was already abandoned, but upon reaching nearly that though were suddenly covered with astonishment! I couldn’t believe that we will gonna spread our foolishness and leave some untamed imaginations on this unscathed and healthy islet. Well, I guess destiny take us there to defy our undying association. When we first take a leap on the smooth, sugary beach of this islet we never stop asking question of how this islet emerge and what is the legend behind this very tranquil and humble place. Again our undomesticated wits begin to speculate, superstitious beliefs transpire and the phase of delight activated! Just imagine an island where parole was being built, it contains a structure of an old haven or a base camp for guerillas during some nation wars. Its western side was being occupied with sandy pebbles and some stingy stones, on the northern part of it contain a part of a rock that was honed by time and nature this part is the perilous one, on the eastern section of the islet is a part of solid sharp limestone kissed within the sea but this is not that perilous compared to the northern section it has some sands and pebbles and some crawling wild plant grow in it, and on the southern part a piece of white sandy yet very affable tiny shore in which all of us enjoy swimming and observing the beauty of this little island. Legend was being told, the old folks believe that this islet is once a ship owned by Captain Celio that was drown and later turns into an islet, in which it is not hard to believe because when you see this islet afar you will really tell that it is a ship but when you’re near you can hardly believe that you’re entering on a very meek islet isolated from civilized world.



We eat, roamed, laugh, and the highlight enjoy ourselves on the crystal like water this islet offered to us. We enjoy the cool and blue color water of the coast, we never mind the rains that blows on the other part of Bogo and its neighbor island. It was really a very happy moment, as expected we cackle on the same endless stories, and laughs on some undying moments that we have produced for the past years. This is the part where we shared each others foolishness, mingle our naughty thoughts and of course puff on each others bloopers. But the dark sides of those cloudy skies awake our senses, thunder began to sounds, the whole island was covered with heavy rains, it seems that we are facing on the dark side of the earth and the only people linger is us on this islet. As if we are the castaway people waiting for someone who deliver us help.
Frightening seconds embark as the shady part of cloud covers the entire isle, a drop of heavy rain showers pours like a piece of snow ball, then the next to happen a full force rain drops, it plaster the whole of the islet that we couldn’t see anything from nearby. Apprehensions come out, I see fright in each features, silly query appear like can we overcome this great rains? The tranquil parts of the isle were change with thunderstorm, rains drops in the water like little pebbles. We are so upset, our pleasure were being replaced with fear assumptions. To secure ourselves we try to lean on the only tree on the islet, imagine a small group of people on a modest tree! We are already wet but still we want to keep away from lightings that most of us feared of. We see some fisherman dock their boats for refuge, waves begin to mount, we are afraid like children in the midst of danger. While some of us continue to blow shaggy dog story, most of us were quite and in peace, I wonder what their thoughts made up. But I believe they’ve uttered silent prayer for our safety because I know even though we are full of foolishness we do still have this religious side that is pure and marvelous (charing!!!!). In the middle of peril we still have the nerve to let fear go, we took the courage of taking our boat out of the islet. With moderate rain and waves we left the islet with regrets. Regrets that we haven’t taken the change to packed the memories that this islet give us. We never had the chance to take some pictures when we are still in the island for one greedy reason: NO CAMERA! So NO ACTION!.....
While sailing upon the stormy angry waves our uncanny thoughts pause for a moment, maybe most of us were busy sighing for some self-effacing prayers, asking our God to guide us and keep us from the pit of danger. That moment I saw shaky strength, this maybe due to some achy rains drop on our body. But thank God we are sailing in safe and when we saw the whole part of Bogo the adrenalin lives again, the mood of silence begun to vanish and it turns into a joyous one, eyes glooms and hopes risen from numb. We surmount the challenge although a lot of allegations rose, it maybe the claim curse that everybody said is responsible for the hard rains mainly for the reason that we are too noisy and irritating that’s why the invisible one who truly lives on the islet poured its anger by showing us precautions of what might happen if we continue being there or is it really a coincidence that this 24th day of June 2005 nature will pour heavy rains for the entire place of Bogo for us to put another story in our pocket to reminisce by the time when we see each other and this time a horrible, memorable yet funny tale to tell.
That was really something to reminisce, an adventure that is full of action and gladness. Kapitan Selyo’s island binds us together building more closeness and reminding us that wherever we go whatever the circumstances may come we still have the guts to face it with a smile.
It is such a great privileged that on this tremendous escapade we have given the chance to be with the most recognized people not only on this land but in heaven as well (bisag ako ra’y nakaila nila). This story will never be realize without the intervention of the so called “bayot buangz”, of course this is headed by Venz, naturally this gul contains a lot of possessions to offer not only mentally but in all aspects of life whether it’s normal or abnormal. Venz is the spice of the group like chameleon she can ride on any topic we want to discuss and will change its color according to the surface she’s stepping into, she has this beliefs that’s gullible but will turn into a comedic segment because of her expressions and sincerity, for further information you can ask this gul and surely you will be pleased to the max. Rochell, well, this gul really make sagacity during our journey to the island, she really make sure she’s in the limelight, making herself loud and dynamic, I wonder she’s the main cause why we encounter such heavy rains during that trip, from refined thought she eventually turns into some ruffled ideas, her somber aspects were replaced by vicious one and her political phase were omitted due to her juvenile but nutty dealings. But the most anticipated person to be with us that trip is none other than Raffae! Guess what! This guy really brightened the day! In the midst of fright still we manage to laugh because of his strange and new-fangled, rare stories we just heard such gathering like this. This guy is highly appreciated because of his splendid dialogue, whenever this guy speaks everyone will surely be attend to the words he will utter. His terms are new to us and of course his tale is singular. I salute this guy for his costly nerve to tell all his hidden experiences, thanks to his story we have this chance to explore his world. And the couples!!! Never mind…. Their stories remain untold; just wait for the right time and it will be unfold. That was the main characters of this short story with the special participation of Dianara and Aga (ayaw na paghuna-huna kinsa na sila!) and the mighty sailors (nga wa ko kaila!), and of course the stunning islet of Kapitan Selyo that turns this tale into real.
And that was a very rainy summer to remember during San Juan in the island of Kapitan…..